Leigh McLeroy on Trusting Her Own Voice

When Leigh McLeroy was in second grade, her teacher began assigning the class creative writing assignments. She recalls, “The first time she did it, it was like somebody opened the closet to the wonder room.” She started getting positive feedback from teachers about her ability as a writer, and a year or two later, a teacher submitted a poem Leigh had written to a children’s magazine. She became a published author at a much younger age than she anticipated.

Today, Leigh is the published author of five books—including The Beautiful Ache, Treasured, and The Sacred Ordinary—and has contributed to numerous other books, publications, and websites. Every week, she brings the Word of God to inboxes all over the world through her e-newsletter Wednesday Words. She has made a career for herself as a sough-after writer, speaker, and teacher, fulfilling all the potential she showed in her second-grade classroom.

However, the path to today has not been a simple one. Though she has been writing since the start of her career, for many years, she was not signing her own name to the byline. After starting her career in marketing, she joined the staff of a large Texas church as a writer. In this role, she ghostwrote five books for the lead pastor and countless other pieces for others at the church. But Leigh found that God was stirring something within her—something that unique, original, and fully her own.

She explains, “After about ten years, I had a reckoning with God. I felt like it was time for me to stop being somebody else’s voice and to start using mine.” So she followed the leading of the Lord and left her job at the church. That year, her first book was published, a book based on the vision and experiences God had given specifically to her.

Now, this is the advice Leigh gives to other writers—trust your own unique point of view. “Everybody’s got at least one story that should be told that nobody can tell but them,” she says. “So, when you get the opportunity tell your story. It may not be for a big audience. It may not be a New York Times’ Bestseller. If there’s something you’re passionate about, nurture that passion. Plummet deep. I would almost be willing to guarantee that at some point, God’s going to give you an opportunity to share that story.”