The Sweet Agony of Waiting

A publisher asks to see your full manuscript. You read it three more times, trying to eradicate all typos, missing words, unclear passages, and confusing lines. You attach it to a politely professional email, which you hope disguises what you’re experiencing in equal measure: hope, fear, and anxiety. 

You hit send.

 

And then you wait.

 

Waiting may be as much or more exhausting than the writing itself, but it is a fact of life in book publishing.

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW Blog. 

 

Photograph by David Taffett via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Samuel Pepys at St Olave’s – Spitalfields Life.

 

Meaning in Mystery: Why Noir Speaks in a Morally Ambiguous World – Adam Hill at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Mississippi Heat: Stops along the Vicksburg Campaign – Nathan Provost at Emerging Civil War.

 

“The Rejected Member’s Wife,” poem by Thomas Hardy – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

What Happens When You Finally Type "The End"?

It’s been more than two years since the writing began. It’s been more than four since the research started. A little over a month ago, on Jan. 16, I wrote this in my writing journal: “Reached 87,758 words. First draft completed.” Five days later, I wrote “First reread / editing completed.” 

It was there I stopped, almost mentally and emotionally spent. I need to do the second edit, which for me is the most serious one. But I stopped, to catch my breath, reflect and take stock, and consider how the past two years of my life have been devoted to a story that is about 25 percent true and 75 percent fiction. Nd what I thought was mostly true mostly wasn’t.

 

I’ve published five novels and a non-fiction book. I’ve completed two novel manuscripts that have potential but need considerable reworking. I have at least five different novel ideas, and a dozen short stories, buzzing around my head. 

 

This story I just finished, this manuscript I’ve labored over, isn’t exactly a labor of love. It’s more a labor of sweat, the story I had to get done. 

 

To continue reading, please see me post today at the ACFW Blog.

 

Top photograph by Rui Silva sj via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Religion & Celebrity: The Search for Meaning in the 1920s – Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Thunder in the Harbor by Richard W. Hatcher III – Civil War Books and Authors. 

 

Archaeologist searches to unravel a Civil War mystery in Southgate – Michael Coker at WCPO.

How a Troublesome Manuscript Was Saved

Hold on to those unfinished or problematic manuscripts. You never know when they’re due for a rebirth. 

You pour everything into creating a manuscript. You type “The End.” You smile and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. It’s done. You finished it.

 

You set it aside for a few days, and then you reread it.

 

You see a problem, but you know it can be easily fixed. You read on. Another problem, and another theoretical fix. You plow on, right to the end, and you realize what the problem is.

 

The problem is the entire manuscript. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t tell the story you want told. It doesn’t tell the story the characters want told. And you think to yourself, “All that work. All that work.” 

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW blog. 

Photograph by Scott Graham via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Book Review: Charley: The True Story of the Youngest Soldier to Die in the American Civil War by Brendan Lyons – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Civil War. 

 

You Are the Last Line of Defense – Bari Weiss at The Free Press.

 

Israel at the Precipice Once Again – Mark Helprin at Real Clear Politics.

When Your Manuscript is Problematic

I knew the manuscript would be tricky. The story is about what flows from a hoax. The hoax itself occupies a tiny part of the story; the ramifications are the story. But I knew this would not be an easy road, especially in today’s cultural climate. I anticipated I would be paddling a canoe against a raging torrent. 

I was not wrong.

 

I researched my agents. I found one whom I thought would be fair and not reject the manuscript out of hand. The research paid off; the agent gave it a fair reading.

 

The response: I love the characters. The story is well-paced and compelling. It keeps you engaged all the way to the end. It’s an important story. But none of the publishers we work with would even consider publishing it.

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at American Christian Fiction Writers.

 

Photograph by Karla Hernandez via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A Predictive Manuscript?

My wife has told me that the Dancing Priest novels can sometimes feel creepy because, well, I write the story, and some of things, or similar things, happen in real life. Not long ago, I wrote a post about something specific that happened after Dancing Prophet was published, but there are examples from all five of the books. 

She has what I think is a good explanation for this. My reading ranges all over the social, cultural, and political landscapes. Everything I read is potentially research for the books, and I become aware of things happening, things potentially happening, and events that almost happen. When something real does occur, it can look as if I predicted it in a book.

 

I’ve discovered that this can even happen when I’m in the middle of a manuscript. 

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

 

Photograph by Andreas Brunn via Unsplash. Used with permission.

What Do You Do in the Calm After the Storm?

It’s the calm after the storm.

For months, it’s been days and weeks of intense writing, rewriting, editing, re-editing, adding to, and subtracting from. I thought novel #4 would be a relative slam dunk, since large chunks of it have existed for more than a decade. All I had to do was add a few thousand words and polish it up, and then it would be ready, correct?

Well, no.

What finally emerged as a completed manuscript draft bears little resemblance to the text I started with. The story idea remained the same, but along the way a supplementary narrative was added, characters changed, new conflicts emerged, and the original text was rewritten at least three times. Then it was editing and proofing and fact-checking. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW blog.

Photograph by Keenan Constance via Unsplash. Used with permission.