with guest Annie Hemby.Hi, everyone! I’m so thrilled to be in Seekerville today! After reading the blog for many years, it’s amazing and a dream come true to be a guest here. My first inspirational romance, Healing His Widowed Heart, released on September 1 (and I’m still pinching myself).
This book was one that I had revised, queried, revised and queried again, and finally slid under my bed with several others that were collecting dust. So today I thought the perfect topic to chat with you all about is what to do with those under-the-bed projects (if anything).
I think it’s safe to say that a lot of published authors have books that were written in the beginning of their journeys that they shoved under their beds and chalked up to learning the craft.
In my experience, each and every story we write comes from our hearts, so saying goodbye is never easy. After shopping Healing His Widowed Heart (which was originally titled The Marrying Kind) around and getting several passes (otherwise known as rejections), I regretfully tucked it away with several other manuscripts. Sometimes a story doesn’t work, and other times you just need space from the words in order to see more clearly what the problem is and how to fix it.
When Harlequin announced their Blurb to Book contest in 2015, I decided to pull this story out and see if it had any merit. After a year away from this project, I read it with new eyes and was excited about revisions that I thought would make it better. I’ve done this with other under-the-bed projects and ultimately determined that they needed to stay put (and should never see the light of day again!).
Sometimes it’s more than a couple things that aren’t working. It might be the whole book. And that’s okay. It took me a while to come to this conclusion, but I don’t believe any time or words are ever wasted on this journey.
Sometimes we have to write something that doesn’t work to get to what does. It’s like digging through the dirt to strike our oil!
So, how do we decide which of those under-the-bed projects to pull out and breathe new life into?
1. After taking time away from a project, pull it out and read it as if it is someone else’s. If it’s been over a year like mine was, you might find you don’t even remember what happens next in the story. Then it really is like reading someone else’s book.
3. Are the characters likeable? Do they have goals, motivation, conflict? As a reader, do you feel invested in these characters’ journeys?
4. Does the story have a clearly defined and interesting plot?
5. If it’s a romance, is there a satisfying happily ever after?
6. If some of these elements are missing, can you see a viable way to add them in without tearing the entire story apart?
7. Do you feel strongly enough about this story to spend your precious writing time revising it instead of writing something new?
Number seven is a biggie for me. Revising can sometimes take just as much time as drafting a new story. If you feel strongly enough about it, it’s worth gutting the entire story or even starting over with it.
So back to my debut inspirational novel. When I sat down and re-read Healing His Widowed Heart in the hope of being able to submit it to the Blurb to Book contest, I fell in love with the story all over again. After continuing to read, write, and learn the craft in the time since I had put it away, I could see why editors had passed on it. But, for the most part, I knew how to correct those flaws. It was summer when I found out my manuscript had passed through the initial phase of the contest. My boys were at camp during the day, so I was able to use that time to polish up my manuscript. I believe God’s timing is perfect. I don’t usually have so many large blocks of time to devote myself to writing and editing.
I would not have been ready to enter this contest if it had happened at any other time of the year. The contest was divided into several phases. It was wonderful to see this story, which had previously collected dozens of rejections, pass through each stage and onto the next. In the end, Healing His Widowed Heart was awarded a contract (and there was lots of happy dancing in my house). No more collecting dust under the bed! This book had found a home with a publisher, and would now be on the shelf!
This past summer I pulled another project out from under my bed with the hopes of giving it the same outcome. I spent several days reading and revising it, only to decide it wasn’t working at this time. I could tick off many of the checkpoints above, but I just didn’t feel connected or excited about the story. So regretfully, I put it back under the bed. Maybe one day I’ll pull it out again and who knows, maybe things will click into place.Thank you so much for being here with me today! I hope you enjoyed this post and the recap of my experience pulling that book out from under my bed, polishing it up, and putting it through Harlequin’s Blurb to Book contest (which I first learned about on a Seekerville blog post). I have to thank Seekerville again for all the support along the way. It not only takes a village to raise kids but a village to bring up an author too!
To celebrate the release of Healing His Widowed Heart, I’m giving away 3 paperback copies. (Winners announced in the Weekend Edition)
To enter, just comment below and tell me just how many stories, if any, you have shoved under the bed. Any plans to pull them out and shine them up?
Widowed firefighter Mason Benfield is happy putting out fires and running a teen center—anything to distract himself from the loss of his wife. A loss he blames on a young doctor's inexperience. So when he discovers his landlords' new houseguest is just out of med school and working at the new health clinic, Mason bristles. Since Lexie Campbell is also donating her time to his teen center, he can't escape the woman…or the attraction he feels to the pretty doctor. As they work together, they develop a bond neither thought they wanted. But can Mason give her—and himself—a reason to take one more chance on forever?
Annie Hemby lives on the east coast with her husband, three children, and a rambunctious rescue dog named Carter. Annie loves to start her days with prayer and a good cup of coffee and end them praying with her children at bedtime. When she’s not running after her kids and Carter, Annie combines her love for God and writing to pen heartwarming romance.
