When I teach writing classes, I always talk about how
important it is to get those ideas out of your head and down on the paper. Lump
of clay writing, I call it—or in less delicate terms, word vomit! In the winter
of 2013-2014 I word vomited the sequel to
Dance
from Deep Within onto my computer while I awaited the decision on my
Valiant Hearts Series from Bethany House Publishers. As many of you know, I
landed that deal, and the next two years were a blur of writing, editing, and
marketing
Dauntless,
Chivalrous, and
Courageous.
But now those books are out on the market, and for the last
year I’ve been launching a new career of public relations writing for the
non-profit humanitarian organization, Operation Blessing. I haven’t had much time
for writing anything new. You see where this is going, right? While I didn’t
have time for writing something new, I did have time to edit and complete my
95% finished first draft.
So I dusted off (okay, I found and opened the old Microsoft Word
file of)
Dare from Deep Within
and
set to work. I still had some challenges to face since I had shifted
directions
somewhere in the middle and needed to clean up my characterization and
motivation. The wording needed a good edit, and I had to write the
ending. However,
just a few months later, in my spare time, I’ve managed to complete a
very
solid draft of the novel. WhiteFire, who published the first book in the
series, has agreed to release book 2 sometime in 2017!
It turns out what I teach my students is true. It’s always
worth getting those ideas down on paper, even if they grow dusty on the
shelf. How about you? Have you ever dusted off an old manuscript?
What were the results?
