 |
| H.L. Wegley |
Recently, author H.L. Wegley
shared his experience with us on trying to write in a woman’s point of view. If
you missed it, you’ll want to check out “A
Man’s Perspective on Writing Romance. I’m so glad he agreed to make a
return visit to Seriously Write today so we could learn about his personal
journey to publication and what he gleaned along the way.
~ Dawn
My
Journey to Publication
by H.L.
Wegley
Computing security. There's an oxymoron—an area where there
are more jobs than people qualified to fill them. When I retired from my
50-hour-a-week job in the cubicles of corporate America, I’d accumulated enough
work experiences to write a techno-thriller on computing security.
But my left brain taunted me. You can't write a novel. Eventually my right brain threw a right cross,
KO’d the left side, and I wrote a ten-page outline. When my wife and I decided
to skip the dreary Seattle spring weather, in seven sunny days at Lake Havasu I
turned my outline into three spiral notebooks filled with pencil lead.
Nothing to it. Seven days in the sun and voila, a manuscript. But I knew nothing
about plot points, character arcs, point-of-view, or how to write dialogue. I
had a manuscript, a romantic thriller. But was it any good?
An ad in Writer’s Digest for a novel-writing workshop caught
my attention. I signed up. When the instructor critiqued 50,000 words of my
MSS, it became apparent I needed to learn the craft. After buying several
books, including James Scott Bell's Plot
& Structure, and rewriting my story, naming it Network of Terror, I submitted it to an agent. He rejected it.
About this time, I discovered American Christian Fiction
Writers and took their novel-editing track, submitting each chapter to their
critique group. There I learned more in three months than all my previous
efforts combined.
I rewrote my rewritten story, renaming it Hide and Seek. When I pitched it at a
conference, it drew interest, but no contract. By this time I’d written a
sequel and started a third book in the series, a series that appeared destined
to die in three-ring binders on my bookshelf.
Just before giving up on Hide
and Seek, I submitted a mini-proposal to an OCW conference. An acquisitions
editor requested a full book proposal. I submitted and waited. After 6 weeks,
an email arrived stating that, if I agreed to a few changes, I’d be offered a
contract. I declined … just kidding. ☺
Eighteen months and 2 rewrites after drafting my first
novel, I had a contract. Since then I've received contracts for two more books
in the series.
What have I learned?
First, learn the craft. I’ll never master it all, but if I
hadn't started learning it, my stories would remain unpublished.
Second, find people to critique your work. For 20 years I
developed software. This requires a testing group, people who can wring out the
bugs. We need the same thing in our writing, a critique group.
Third, create characters readers care about. A good plot is
necessary, but that alone won't keep most readers turning pages for 6 to 8
hours.
Fourth, honor God in your writing. There’s a redemption
story inside each of my stories. I'm not saying everyone should do that, but
hold tightly to the Christian worldview. Without it, as Randy singer says,
you’ve got “… a great escape to nowhere.”
 |
| Click to reach Amazon. |
H. L. Wegley served in
the USAF as an Intelligence Analyst and a Weather Officer. He is a
Meteorologist who worked as a Research Scientist in Atmospheric Physics at
Pacific Northwest Laboratories. After earning an MS in Computer Science, he
worked more than two decades as a Systems Programmer at Boeing before retiring
in the Seattle area, where he and his wife of 46 years enjoy small-group
ministry, their seven grandchildren, and where he pursues his love of writing.
His publisher recently released Book 1 of a contracted 3-book romantic thriller
series.
To learn more, please
visit:
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/H.L.-Wegley/e/B00B1XMR56/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Author web site: http://HLWegley.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HLWegley
Publisher, Pelican Book Group: http://www.pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/hide-and-seek-softcover
