Fear of Opening that Edited File by Annette M. Irby

laptop and notebook on a table^

By this time tomorrow, it will be here. I’m nervous! I’m excited! I’m worried.

You see, I sent my manuscript out to have it fully critiqued/edited by a trusted fellow author. And this week, that file will return to me. So, I’m full of doubts and second-guessing myself.

I haven’t always lived in fear of the returned edited file. For the book I mention below (Finding Love in Friday Harbor, Washington), I had plenty of time to rework, rewrite, analyze it before it was handed over to an editor. My critique buddies and I dragged a fine-toothed comb through that story for years. So, when I handed that manuscript over, I was rather confident.

But the one I’m waiting for this week, I had only several months to write. Not years. So, what will my editor think? Did she find plot holes the size of Alaska? Did she find layered characters and believable story lines? Did my spiritual threads hold up? How “red” will the file be? See that? I’m hyperventilating again. 😉

I work on the other side of the desk as well. I edit freelance and am familiar with Tracked Changes. Really familiar. If I edit for you, I’ll mark obvious typos, but I’ll also comment on story elements that perhaps come across as unbelievable. Maybe the author jars readers out of the story by sharing his or her opinion (author intrusion). I’ll highlight that and give a suggestion for a change. Or perhaps the conflict feels contrived. I’ll probably flag that. I try to encourage my clients by sharing positive feedback, but sometimes (and this is true for me as a writer as well), there is no substitute for the tough rewrite. Once you’re through that process, though, the book will shine! Or at least, we all hope so. (Readers, writers, editors, agents, publishers, sellers.)  

So, I’m nervous. But I also trust this fellow writer. I trust her opinion. I’m willing to put in the work. Perhaps those are the keys to coping with this waiting. Because as soon as that file comes in, and I have the courage to open it, then the work begins. The deadline is approaching.

How about you? Are you ever afraid to open the edited file? Or pleasantly surprised to find very few edits? Do pages covered in comments and suggested changes scare you? Or do you dive in, eager to work through the story and polish it up?

Happy re-writing friends!

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Finding Love in Friday Harbor, Washington by Annette M. Irby

Releasing 9/1/17 from Mountain Brook Ink. The e-book pre-order link is now live. 

FLI Friday Harbor, WA

Will keeping his promise lead to another broken heart—or help them find love again? 

Professor Mikaela Rhoades has a plan: she’ll encourage her students’ marine biology research through an exclusive program while helping an old family friend’s whale touring business stay afloat. The challenge is the tour captain is her first love and ex-fiancé. Mikaela longs to help his family in the wake of his father’s death, but she’s keeping secrets. She’ll have to face her past and overcome her concerns about the future to make it through the summer. 

Captain Hunter Cahill has taken over the family touring business after his father’s death. Unfortunately, he’s drowning in grief and accumulated debt. He’s hoping the incoming stodgy professor will help resurrect the failing business, but he’s not prepared when that professor turns out to be Mikaela, his former fiancée. To make matters more difficult, he’d promised his father to pursue her if she ever returned to the island single. The more time they spend together, the easier it is to keep that promise, though she still plans to leave at the end of the season. How much will it cost him to spend the summer romancing Mikaela?

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Annette M. Irby *

Annette M. Irby has been writing since her teen years when she sat pounding out stories on a vintage typewriter just for fun. Since then, she’s joined Christian writing groups and launched blogs so she could share the joy of writing. She likes to say she’s addicted to color as flowers and seascapes inspire her. In her off hours, she enjoys gardening, photography, and music. She lives with her husband and family in the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more here on her Seriously Write Page.

Links to connect with Annette:

Website: www.AnnetteIrby.com

Twitter: @AnnetteMIrby

Facebook Reader Friends Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/252272708574760

Book Review Blog: www.annetteirbyreviews.blogspot.com

*author photo credit: Sarah Irby of Irby Photography 

^laptop photo credit: Pixabay

How Will He Mention My Name? by Carol Stratton

The Longest Yard isn’t a movie about inmates playing football. It’s a real place: my front lawn, a yard that stretches forever when the mail truck stops in front of my house. Making my daily pilgrimage to the small metal box full of promise, I jerk open the door and look inside. As I grab a bundle of miscellaneous ads and bills, I wonder if this is my big day. The sky is cloudless, the temperature 72 degrees. Great weather for an acceptance letter.

Thumbing through the pile little looks promising. Perhaps a small envelope with a check might be stuck in one of the unwanted mail-order leaflets. Shake, Shake, shake. Nothing. Thrusting the entire pile under my arm I trudge back to the garage to deposit the trash.

Another day without my big breakthrough. I slump upstairs with a turkey sandwich, ready for some creative moping.

Lessons from Nehemiah

After my allotted amount of pouting, the book of Nehemiah pops into my head and I grab my Bible to cheer myself up. As I flip through the chapter, I read how Nehemiah grieves over the Jerusalem wall that once protected the Israelites. What stood as a fortress of protection from enemies now stands in ruins. But this prophet saw a vision of restoration and began a plan.

He took sections of the wall, assigning the work to different families and groups. The men of Tekoah repaired a section “from the great projecting tower to the wall of Ophel” (3:27. Eliashib, the high priest, worked with fellow priests, repairing the Sheep Gate. The sons of Hassenaah rebuilt the Fish Gate. God used everyone in this mammoth undertaking. Daughters of Shallum, the ruler, pitched in. The need for a quick repair pressed heavily on everyone.

Artisans got their hands dirty. Goldsmith and perfume makers stood shoulder to shoulder, hauling away years of decay. Fellow Israelites dropped their usual trades to create something great. Rulers and sons of rulers, like Hashabiah, Shallun, Rephaiah, and Malkijah, volunteered for menial grunt work.

Humility and hard work built the wall in a mere fifty-two days. People put aside personal agendas and goals to serve their country. Around the clock, fellow Hebrews stood watch, protecting workers against their enemies. History honors them as Nehemiah records their names.

The prophet also notes the prima donnas who wouldn’t pitch in to help. Noblemen of Tekoa refused to work because they looked down on manual labor (known as “the back of the neck” oxen labor), so the common citizens of Tekoa ended up doing double duty. These upper-class snobs go down in history as major slackers.

Application for My Writing

As I read this passage I wonder if I am like the Tekoa elite, unwilling to perform “menial” labor. If the highlight of my day climaxes in trekking to the mailbox or clicking on my email “in” box, to see if I’ve “arrived”, Maybe I should stop obsessing about my latest pet project and write an encouraging letter to a young missionary. Maybe God would rather I shoot an encouraging email to a nephew who hasn’t found a job. Broken segments of wall surround us, and He needs lots of able-bodied writers to reconstruct it.

Back to my computer, I have to face today’s dilemma. Can I lay down that treasured story for a minute and take up another task? By relinquishing my precious words to Him, I stand in line for a trowel and shovel. There’s a lot of wall to be rebuilt and as a writer God can call me to any job. The question I continually ask myself is: Am I available for his construction company?

Nehemiah reminds me that God keeps track of His workers, writing down names for posterity. I want Him to mention my name…as a wall-builder, not an empire-builder.

Carol Stratton is a freelance writer and speaker from Mooresville, North Carolina. She has a husband, four grown children and two grandchildren. Because of her multiple moves in her life, Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas has just published a forty-day devotional called Changing Zip Codes: Finding Community Wherever You’re Transplanted. The book may be purchased through Barnes & Noble or Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Changing-Zip-Codes-Community-Transplanted/dp/0984765557 

Contact Carol through her website: www.ChangingZipCodes.com.