An Update on the Waiting Game - Part Two

Summer has arrived, and although I’m teaching ENGL 1301 for the first term, I have lofty goals for my writing projects. I thought I’d offer a quick update since I’ve been ‘mum’ on the subject for a while now.

I’m waiting to hear from the agent I sent my manuscript to in February. She and I have had a few email exchanges since then, but I think of her often and pray for God to give me favor just about every day!

I spent the first couple months of Part Two of the Waiting Game doing just that—waiting. But when I attended the ACFW local event in April in Colorado Springs, I felt a renewed excitement to pursue my writing journey.

I already told you I received incredible feedback that weekend from a dear mentor who is a multi-published, award-winning author. Within a few weeks of that experience, I joined a critique group, which has been rewarding as well. It’s so helpful to have other people look at your chapters and point out sentences that could be tighter, perspectives that could be stronger, or characterizations that could be better.

Obviously, it’s great to have a reader gush over a scene or tell you how much she appreciates a certain line or moment in the chapter—but it’s genuinely as great to have a reader point out flaws or problems. I’ve found the feedback invaluable in making my manuscript as strong as it can be.

One of the women I met at that local event in April encouraged me to enter some contests this summer and also consider a potential publisher as a target for my manuscript. I consider her a God-send that weekend (and beyond!) because she opened my eyes to some new possibilities—and gave me the confidence to try.

So, at the end of May and last week, I entered some contests for my manuscript, and I have a couple more that I’d like to enter before the end of this month. My hope is that my work will receive the favor and attention of the judges—potential editors at major publishing houses and agents who represent Christian authors.

In the meantime, I am still subbing my chapters out to the group—and when I finish having the manuscript critiqued, I’d like to send it off to the potential publisher.

And if I’m ambitious enough and can find the time between teaching and editing, I’d like to keep writing this summer. I started my second book last November. At this point, I only have about five or six chapters, and almost every day I’m thinking of the characters in my head, imaging scenes and plotting dialogue exchanges. Now it’s time to actually start putting more of that to paper.

For the most part, I'm still playing the waiting game, but it’s nice to feel like I’m actively pursuing this journey as well. Ultimately, I'm encouraged by the response my story has had so far, and I continue to believe that God put it on my heart, and He’ll make a way for it to be read by others, however He wants to work that out.

This quote still resonates so deeply in my soul

I’ll just keep writing… and editing… and putting myself out there. :)