Humble is a good place to live, right?
I’ve had an interesting week. Shackles, the first novel that I wrote (over a decade over *cough*) never found an official publishing home. It did get my foot in the door with my current publishing house though, so I’m grateful for that.
A few years back, I read Shackles again and I still loved the characters and the plot. At that point I decided to put it out as a ‘warts-and-all’ freebie to give readers the opportunity of checking out my writing. Bait, if you will. I even wrote a ‘warts-and-all’ disclaimer in the preface because I just wasn’t going to re-edit the whole thing again. (Besides, I’d checked it twenty-trillion-times and had some others look over it for errors too and we were all happy that it was fine.) I knew I’d have to re-edit at some point, but with new books to be written, that never really loomed large on my horizon.
Fast forward a few years to this week.
Out of the blue, four new reviews arrived. Check them out here. All of them positive – some so lovely that I wanted to cry and hug my dog. Considering my allergies, that is quite something.
BUT…
A significant number of these reviews commented on a few grammar and typo issues.
*DIES* but (even bigger BUT…)
Here’s the weird thing, they loved the book anyway.
My immediate reaction was to start re-editing. Sorry kids, make your own supper. But I’m also currently writing to deadline. So what is a girl to do? I feel like I’m parading Amazon in my ancient bikini, the one with the elastic that has given up on life.
It is humbling.
But it’s also beautiful because I know that what they are falling in love with is not my broken ability but they are seeing Jesus through the cracks of what I can produce and are loving Him in the midst of typos and dodgy grammar.
It just doesn’t get better than that.
So I do have a chapter-a-day-only-after-I’ve-met-my-word-count editing plan. But it will take time and in the meantime, I’ll be out there warts and all for the world to read. And strangely, I’m okay with that.
I’d love to hear from you. Perfectionist? Any humbling happening in your life right now? Please tell me I’m not alone in my ancient bikini.
(This blog first appeared on the International Christian Fiction Writers blog.)
Perfection is way over rated. I will take beauty and substance over perfection any time. I’ve been struggling in my faith, and Shackles was a true gift to me. It may be a blessing that you had to put it out there ‘warts and all’, because if the book hadn’t been a freebie, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it. And then I would have missed the beauty and encouragement and hope that it gave me, and I am guessing, that it gave to others too. Thank you. Now that I’m familiar with the work that you and God do (you’re quite a good pairing!), I will definitely be getting your other books. Thank you so very much!
Debra! I want to take your words and tuck them deep into my heart for days when this writing business seems too hard. You are a blessing to me!
Truly truly an amazing book and timely for me. My father just passed away..i resigned from my job and got my word for the year unhindered building..taking a vacation to regroup then going after my passion..i kept saying to my sister …you have to read this..how could she have written this for free..i would pay money to read this..on my list for the best ever…i pray the lord bless you for the gift you have shown to this world…way beyond your wildest imaginations….this book will touch peoples lives right into eternity much joy to you! Joy pierce presland