Posts about the writing process or projects

Update: How Much Longer?

So when is the next book coming out? Not nearly soon enough for either one of us. Since graduation, we’ve gone from vacation to summer theater to VBS to finally catching our breath this week while my husband is spending the week on campus at seminary. We’ll have two more quiet weeks before band camp starts and we’re off again.

My oldest is getting ready for college this fall, and a small avalanche of paperwork has hit the house over the last few months. In a not totally unrelated piece of news, I took a part-time beginning June 1, so the long summer mornings I had planned to spend whipping this latest book into shape suddenly evaporated. In another six weeks or so, school will start again and I’m not sure how my schedule will shake out.

With all that said, my goal is STILL to get this book ready by fall. I’m a little better than halfway through the really heavy edits and rewrites (and first writes!). The first draft for this one was only about 50,000 words. (The other books run around 90-120,000 words.) But that’s okay. There were many spots that I left with a sentence knowing I’d fill in paragraphs later. Now it’s later.

Once I get through this draft, I should be able to post some preview chapters for you. I appreciate your loyalty and your patience. I want to ensure the book you get is the best it can be and I thank you for letting me take the time to get it right.

So how’s your summer?

Video Q&A: How long does it take to write a book?

By Paula Wiseman

https://www.paulawiseman.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Video-QA-2-How-long-to-write-a-book.m4v

The not so exact transcript:

Another question I get asked pretty often is, ‘how long does it take to write a book?’ That’s a tough question to answer because I never work on just one book from start to finish. Usually what I do is draft a book, then set it aside and go to work on a second book. When the second book is drafted, I go back and edit the first one. After the edits are finished, I’ll set it aside again and draft a third book. After that draft is finished, I’ll come back and do the final edits on the first book.

When it’s all said done, it really takes about eighteen months to put a book together. Take that into consideration when you sit down and finish it in six hours. That’s eighteen months of labor.

If you have a question you’d like me to answer email me. The address is paula at paulawiseman dot com.

Thanks!

Nothing

By Paula Wiseman

I sat down to write this post and I'll confess, there was nothing there. Oh, there were wisps of notions, bad ideas, pompous platitudes and worse. This happens more frequently than I'd like to admit. I mean with the infinite God of the universe and His characters, His promises, His ways as subject matter, you'd think the ideas would overflow. Yeah, me, too.

Maybe you don't have creativity blocks, but we all have times when we are spent, nothing left in the tank and a deadline of some sort looming.

Panic? – No. And rather than just write something–anything– just to have it done, I left it. (That is not an easy thing for me and it's taken years to learn to let go that way.)

Priorities – We had church last night. My littlest one asked me to snuggle at bedtime. My son needed a snack after football practice. I needed to go to sleep. My morning Bible study time. All of those "interfered" with my post-writing time. However, they're only interferences if I choose to see them that way.

Prayer – Yep, I prayed for a post. Something eloquent like … God, give me words, words I need, words someone else needs. But then I went to sleep. I didn't sit up all night banging my head against the desk because I have managed to develop a little …

Perspective – A blog post that's a few hours late probably won't matter much in the big scheme of things. And truthfully, the rigid, graceless schedule is only one person's doing-mine. It reminds me that if I rely too much on myself to accomplish His purposes, things get bumpy.

So how's that? A post about having nothing to post, but seeing how nothing can turn into something when Somebody else is in charge. Thanks for letting me share it.

"…for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5

A Blessing

By Paula Wiseman

Sometimes it's good to take a minute and tell people they bless you.

You bless me.

I hope you know what a blessing it is to write for you, to connect with you, to share with you. It is a holy trust I don't take lightly.

I treasure your emails and comments and the reminder they give that we are never alone in the body of Christ.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Indemnity Releases Today

By Paula Wiseman

‘You will not succeed by your own strength or power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD All-Powerful. Zechariah 4:6 (New Century Version)

Yesterday afternoon sitting in my office, thinking about (stressing about) the book’s release, I closed my eyes for a moment, and this is the verse that I thought of. Not in the New Century Version. I never read the New Century. I’m NKJV, almost as old school as you get. But in thinking about sales and reviews, the word “succeed” really struck me.

Indemnity’s success doesn’t depend on my abilities as a writer. I did my best on it, don’t get me wrong. I edited, cut, trimmed, deepened, strengthened and polished, and then some. And I would be mare than pleased to sell hundreds and hundreds of copies. But still, the success, and how that success is defined, depends on the God who gave the story.

Regardless of how many copies it sells, it is a rare privilege to be able to offer it back to God for His glory, and not mine. My name is on it because I typed it, but God is in it. I am humbled.

What Job Taught My Characters

By Paula Wiseman

(I'm working on the edits for Indemnity, so I really appreciate your patience and understanding as I offer a repost. Thank you!)

Over the course of my books, I put my characters in some difficult spots. That's good for them and good for the readers. However, then I have to come along and put some wise resolution for that character to discover, drawn on or hear from someone else. I strive for a fresh insight, for practical wisdom, something useful, not just holy-sounding. This is always when the writing gets very humbling because this is where God takes over.

In one situation, I had a character go back to Job. (I had just finished reading Job myself, so it was fresh in my mind.) The character said although the Lord restored all that Job had, God never took the pain of the loss away. Yesterday, it also occurred to me that the restoration took years. Job didn't wake up the next morning *poof* with his seven new sons and three new daughters.

So here are two things I learned-

Pain fades to the point where it doesn't consume our lives, but it doesn't necessarily ever go away. At least not in this life. Sometimes we put unrealistic expectations on ourselves or others about how and when we should be 'over' something. Each situation is unique and intensely personal. Grant yourself (or someone else) the grace to walk through it rather than adding the pressure of 'should'. Truth is, God may doing things through the loss that we are completely unaware of, as was Job's case. Job never knew the full story behind all his suffering.

Second, restoration takes time and it may mean traveling over some ground we've already covered. Job had already done diapers and toddlers and loose teeth and adolescence but he had to go through it all again. It's worth it. The last chapter of Job says, "The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning."

What have you learned from Job?