how ready for him today started
Strange as it may sound, the topic of READY FOR HIM TODAY first germinated in my early teens. Those were the days of trying awkwardly to explain courtship, commitment, and Christ-likeness to my very curious teammates during long bus rides to and from sports events. My understanding of these concepts was primitive, and my explanations even more so, but despite my bungling, I had a strong desire to share my beliefs. I saw too much pain and emptiness in the uncommitted teen relationships around me and, despite my lack of experience, I had a deep sense of the destructiveness of these habits. I honestly worried about the strength of their future marriage relationships, and wanted to give my friends a vision of the beauty of an exclusive, life-long marriage relationship. I wished I had a more elegant and relaxed way to approach the topic. Like a book.
My mid-teen attempts at writing such a book were less than encouraging. I could not find a cohesive thought process, the material defied my attempts at organization, and the core of the concepts seemed to elude me. I probably wrote enough material for five books, only to shelf all of them eventually and throw up my hands. "Apparently, this is something I can write only when I'm a little older!"
At nineteen, I became a client advocate at a local crisis pregnancy center. Looking back, it seems a little insane, since I had just started college and a new job. On the other hand, it was perfect timing. As a young teen, I had worried for my friends and their relationship habits. Now, I saw exactly where the casual view of sex and relationships led, as I counseled young women and supported them through pregnancy. I rejoiced to watch God create beautiful things from situations that these women had once thought were irreparable, and to see Him give new life to some of them. I know now that READY FOR HIM TODAY was first written in my mind by the Master Writer through my experiences at the center.
By the time I turned twenty, circumstances had renewed my interest in the project. Several young women I knew had e-mailed me with relationship questions, and when I shared my responses with my parents to make sure that I was accurately representing the truth, both of them encouraged me to give my book another shot. Over the next four years, I combed through my memories and experiences; read books by Eric and Leslie Ludy, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Shaunti Feldhahn, and others; talked with my parents, siblings, and friends; reread my old diaries for inspiration; and wrote down everything. Usually, when I have a project on my mind, I cannot rest until it is finished. This time, I had no choice but to be very patient. After all, I was still in the middle of college and, by the time I graduated, I was not only volunteering at the crisis pregnancy center, but working two jobs as well. I simply didn't have time to write, and if I did have a spare hour, the last thing I wanted to write was more nonfiction. I was tired to death of essays. Besides, the concepts in my book were too involved to simply slap down on paper like a splatter of paint; they needed time to filter, sift, and arrange themselves through slow, patient labor.
By January 2012, I had the rough draft written, but I had a problem. "There's no central theme," I complained to my mother. "I need something to pull it all together, something that I can turn into a title. If the title can't explain the book, then the book is not focused enough." One day, I returned home from work with one of my usual rants. "It's so sad, Mom! I see all these single young women just putting their lives in park until their knight in shining armor arrives. They live like their lives don't begin until they get married! But their lives start now!"
"That's it!" Mom replied. "You need the word 'now' or 'today' in your title. You need to share that sense of immediacy with the reader."
That's when I realized that I knew the central theme of my book: The need for readiness, when looking forward to both meeting a future husband and meeting the Lord. Thus followed my complete overhaul of my rough draft, to organize the material according to my central theme. Months later, the title READY FOR HIM TODAY emerged from the chaff, and the project began to seem more like a book.
I spent the year of 2012 revising, revising, and revising. Did I mention revising? My best friend proofread the manuscript. My parents reviewed the manuscript (multiple times). I reviewed the manuscript repeatedly, until I no longer cared if I committed a cardinal sin against literature by misplacing a modifier, splitting an infinitive, or murdering punctuation. I complained to my parents, "I have never worked this hard on a book in my life!"
At the same time, I was proud of myself. I had always felt the truth of Henry van Dyke's words: "An idea arrives without effort; a form can only be wrought out by patient labor. If your story is worth telling, you ought to love it enough to be willing to work over it until it is true--true not only to the ideal, but true also to the real." I knew that the story of God's work in my life and of His vision for our relationships was worth telling, and therefore worth working over until the Truth sparkled from it like a polished diamond.
I just wished that the process was a little faster.
The delay turned out to be not only unavoidable, but crucial to my message (a topic for a future post), but I had no way of knowing this at the time. I was also bogged down with the reality that my choice to self-publish would quadruple my responsibilities. Truthfully, I relished the task. I admit that I was so sick of my own book that studying publishing formats, trends, markets, processes, and other details was a welcome change.
I planned to submit my final manuscript in December of 2012, declaring to my family that I was "nine months pregnant with this book and it was about time to give birth." Well, that ninth month lasted a lot longer than I envisioned, because the actual submission date to the publisher was April 8, 2013. The "pregnancy" is now almost over. In this next week, I plan to complete the proof review process and order my first printing of READY FOR HIM TODAY. If all goes well, the books will be available for sale by the first week of May.
It's been a long process. As I review my options for online selling, conduct long phone conversations with advertising coordinators, build my website, and try to assure friends and family that the book is indeed almost ready--but not yet!--I realize that there is a great deal more to come. "You know," I mentioned to my parents. "Publishing a book really is like having a baby. The real work begins after it's out!"
My mid-teen attempts at writing such a book were less than encouraging. I could not find a cohesive thought process, the material defied my attempts at organization, and the core of the concepts seemed to elude me. I probably wrote enough material for five books, only to shelf all of them eventually and throw up my hands. "Apparently, this is something I can write only when I'm a little older!"
At nineteen, I became a client advocate at a local crisis pregnancy center. Looking back, it seems a little insane, since I had just started college and a new job. On the other hand, it was perfect timing. As a young teen, I had worried for my friends and their relationship habits. Now, I saw exactly where the casual view of sex and relationships led, as I counseled young women and supported them through pregnancy. I rejoiced to watch God create beautiful things from situations that these women had once thought were irreparable, and to see Him give new life to some of them. I know now that READY FOR HIM TODAY was first written in my mind by the Master Writer through my experiences at the center.
By the time I turned twenty, circumstances had renewed my interest in the project. Several young women I knew had e-mailed me with relationship questions, and when I shared my responses with my parents to make sure that I was accurately representing the truth, both of them encouraged me to give my book another shot. Over the next four years, I combed through my memories and experiences; read books by Eric and Leslie Ludy, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Shaunti Feldhahn, and others; talked with my parents, siblings, and friends; reread my old diaries for inspiration; and wrote down everything. Usually, when I have a project on my mind, I cannot rest until it is finished. This time, I had no choice but to be very patient. After all, I was still in the middle of college and, by the time I graduated, I was not only volunteering at the crisis pregnancy center, but working two jobs as well. I simply didn't have time to write, and if I did have a spare hour, the last thing I wanted to write was more nonfiction. I was tired to death of essays. Besides, the concepts in my book were too involved to simply slap down on paper like a splatter of paint; they needed time to filter, sift, and arrange themselves through slow, patient labor.
By January 2012, I had the rough draft written, but I had a problem. "There's no central theme," I complained to my mother. "I need something to pull it all together, something that I can turn into a title. If the title can't explain the book, then the book is not focused enough." One day, I returned home from work with one of my usual rants. "It's so sad, Mom! I see all these single young women just putting their lives in park until their knight in shining armor arrives. They live like their lives don't begin until they get married! But their lives start now!"
"That's it!" Mom replied. "You need the word 'now' or 'today' in your title. You need to share that sense of immediacy with the reader."
That's when I realized that I knew the central theme of my book: The need for readiness, when looking forward to both meeting a future husband and meeting the Lord. Thus followed my complete overhaul of my rough draft, to organize the material according to my central theme. Months later, the title READY FOR HIM TODAY emerged from the chaff, and the project began to seem more like a book.
I spent the year of 2012 revising, revising, and revising. Did I mention revising? My best friend proofread the manuscript. My parents reviewed the manuscript (multiple times). I reviewed the manuscript repeatedly, until I no longer cared if I committed a cardinal sin against literature by misplacing a modifier, splitting an infinitive, or murdering punctuation. I complained to my parents, "I have never worked this hard on a book in my life!"
At the same time, I was proud of myself. I had always felt the truth of Henry van Dyke's words: "An idea arrives without effort; a form can only be wrought out by patient labor. If your story is worth telling, you ought to love it enough to be willing to work over it until it is true--true not only to the ideal, but true also to the real." I knew that the story of God's work in my life and of His vision for our relationships was worth telling, and therefore worth working over until the Truth sparkled from it like a polished diamond.
I just wished that the process was a little faster.
The delay turned out to be not only unavoidable, but crucial to my message (a topic for a future post), but I had no way of knowing this at the time. I was also bogged down with the reality that my choice to self-publish would quadruple my responsibilities. Truthfully, I relished the task. I admit that I was so sick of my own book that studying publishing formats, trends, markets, processes, and other details was a welcome change.
I planned to submit my final manuscript in December of 2012, declaring to my family that I was "nine months pregnant with this book and it was about time to give birth." Well, that ninth month lasted a lot longer than I envisioned, because the actual submission date to the publisher was April 8, 2013. The "pregnancy" is now almost over. In this next week, I plan to complete the proof review process and order my first printing of READY FOR HIM TODAY. If all goes well, the books will be available for sale by the first week of May.
It's been a long process. As I review my options for online selling, conduct long phone conversations with advertising coordinators, build my website, and try to assure friends and family that the book is indeed almost ready--but not yet!--I realize that there is a great deal more to come. "You know," I mentioned to my parents. "Publishing a book really is like having a baby. The real work begins after it's out!"