A collection of questions I’ve compiled from y’all about my new book! Enjoy!
Is the book just a collection of your blog posts?
No, not at all! One of my biggest goals in writing this book was to tell the story in a way that was completely fresh to create an entirely new narrative for the reader. It also shares new stories as well as things that I have never gone into details about online. I took short journal excerpts from my NICU journal to use as transitions between chapters but other than that Anchored is all new material! In fact, one of the most frequent comments from early readers has been “I thought I already knew this story from reading your blog for so long but this was all completely new to me.”
When did you write?
I wrote early in the mornings for about two hours before Scarlette woke up three times a week. My family helped out so much and rotated keeping Scarlette two full days a week all of last summer so that I could write heavily during those days.
How did your blog posts from when Scarlette was born help you with the writing?
It was incredibly useful to me to have those blog posts and my private NICU journal to help recreate the timeline accurately but also to immerse myself back in those memories so that I could write from a really authentic place emotionally.
How did it feel to relive her birth again through the writing process? Was it cleansing, or hard to push yourself back there?
It was both. It was the first time that I had re-read ANYTHING that I had written since her birth and so it was very, very hard to revisit. I tried to keep my long days of writing focused on the parts that were difficult to write and then I was emotionally spent on those days. On short writing days I focused on writing the more humorous parts of the story. But when I turned the manuscript in I felt incredibly lighter. It was a very cathartic, healing process for me.
What is your favorite story from the book?
Oh that’s hard. Probably the story about meeting Hugh Grant because I just really liked the humor in it and the way it worked as a transitioning chapter. Plus, I have always wanted to tell that story.
How did you build your book. Did you made a kind of schema for each chapter? Did you write a kind of diary apart from your blog, to build a layout to prepare your book?
I created a detailed outline first. I knew that I didn’t want to tell the story chronologically because I didn’t want it to be solely NICU focused and I didn’t want it to be incredibly medically-heavy upfront. I put huge sheets of paper up across one whole wall in my office labeled for each chapter title and would randomly scribble ideas for stories within each chapter on them as a big visual reference.
It changed a lot as I went, I condensed the chapters and dropped a few story lines that felt repetitive (NICU life can be kind of tedious). I kept a running tally of heavy material and humorous material and then moved pieces of the story around so that I could keep a good balance.
I’ve heard authors don’t get to choose their book titles! Did you get to choose the title and cover or did the publisher choose that?
Funnily enough, the book originally had a different title! I worked with the publisher on the new title and love it, I think it perfectly captures the hope in the story. But I did get to have a lot of say in it, they weren’t like “Here’s your new title, kthxbai!” I submitted a lot of book covers and art that I liked and then their graphic designer worked up lots of samples that we tweaked until we had this! Personally, I think it is the prettiest book on the shelf when I visit a bookstore. Which I’ve been doing a lot because MY BOOK IS IN BOOKSTORES, Y’ALL. WHAT?!
How did you decide what to share and what was best left private?
This was the hardest part, actually. I wanted to do the story justice, I wanted to be honest about the struggles in our marriage and I had my husband’s blessing to write about that, which meant a lot to me. In the end I erred on the side of not sharing specific details of anything that he had done during that time because I didn’t think it would be fair to tell his story in that way and because I wanted to protect the sacredness of my marriage in present tense. So I only wrote about his experience in the general and spoke to my own in much greater detail and wove them into the story.
I also changed some names and identifying details specifically for privacy reasons.
How do you deal with all the misgivings, the fear of family members being hurt or your kids resenting you…etc?
Anne Lamott says “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” and it is the only aspect of writing I disagree with her on. I think it honors my present day relationships to not record in print hurtful things that happened during a really stressful time.
I don’t struggle with that fear too much because my philosophy toward writing is the same as it is for life, which is to be grace-filled in my relationships. Anytime I came to a part where I felt that it might hurt someone to share their role in my story, I stopped and prayed over whether or not it felt integral to include it. I feel as though the gift of writing is one that God has given me that is meant to bless others, not hurt them. If it felt incredibly important to the story then I focused on the craft of writing and creating a narrative for it that still captured its purpose but maybe was told in a way that had the details/names slightly changed.
Do you share any of your ideas with friends before putting them down on paper/computer?
I do! My friend Kristen vetted the first several chapters for me and I would send chunks of text to friends for feedback. I also asked my close friends permission to share certain details about them.
When did you decide to write the book?
One Sunday morning when my pastor said that our gifts were meant to be used to serve our community, right after I finished reading Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal where Michael Kelley had written that even if we had a life story we didn’t want, we were meant to steward it well.
How did you find your publisher? Or did a book deal come from someone reading your blog?
Both and neither! You can find the story of how my publishing process came about here (part one, part two, and part three)
How long did it take from the time you started writing until it was published?
Two and a half years! Which is actually fairly short in the publishing world so I am very grateful! It’s been an incredible experience.
When can I get the book?
TOMORROW. July 1! EEPS! (Although a little birdie told me that you can download the kindle ebook right now ;))
(P.S. Today is the LAST day that you can order the book and get a free art print mailed to you from my publisher! I mean, you can order after today but it’s the last day you can submit to get your free gift so don’t forget! Details here!)
