by Heather Blanton
When writers discover old manuscripts or lost chapters to a
book, we are as thrilled as when we run into old friends from high school. My
first novel, A Lady in Defiance, went
through some serious re-writes before its publication in 2012. A lot of
chapters, subplots, and even characters “fell to the cutting room floor,” as they
say. Every deletion, every edit, made me bleed. This is a powerful story of
three good, Christian sisters who are faced with the ultimate tests of their
faith and love. I couldn’t imagine that every single word didn’t matter
profoundly. I wanted you, my gentle reader, to feel all their pain. I wanted
you to weep with these ladies, cheer for them, and yearn to read more of their
tales.
But, alas, the experts said nay to my heartfelt opening
chapters.
Specifically, they warned I had too much backstory. Rule of
thumb: start a story as close to the action as possible. A Lady in Defiance opens with the death of Naomi’s husband, the
event which strands the sisters in the wild-and-wooly mining town of Defiance.
Everything that came before that—why they were there, why they were headed to
California, why one sister was pregnant outside of marriage—all backstory. The
experts said reel it out during the course of the novel. Since I am humble
enough to assume I don’t actually know everything about writing fiction (and
back then, I knew even less than nothing), I took the suggestions.
And A Lady in Defiance
became a number one best-seller on Amazon for months.
Five years later, I am still getting emails from people who
have been impacted by the story of the sisters who wrangle so honestly with doubts
about themselves, their faith, and love in general. Readers have let me know they
are deeply invested in these girls. They appreciate their flaws and how human
they are.
As well as the book has done, though, I’ve always missed
those opening chapters. There was some good stuff in there. The story before
the story is still a story, right?
Imagine my joy, then, when I found the original opening to A Lady in Defiance. After running it by
several beta readers and an editor, I am convinced there is something of value
in what I call The Lost Chapters. Naomi is devastated by the death of her
husband in A Lady in Defiance. Now
you get a deeper look at her relationship with the man who hung the moon and stars
for her. Yet, as it turned out, he was the second-best
thing to ever happen to her. The first was waiting in that wild-and-wooly
mining town.
And what was it like for sixteen-year-old Hannah to deal
with the shame of being pregnant outside of marriage? Confessing it to her
church? Realizing the father of the baby had abandoned her? That she and the
child are seen only as obstacles to an ambitious man’s plans for success?
The best thing about these chapters, however, is seeing God
move everything into place—how he is planning for something good to come from the
sisters’ heartbreaks—so that Naomi, Rebecca, and Hannah truly will have futures
bright with hope. He knows the plans He has for us…
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