Interview with Rachel Hauck

Rachel Hauck was born to write. She says that on her website and I have to agree!  She is a bestselling author and award winning of Sweet Caroline and Love Starts With Elle, and numerous other fiction titles. She is a therapist at My Book Therapy and lives in Florida. Her most recent title is The Sweet By And By, which I reviewed here.

Rachel, it was great meeting you at the ACFW conference in Colorado. I thank you for taking the time to hang out with me today on my blog—whenever I ask you for something you are there! In fact, you’ve been known to offer (like the idea for this post). So I thank you for being you! You’ve taught me much during the time I’ve known you as a book therapist, a novelist and a friend. I am honored to have you here today.

RH: I’m honored to be here!

You published a collection book (Windswept Weddings – a Heartsong Novella Collection) with other authors at the beginning of your career as well as co-authored Lambert’s Pride with Lynn Coleman. Could you tell aspiring authors what they can do to become involved with a project like a collection of stories?

RH: Good question. Networking, getting to know people was the key to my start. As well as knowing the craft of story telling-writing. I met Lynn at a conference. We hit it off and she came up with the idea to work together. She was writing for Heartsong at the time and wanted to help a new author. Because of that opportunity, I was able to pitch Windswept Weddings to Barbour and invite other authors to join. Those anthologies had to have three published authors and one unpublished – if the authors wanted to do that – so I invited in Lynette Sowell. I’d known Lynette for years and worked with her on ACFWs board. It was a thrill to be a part of her first sale! So, networking, getting involved, meeting people is very much a key to publishing.

Let me start this question with a statement—I adore your style of writing! So I took note on 1/4/10 when you stated, on Facebook, that you had written 27 pages! How do you write so fast and so well? Take us through your revisions. How long do you spend writing a first draft, second, and so on. What layers do you add with each revision?

RH: Really, I think I’m a hack! But thank you for your confidence in my writing. I write to discover. In that process, the voice comes. It’s a very laborious and painful process for me, but once the book is down and I know the story and characters, it’s easy to cover a bunch of pages. I can’t write 27 pages in the first draft. I can write 20 – 30 pages on a rewrite. That’s when I start nitpicking and fine tuning. But, yeah, in real life, I can only write about 5 – 10 pages on a good first draft day.

Rewriting is really key for me. I tweak until I can’t tweak any more.

Speaking of Facebook, you are big into social networking yet you meet your deadlines and get high word counts daily. How do you juggle? What can you recommend to aspiring authors about social networking?

RH: I love social networking. It’s my “office water cooler.” I have to work hard to not overdose on social media and email, so I try to make my social media stops quick. If something can wait until later, then I put it off until I’m done writing.

If a blog or email will take a lot of time, words and emotion, I wait until I have the time to do it right. When I’m on a tight deadline, my blog might be: “Hey, on deadline. How are y’all doing?”

Later, I’ll write about something that’s on my  heart when I can do it justice.

The key is knowing yourself and doing what you do well. But maintaining discipline.

Editing. How much do you do? Do you have a list of do not’s that you follow?

RH: I do a lot of editing. That’s where books are refined and polished. I love the quote: Books are not written they are rewritten.

I have some dos and don’ts but I really try to let the story speak for itself. Dos and don’ts can be a huge hindrance to creativity.  But, I try to keep with what I think makes a good story. I try to keep to my voice.

Thank you for leading worship and singing at the ACFW conference, it was lovely. You have a gorgeous voice and a command on the stage. Given that . . . Say you knew you’d be stranded on a desert island for 60 days. Alone. If you could pick only one instrument to listen to for that 60 days, what would it be? Follow-up. You are only allowed to sing three songs during your entire stay (there are no ipods or CD’s on this island), what three songs would you choose?

RH: Wow, what a great question.  My one instrument would be the electric bass WITH an effects pedal. It creates beautiful melodies in the right hands.

My three songs would be Your Love Never Fails, How He Loves Us, and Relent.

How do you make your characters sound different for each book you write? And give us some tips on how to write from the male POV?

RH: Characters always sound the same when you first start writing. Then as I rewrite and get to know them more, I assign each one a word or phraseology. I begin to hear the character speak in my head and try to write what they say – then edit to make it meaningful. For example, if my hippie mama says, “sakes a mighty” my heroine will never say it.

Men, while emotional, are often more practical. So I try to write men with a more practical voice, wanting to “fix” something rather than emote through it. The same applies with phraseology. Don’t have your male character say “sakes a mighty” if his hippie mother-in-law does.

I love My Book Therapy. I get what you and Susan are trying to do there. You have each been my therapist at one time during the last few years—and I appreciate the time you both have spent with me and many other aspiring writers. Can you tell us what you enjoy the most about being a book therapist?

RH: I love seeing writers grow, learn, come into their own. I’m pretty good at seeing the big picture and love when I can help writers see what their story can be. And I grow each time I work with an author. I learn something. I learn how to write better, teach better. It’s so wonderful to be a part of an author’s journey! We love it.

THANKS HEIDI!

Rachel, thank you for your time. I can’t wait to read Dining with Joy soon!