Interview with Jennifer Schuchmann

Interview by Alyice Edrich

Jennifer Schuchmann and Craig Chapin are the authors of Your Unforgettable Life: Only You Can Choose the Legacy You Leave (Beacon Hill Press, 2005). With more than eight years of freelance writing experience, her work has been published by Christianity Today's Your Church Magazine, Atlanta Magazine, Christian Reader, Christian Communicator, Drama Ministry, and Christian Parenting. She is also a trainer and speaker who holds an MBA (emphasis on marketing and communications) from Emory University. Your Unforgettable Life is her first book.

Your new book, Your Unforgettable Life, with co-author Craig Chapin, is a wonderful tribute to what matters most in life. How did you come up with the topic for this book?

Actually, this is embarrassing now, but Craig approached me about working on a book together and I asked him if he had a topic in mind. When he said "legacy" I thought it was the most boring topic I could think of and I told him so.

Like many people, I thought leaving a legacy meant donating large sums of money to a college or a church. It seemed to me that a legacy was something I would think about when I was older, not while I am still working and raising my son, but as Craig and I talked through the subject, a couple of provocative questions were raised that I wanted to explore further. The first was, what are the consequences of our behavior? Does the little stuff we do really matter? And then tied to that was the verse from Deuteronomy 5:9 where God says that he will punish the children for the sins of their father to the third and fourth generation. I had to ask, was I being punished for things that my father did and if so, was that fair? More importantly, I had to ask if my son, his children, and his grandchildren would be paying the consequences for my sins.

That is when I put it all together. Our legacy is the culmination of everything we do, good or bad. A legacy isn't built when we write a check to a church or a school, our legacy is built with every interaction we have with the people and the world around us. So the book centers on the premise that we are all leaving a legacy, the question is: are we doing it intentionally?

If you could sum up your legacy, as your life stands right now, what would it be?

Honestly? My fear is that my legacy right now is that I am often too busy to live in the moment. The other side of that legacy is that my investment is often in things that have an eternal value, but for me the challenge will always be balance. I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by a family who supports the things that I do and when I asked them this question they said things like "committed Christian" and "good mother" but inside my head, I feel those are the two things I fail at more often than I succeed.

What was your biggest struggle with this book and how did you overcome it?

It seemed to me that whatever topic I wrote about in the book, I simultaneously struggled with it in my own life. It was like being tested on everything I said; yet I refused to write anything in the book that I wasn't willing or actively doing myself. While no one else would ever know, I didn't want to be a hypocrite to my friends and family.

This was especially true while writing chapter six, "Minutes Make a Difference." In this chapter, we talk about how our legacy, in part, is built on how we spend our time. I became acutely aware of how many times my son interrupted me while I was writing and I said, "let me finish this," or, "as soon as I get this done, I will do what you want." As I wrote that chapter I realized I was saying to my son, "my writing is more important than you are right now," and I knew I had to change. I did, but I was tested on this many times over while writing the book.

One of those tests came when I was leaving on a Saturday morning to go to a writer's conference. Jordan was ten and he came into the bathroom where I was getting ready and he said some really wonderful things about how the stories I wrote made him feel like he was right there and how much he loved my writing. Preparing to leave that morning, I had a kind of glow. As I got in the car, he asked if I would be at his baseball game later that afternoon. I told him I had an appointment with an editor but that I hoped to be there for the last half. "That's okay, Mom," he said. "I know your writing is more important than my baseball game."

He had no idea how much those words would penetrate me. He was sacrificially giving me permission not to attend his baseball game, but the way he said it went straight to my heart. So to be true to what I was asking others to do, I skipped the appointment with the editor and that afternoon I was cheering at the baseball game.  

How long did it take from start to finish to see this book on bookstore shelves? Can you give a rough estimate of the different stages, i.e., proposal, contract, research, first draft, cover layout, etc.?

It was really a very quick process. Craig and I met for breakfast in April of 2004 and started discussing the book. We hammered out the outline and wrote the proposal in late May. I pitched it to several editors at Write to Publish in June and had around seven favorable responses. I wrote the first two or three chapters before CBA in July and by the middle of July, I had a total of 13 agents and editors who had all requested the material and were actively looking at it. Chip MacGregor agreed to take me on as a client and Judi Perry of Beacon Hill made us an offer July 19.

The contracting process took a little longer due to summer vacation schedules, but we signed in early fall, I think. Craig and I met weekly during the fall and talked on the phone daily. We wrote about a chapter a week passing it through several stages of drafts. Our final drafts were done in December and we had a group of friends and professionals read through it and made changes accordingly. Our manuscript was due January of 2005 and I held the first copy in my hand the day before I left for CBA in July where Craig and I did our first book signing.

Many writers dream of collaborating on a book, believing it keeps the creative juices flowing and makes the book stronger. Was it difficult working with a co-author? How did you divide the work needed to complete this book?

I love working with a collaborator and have done it on every book I have written or am currently writing. When you write a book, you think about it constantly. When you work with a collaborator, you have someone who cares about those thoughts as much as you do. Working with someone else is a living example of iron sharpening iron-- sometimes it hurts to make the book better. You have to be willing to reveal first drafts you'd rather no one see, you have to be willing give and receive honest feedback, and you have to be willing to let go of things that you can't both agree on.

Since the topic was Craig's idea and he had taught on many of these subjects before, after a brief discussion he would outline the kinds of things that needed to be included in each chapter. I would then write a first draft of the chapter adding illustrations or additional information. We would then pass it back and forth until we were satisfied. I would then pass it on to my critique group for initial edits. We often joked that Craig was the inspiration for the book and I was the perspiration. I guess that means if the book stinks it's my fault.

One of the biggest problems new Christian writers face when it comes to writing Biblically-based books is the ability to accurately share the gospel. What tip(s) could you share to help new writers research and write content that reflects God's true intentions?

Invest in good study materials and then use them. Read widely for different perspectives on the same passage. Cultivate friends whose theological training and Biblical scholarship is different than yours and ask for their opinions. And most importantly-- pray. I find that it works best if I pray and read the passage and record my own thoughts about the passage first. Then I know that I am getting what God is trying to tell me without influence from other sources. After that, I take my personal notes and compare, test, and enrich them from the studies of others. This gives me fresh, personal insight without losing contact with 2,000 years of doctrine.

In Your Unforgettable Life, you share personal stories based on the lives of several Christians. How did you find people with stories that matched the emphasis you were trying to get across?

There are so many examples of times when I needed an illustration or an example and didn't have one and would have to set the writing aside. Then I would be in Sunday school or in a conversation with a friend and the perfect example would present itself and I'd ask [for] permission to use it. Some might say it was a coincidence. Others would say it was because I was thinking about legacy so I had that filter on in everything I did. I believe it was God making me open for the example He had so that when I heard it, I knew it was exactly what I needed. Truth is, not all of them were so divinely inspired. When I needed an example for an early chapter and had only hours to finish it I crashed a neighbor's birthday party and started soliciting stories from their guests. That's how I got the story about Scott in the first chapter.  

It's hard to get mainstream media attention for books with such Biblical truths and depth. Have you learned any secrets that have helped you gain the attention of mainstream media, or Christian media for that matter?

I have a marketing background and it is easy for me to write press releases or advise others on how to sell their books, but when you are doing it with your own book, it is much harder. I lack the objectivity about my own work and I can be filled with doubts or fears that it isn't good enough. I don't think I really have any tips other than to work hard. Hard work does pay off. Take every available opportunity to use your book not to promote, but to minister-- that way even without media attention, your efforts will have eternal success.

In Your Unforgettable Life, you say, "The legacy we leave is the sum of the seemingly insignificant decisions we make." When writing this book, you must have had to make many decisions that involved juggling both home and career. Are there any lessons you learned that could help writers when making similar decisions?

First, the point of the book is that even the most seemingly insignificant decisions are important. Each decision we make has consequences and that is why it is so important that we don't just wander through life, that we make our choices deliberately. I would encourage [all writers] to just pause for a minute and think about the consequences of what they are doing. Are they choosing to finish a project over spending time with their family? Are they meeting a deadline and missing time with God? If so, acknowledge it, then do something about it.

Last night I had to call an editor and ask for an extension because it was my son's last day of school before the holidays and I spent all day in his class helping. I had hoped to finish in the afternoon but we ran out of time. We had plans as a family last evening (it was also my son's birthday) so it was a choice. I couldn't do it all. For me, making that call was a humbling experience. I've never missed a deadline. But if I hadn't called, I would have spent the night being grumpy and thinking about how I could finish the work before midnight. I wouldn't have lived in the moment. Instead, I chose to face the editor and enjoy my family. It was a decision I won't regret and one step in the direction of the legacy I want to leave.

Alyice Edrich is the author of Tid-Bits For Marketing Your Business With Articles. If you're ready to take your business to the next level but can't afford the advertisements, you'll want to read this book! Learn how to get your advertisement in front of thousands of readers, free. Visit http://thedabblingmumpress.com to order a copy today!

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