By: Taylor McNitt
Seven years ago, English teacher Heather Tierney began an uncommon project; writing a book. Her book is called The Freedom of a Tangled Vine, and it is a fictional family drama about a woman named Alina in the 1960s who secretly placed a child up for adoption, and then goes on with her life; she always remembered that situation, and years later that child has grown up and makes contact with her.
For Tierney, writing the book was not easy – just finding the time was difficult. Not only is she a teacher and now an author, but she is also a mother of two young children. All three of these occupations are time consuming, so you have to wonder how she pulled it off.
“I don’t know [how I made time to write]. I think about that all the time,” Tierney said. “I wrote at very odd times, I just took it wherever I had alone time. I never wanted to take time away from my kids to do this,I really didn’t.”
Writing The Freedom of a Tangled Vine was not an easy task not just because of the time it took, but also because of the writing process itself.
“Sections of the book were all over the place, they didn’t necessarily go front page to last page; I had to write different sections, and then I would go back and say ‘Oh, this section should go before or after this’ or something like that,” Tierney said. “What I learned was that I needed to revise a lot, I tended to be too wordy with my writing, and so I needed to go back and cut quite a bit out of my writing. It was [really hard] because you would get attached to it.”
If this truly was a challenging project, why did Tierney do it?
“I’ve always wanted to write a book; I was one of those kids who, in third grade, decided ‘Oh, I’m going to write a book someday’,” said Tierney. “But what inspired me about this particular story is that my own mother had placed a child up for adoption in the 1960’s, and so it just got me interested in the way that that was handled back then. Plus, I have a daughter who was adopted, so it’s just very different in terms of the philosophies compared to when my mother had her procedure. This is a fiction story, but it was inspired by that idea about all of that secrecy that surrounded that topic back when my mother was young.”
During these last seven years, Tierney overcame the hardships of finding time and persevering. But that wasn’t all – she also overcame herself.
“I’m a pretty private person, so it’s been a big step for me to think that my thoughts and ideas are going to be read by anyone,” Tierney said. “That’s been the biggest impact: just to trust that it’s fine. I have to develop a bit of a thicker skin; people might like it, they might not, but I did my best.”
In pursuing this project, she learned more about writing than if she hadn’t had the hands on experience.
“It’s taught me a lot about writing,” said Tierney. “The best part of this whole process was working with the editor. She taught me to really go with my gut feeling – if I didn’t love something, it wasn’t worth keeping.”
In learning what she has, you might expect Tierney to have some advice, and she does.
“Just write a lot, and don’t be afraid to show other people what you wrote,” Tierney said. “Ask them to let you know what parts they love, what parts are okay, and what parts they just don’t really get. I think that sharing the writing with other people was the best thing for me, and not just my editor, but also people besides friends. Friends are going to say nice things, so share your writing with acquaintances or people you don’t know as well, who you think are going to be honest, and give you some feedback.”
In the end, the journey was a rewarding one, and her book will be published and available to read this spring.
“If it turns out to be a good story, then good; if it’s [not] – either way, I did it, and that makes me proud.” said Tierney.
