A manuscript development project for The Righteous Lab Client: Dr. Tomilade Adebari · 2026 · Faith / Publishing

An 11-page reflection became a 130-page devotional on waiting, longing, and learning to trust God's timing without losing the original voice that made it worth reading in the first place.

The brief

Dr. Tomilade came to The Righteous Lab with 11 pages of writing she had been carrying for over a year. The thread was clear, she had something to say about waiting on God in a season of unanswered prayer, but the form wasn't there yet. She wasn't sure if it was a long blog post, a chapter, or a book. She just knew it wasn't finished.

The challenge

Manuscript development for first-time authors comes with a specific risk: too much structure too early flattens the voice. Too little structure leaves the writer wandering. The challenge with The Waiting Game wasn't writing more pages, it was finding the architecture inside what she'd already written so the book could grow without losing the intimacy of the original 11 pages.

This was also a faith book by a writer who had never written one. That meant theological grounding mattered as much as narrative arc. The book needed to hold doctrinal weight without becoming a sermon.

The Work

Manuscript development. The original 11 pages became a 130-page book — chapter architecture, voice preservation, theological grounding, and developmental editing across multiple rounds.

Reflection prompt design. Each chapter closes with embedded journal prompts, transforming the book from a single read into a devotional companion.

Brand and design system. Typography selection and color palette — the visual identity that holds the book together from cover to interior.

Book cover design. The cover that translates the manuscript's emotional center into a single image, designed to signal the book's promise before a single word is read.

Foreword consultation. Identifying the right voice, shaping the ask, and managing the exchange to land a foreword that frames the book without overshadowing the author.

The reflection

Manuscript development is the kind of work nobody sees if you do it well. The writer's voice should be louder at the end of the project than mine. With The Waiting Game, that meant resisting the urge to over-structure early, and trusting that the architecture would reveal itself if we listened to the writing long enough.

This was The Righteous Lab's first project, and it taught me what the practice should be: I'm not here to make books. I'm here to help faith-rooted writers finish the books they've been carrying for years.

For more information about The Waiting Game, kindly visit www.tomiladeadebari.com