Story Ideas

by Patricia Bradley

What do you suppose is the one comment from readers most fiction writers do not want to hear? If you said: You ought to write a book about my life, you would be right. At least you would be right about me. 

Why do you suppose a writer wouldn't want to be given a ready-made plot with a really interesting character? That's what I had to explain to a friend just this week. 

The friend in question had led a very interesting life--I'm sure of that because she's a very nice person and some very interesting things have happened to her. But...

Unfortunately, for this writer anyway, that question makes me quake in my boots. I mean, how do you tell someone who is very serious about their life being perfect for the plot of a book that you can't take their life story and fictionalize it. Especially when this is someone you are really fond of.

I tried to explain that I write fiction and that while I might use something that had happened in her life as an obstacle in my heroine's life, I couldn't take her whole life story and write it. I can't even write a story based on my life. 

My story ideas usually come from nowhere. An example is my first book, Shadows of the Past (which is free as a digital download until August 31). I was sitting on my sofa, reading my devotion for the day when a woman popped into my head and said that someone was trying to kill her. Of course, I had to know more, and that's when I wrote the book. 

So, for the authors out there, what do you say when someone tells you they'd like for you to write their life story? And that it would be a New York Times Best Seller?

Oops! My Bad

by
Patricia Bradley

Oops! My book, Silence in the Dark, released yesterday and I didn't know it until Monday! 

How can that happen, you ask? 

When you get one date from your publisher but then check Amazon and the date is different, you don't know what to think. Amazon even changed it twice, reflecting the May 5th date my publisher gave me. I thought the date was still in May...

Let me tell you a little bit about Silence in the Dark. Here's the back cover copy:

In one of the most dangerous states in Mexico, Bailey Adams is running for her life . . . again.

When Bailey Adams left Logan Point two years ago for the mission field of Chihuahua, Mexico, she thought she was getting away from her problems. Running into her ex-fiancé Danny Maxwell was not part of the plan—neither was being chased through the city by the local drug cartel, the Calatrava. Now despite her best efforts, Danny is her only chance of escaping the people chasing her and getting back to Logan Point safely. Can Bailey find the strength to face what’s coming? And in the midst of the chaos, can she keep herself from falling in love with her rescuer all over again?

With lean, fast-paced prose that will keep you turning the pages, Patricia Bradley pens a superb story of suspense and second chances.

And I love the banner Revell made for my Facebook and Twitter pages:

And I love that Revell is running my first book, Shadows of the Past, for FREE in digital format at all the major epublisher sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD...

Back to Silence in the Dark. The opening scene is something that happened in my life. While fictionalized in the book--I was never actually in danger--it was very traumatic and has stayed with me for more than fifty years. Have you ever had something to stay with you that long--good or bad? If you want to share, leave a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing for Silence in the Dark. (Ebook if outside the Continental US.)

Waiting On God

by
Patricia Bradley

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart...Wait patiently for the Lord to act.
                                                                Psalm 37:4,7

If anyone has read my comments on Facebook or various blogs, you’ll know I often talk about everything being in God’s timing. This is what that has looked like for me as recorded in my Jesus Calling Journal that I read each morning.

October 17, 2009:

I've found myself getting anxious about getting my story published. I am learning everything is in Your timing. So I will cease striving and wait.

October 17, 2010:

A year has passed. I’ve learned so much. Getting proposals ready for publishers and agents.

October 17, 2011:

After finishing yet another rewrite of Shadows from the Past, I’m getting proposals ready for editors and agents who requested at ACFW.

October 17, 2012:

Waiting to hear from Revell pub board on whether they will take my book. Praying it’s Your will that they buy. Thank You either way.

Early the next morning, I found they had approved the story and would make an offer. And the rest is history.

I’m starting the seventh year that I’ve gone through the Journal, and it’s been really neat that I can look back each morning and see where I was a year ago, two years ago, even six years ago. What I recorded isn’t always about writing. Sometimes it’s about a difficult decision or a really difficult problem, and a year later I’m able to see how God answered. Not always the way I wanted, but always I see Him getting me through it, and more than once, what He gave me was much better than what I had asked for. 

When I prayed, asking that Revell would take my book, I was only thinking about one book. Their offer was for three, which was really unheard of for an unpublished writer.

So my advice is whatever you want to do, do the hard work—learn the nuts and bolts of what you want to do. If it's writing, write every day, if it’s only a paragraph because that keeps you focused on the story. Be where you need to be when God opens the door. And remember: God doesn’t give us a dream just to snatch it away. If we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts. But we must wait patiently on Him. (paraphrased from Psalm 37:4 and 7)

What does waiting on God look like to you?