Writers have complete control of
their stories. Right?
If you answered yes, then you’ve
never had a character refuse to cooperate, or a story you have plotted out (Justice Buried) take a detour. Most of
the time when this happens, I go with the flow, but with the plotted out story,
I had a potential disaster on my hands. You see, I kind of left heroine Andi
Hollister hanging in the first book of my cold case novels, Justice Delayed.
She had a
problem with pain medication and at the end of that first book I gave her a
superficial recovery. I planned to further address her addiction to pain pills in
Justice Buried (which releases
September 5, 2017), with a subplot. But that’s when things went awry.
The heroine and the storyline of
Justice Buried didn’t cooperate. I did make a few references to Andi in the
story, but I never could work it around to flesh out her story. And it kept
bugging me.
And in case you’ve ever wondered
how writers decide what they’ll write next, an unfinished storyline might be an
influence. When Jan Thompson asked if I wanted to be a part of The Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers
anthology, I quickly said yes! Writing the novella turned out to be the perfect
answer.
Writing Andi’s story in the
novella also freed me to write the third book in the Memphis Cold Case Novels
without trying once again to work Andi’s subplot into that book.
And most people think writing is
easy.
Which brings me to the second
part of my post. Why didn’t I finish Andi’s story in the first place? Because
life happened.
Andi’s story, Justice Delayed,
was due in November. I was working diligently toward that deadline when my
nephew had to be airlifted to Memphis. I spent the next month off and on at the
hospital with him and my sister. A lot of authors can write through difficult
situations, but I’m not one of them. Not in the creative phase of writing,
anyway. Editing, yes.
When my wonderful editor offered
an extension, I gratefully accepted. My nephew remained critically ill in the
hospital until a month after I turned the book in, so it was still difficult to
focus. I spent a lot of time on my knees (figuratively since I have bad knees) praying
for him and writing Justice Delayed, asking
God for the next sentence, next paragraph, next page. I honestly don't know how
any author writes without God’s help. I turned Justice Delayed in at midnight
the day it was due, knowing it wasn’t quite finished.
With Revenge, Andi’s story is now complete, and you can read it in The Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers when
it releases October 3, 2017. Later it will be available as a stand-alone story
on Amazon.
Have you ever experienced a time when the story wouldn't come the way you anticipated? What did you do about it?
~~~~~~
I love connecting with readers on my blog every Tuesday where I have a Mystery Question for them to solve: www.patriciabradleyauthor.com/
Twitter: @ptbradley1
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/
Pinterest: https://www.
Winner of the 2016 Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in Suspense, Patricia Bradley lives in North Mississippi with her rescue kitty, Suzy. Her romantic suspense books include the Logan Point series and the Memphis Cold Case Novels. She also has written sweet romances for Harlequin Heartwarming available as ebooks.
