by Angela Ruth Strong, @AngelaRStrong

Smoke colored the surrounding mountains gray as I turned onto yet another detour in Sun Valley. I’d taken a group of teenagers to summer camp, but it was going to take us a lot longer to get home with all the wildfires. Hey, I could use this experience in my novel, Love Finds You in Sun Valley, ID.

Oh, wait. That book already came out. I couldn’t edit it anymore. While I’d used road construction in the story to force my hero to raft the river, using Idaho wildfires would have been more realistic. Unfortunately, it was too late.

This is probably a regret every author experiences, especially now in a world where we’re pressured to write twenty books with the hopes of earning 50K a year. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this goal, as long as it’s the right goal for you. But I want to take this time of slowing down in the pandemic to honor the beauty of incubating ideas.

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner explains it best. He said that people often got frustrated with him for putting projects on hold, but he did this for two reasons.

1. If it was a good idea, it would last the test of time.
2. If it wasn’t a good idea, better ideas would arise.

This certainly worked out for fellow Idahoan, Anthony Doerr, who took ten years to write his novel All The Light We Cannot See then won a Pulitzer. And I’m experiencing the incubation period in a new way as I mentally gather plot points for an upcoming book from real life experience rather than outlining the whole thing on a napkin at Cheesecake Factory.

I want to say once more that neither way is wrong. I had fun with that Cheesecake Factory novel. But if you’re someone who gets frustrated with the rush or has to slow down because your own life gets in the way of your character’s, don’t feel guilty. It’s okay to let others write faster. Your work-in-progress might just need more time to marinate.

I’ll end with one more Idaho story. A potato farmer was asked which route he took his buggy when heading to market. He said, “The bumpiest. Because it shakes the smaller potatoes down and makes the largest potatoes rise to the top.”

Don’t be afraid to take either the bumpy roads or the detours in your life. It might help you find the exact idea you’ve been looking for.

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A Latte Difficulty

  Can two baristas track down a gunman after the espresso shot heard ‘round the world?

When Marissa witnesses an attempted murder during the 4th of July parade, it starts a battle for her independence. She is forced to hide out in a safehouse, leaving her co-owner, Tandy, to run their coffee shop, track down the criminal, and, worse, plan Marissa’s wedding. Thankfully Tandy has help, but can she really trust the P.I. in a bow tie, her new deaf barista who acts more like a bartender, or a wedding planner who’s keeping secrets?

The threat on Marissa’s future goes from bad to worse when her bridal gown is covered in blood. Though her fiancé, Connor, agrees to give up his identity to join her in the Witness Protection Program, Marissa refuses to wave the white flag. Instead, she enlists Tandy to help her fight for truth, justice, and the Americano way.

Angela Ruth Strong sold her first Christian romance novel in 2009 then quit writing romance when her husband left her. Ten years later, God has shown her the true meaning of love, and there’s nothing else she’d rather write about. Her books have since earned TOP PICK in Romantic Times, been optioned for film, won the Cascade Award, and been Amazon best-sellers. She also writes non-fiction for SpiritLed Woman. To help aspiring authors, she started IDAhope Writers where she lives in Idaho, and she teaches as an expert online at WRITE THAT BOOK.