by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1
If someone had told me way back in the dark ages when I first picked up pen in hand to write that it would take thirty-two years for me to see a book in print, would I have put the pen down and chosen another way to express my creativity?
We’ll never know, will we? Because I didn’t quit. Of course it helped that I had encouragement along the way, like getting the very first short story I wrote published in Woman’s World. WW went on to buy two more stories, and with that encouragement, I kept plugging away. So the question you might ask is, “What mistakes did you make that you would do differently?”
Several things come to mind, and I don’t think I’m the only writer who has made these choices. And understand they are choices. Here they are:
- I wrote in a vacuum making the same mistakes over and over because I had no one to tell me I was head hopping, telling instead of showing, using passive verbs, using purple prose, and as one editor put it, what I was writing was trite—in other words it was cliched and stale.
- I didn’t attend writers conferences until late in my journey. With a husband who thought of my writing as a hobby (something I never viewed it as) and therefore not serious enough to warrant shelling out bucks to attend writers conferences, short of a divorce I really had no way to attend. I never contemplated that avenue. But maybe that’s why I chose murder mysteries as my genre…
- I didn’t study enough craft books. Maybe I couldn’t attend a conference, but I could have bought more craft books and studied them. I really don’t know why I didn’t other than I didn’t know which ones to buy other than the Writer’s Digest books. And don’t get me wrong, they were good craft books, but there were others out there I didn’t know about, like Deb Dixon’s, Goal, Motivation, and Conflict.
- I didn’t find critique partners soon enough. It wasn’t until I joined ACFW that I found out about critique partners! My early partners, Johnnie Alexander, Renee Osborn, Rob McClain, and Chandra Smith were brutal! But they grew my writing.
- I would not have asked God to teach me patience.
So, what would you change if you could go back to the beginning of your writing career? Leave a comment to encourage those just starting out on the journey.
Standoff (Natchez Trace Park Rangers Book #1)
The Natchez Trace National Parkway stretches 444 miles from Nashville to Natchez, the oldest town on the Mississippi River. It’s the perfect road for a relaxed pleasure drive. Unfortunately for park ranger Luke Fereday, lately it’s being used to move drugs. Sent to Natchez to infiltrate the organization at the center of the drug ring, Luke arrives too late to a stakeout and discovers the body of his friend, park ranger John Danvers.
John’s daughter Brooke is determined to investigate her father’s murder, but things are more complicated than they first appear, and Brooke soon finds herself the target of a killer who will do anything to silence her. Luke will have his hands full keeping her safe. But who’s going to keep him safe when he realizes he’s falling–hard–for the daughter of the man he failed to save?
Winner of an Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award in Suspense and a 2018 Carol finalist, 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 e-books.