by Patricia Bradley, @PTBradley1

I’m starting the third book in my Natchez Trace Park Ranger Series, and the thought that pops into my mind after staring at the blinking cursor for hours is…How do I do this? 

I know I can write the book because I’ve done it twelve times before, but everything I’ve ever known about writing has fled my mind. At this point I pull out my handy-dandy notebook with Yes, You Can Do It on the spine. In it are bullet points of questions I need to answer:

• What’s the setting? Why there?
• What is my main characters’ goal? Why do they want it? What’s going to keep them from getting it?
• Who are my characters when they walk onto the page of the book? 
• What wound are they carrying around and how did they get it? 
• What’s the flaw that’s going to cause conflict in reaching their goal? 
• What are their competing values? Or what will they have to give up to reach their goal?
• Why do they want this goal now? Why not five years ago? Or six months ago?

Why is this last question important? It just is. In the last book, I had a murderer digging up a body he’d buried ten years ago, and I had to have a reason for him to do this now. He’s waited ten years, so why now? And why not earlier? Once I answered that question, I was able to start the book.

In the book I’m starting, a grandmother asks her granddaughter to clear the family name. It seems her grandfather was accused of killing a man and was taken to jail, but before he could be tried, an angry mob broke him out of jail and killed him. The grandmother doesn’t believe he was guilty, but he never had a chance to prove it. She wants her granddaughter to clear him of the crime.

Before I can begin the story, I’ll have to know the answer to why it’s important to clear his name NOW. And for the next few hours or days (whatever it takes) I’ll find the answer. I may have to work on other aspects of the book while the girls in the basement go to work, but I know that before I can start writing the story, this question has to be answered.

Do you have any questions that have to be answered before you can start your story? Let me know in the comments. It might help someone else…and me.

 

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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.