How A Non-Fiction Book Turned Fictional—Not Ficticious

A funny thing happened on my way to writing a nonfiction book of spiritual insights God had so graciously given me. I let my 30-something son Mark read the fledgling manuscript, and if you've read Living Between the Ditches: When God Makes No Sense, the dedication recounts his reaction.

"Mom," he said, "I think you've got something here." The rest of the story: he began to explain his generation to me. "If you want me to finish the book, you've got to peak my interest. I'm easily distracted, so even though I like your book, when something else grabs my attention, I probably won't come back to it. Then something else will divert me from that."

A little depressed by his prognosis, I asked,"So what can I do to keep you interested?"

Mark listed some options, including telling a story. He suggested, "Since you're talking about life as a journey, make up a story about a guy going on a cross-country trip." Then he left me to my machinations. I didn't know if I could write more than a short story, and Mark seemed to be implying one that would follow the book to its end. Hum—a novelette.

Boing! An idea began to form—I'll claim it was from above until someone can prove differently. A young man going on a trip from the east coast to—to—where? The town I knew best was the one I live in, so obviously he would be going to Nashville.

I knew he would be a young man because I wanted my nonfiction portion to be for both genders. From my experience as an editor I knew men would read about a man but not likely about a woman. I also knew he'd have to have a name unlike anyone I'd ever known personally. No sense in ruining a relationship.

So Layton Brooks was born. He was, of course, in between the ages of my two grown sons—a span of time I figured I knew something about. My writing instructors always told me to write about something I knew, and I thought I had a few clues about 30-something men.

But why would he be making this trip? It would have to involve the thesis of my book: that Christians walking the narrow road on the path to God's house would easily fall into a ditch on either side of the road—unless they learned to stay in the middle. Christians needed to live between the ditches. 

Layton needed to be a ditch-hopper: someone who'd bounced from one ditch to another as I had done on my Christian pilgrimage. I figured Layton had stepped off the road for the same reasons many of us do, so I had a plot. All I needed was merely to make it an interesting story with believable characters and a tug or two at the old heartstrings. How hard could that be?

If you haven't read the book, I'm not going to give away any secrets. After all, you yet-to-purchase-my-book bloggers are my only hope for retirement. But I do want to share something about developing fictional characters.

In my next blogs I'll talk about Layton, then Amy and Brianne. At some point you'll learn who was my favorite character(s). I think you'll be surprised.