Most of my writing is non-fiction. I write about my experiences, my vacations, and things the Lord is teaching me. I don’t usually write fiction. One reason is it’s hard for me to come up with all the details and embellishments that make fiction engaging. Another, is I don’t usually have ideas for stories. The last time I consistently wrote fiction was the sixth grade.
My teacher had us write a one page short story each week. We had to use the 20 spelling words for the week. The first week, one of the words was “muskrat.” I decided I was going to create a series of stories about Detective Alan and his pet muskrat. Each week, he had exciting adventures steered in large part by the words I had to work into the stories.
Then my fiction writing dry-spell began. And it continued until about six months ago. Our pastor was preaching through the book of 1 Peter. He came to chapter 5. As I read verse 8, it began stirring images and ideas in my mind. ”Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Since then I have worked on this short story. One day I might knock out a few pages. Another I might go back and rewrite half of what I previously wrote. Then I wrestled with whether I had fleshed out my characters enough. Would the reader care about my protagonist? Next, I had to type up all my handwritten pages. I spent more time critiquing what I had written than typing.
I have finally reached the point where I feel reasonably comfortable putting it out there for others to read. I have broken it up into three parts to make it more manageable. I’ll publish a chapter a day. Part One will come out tomorrow. I would love feedback, good or bad. Well, here goes nothing.