Some people have asked me if my stories ever evolve into something different than I was expecting. Or if my stories ever change as I’m writing them. Sometimes they do slightly, other times quite a bit.
Did you want to see what the changes for one story look like?
I give you The Unexpected Request
It all began with a calendar that I didn’t own. My aunt had gotten a calendar for Christmas and I was looking through the pictures. They were lovely pictures and I was enjoying them when suddenly, one of them caught my attention. It really wasn’t spectacular, but as I looked at it, I could feel the cold, I could practically hear the creak of a saddle and the jingle of a bridle. Someone or more than one someone was coming. They were just out of the picture, but they were coming.
My aunt let me borrow the calendar and I wrote one thousand words about the picture and the two men who rode into it.
Then I posted it on my blog.
However, I had a reader who wanted more. She kept asking on Sundays when I was going to write the next part of it. Finally I sat down with her and asked her what she wanted to know. I got a lot of answers. So I started writing. And writing.
There were times my sister and I would go for a walk and I would talk through the next part of the story, or we’d discuss the overall plot.
The solution to the mystery didn’t come easily. It just kept going. I had to figure out when the railroad across the Sierra Nevada Mountains was completed. I had to look up the terrain and the typical weather in different parts of the country. It was quite an experience.
Once, when I posted a new part on my blog, I added a little bit that really wasn’t part of the story and killed off a character. I had so many comments that day! Okay, I did go back and tell my readers that it was April 1st and that last part wasn’t really in the book. 🙂
There are some fun little details hidden in this story.
- The full name of the girl whose questions got me beyond the first thousand words is in the book.
- My German and Spanish characters are based on my best friends’ older sister and her husband (because the husband said he wanted to be in my book, but no, they are not German or Spanish).
But at last the story was written. The ending was reached and I wanted to publish it. But back then I didn’t know there were places where you could get images to use for covers. (The cover image for my first book, Home Fires of the Great War, was taken by a friend.) I knew someone who was an artist and I asked her if she’d be willing to paint a cover for me. And she did. This image I then sent to another friend who, along with her brother, designed the cover for the book.
When I put the book up on ACX to see if I could get a reader to read it, I had many different people auditioning. Some were boring to listen to, one wanted to say whatever he wanted instead of reading what I had written, but then I got the perfect reader. Not only could he read the western accents well, but he did the German and Spanish perfectly!
And there you have it. The scene that grew into an 80k plus word novel with unexpected events and adventures along the way.
Have you read The Unexpected Request? Have you ever given in to a reader who begs or demands you write more? Or are you a reader who has begged and demanded more and an author has given in?
How interesting! I love hearing how stories come about. Now I have to re-read it!
I may or may not be a reader who *begs* for more stories. *Coughs TCR. Coughs GQ😇
I need to reread it too and add all those names to my Name List. I’m working through TCR right now.
😀 Well, I’m not sure if I can give you any more TCR, but I will try and give you another GQ sometime. I have to finish Don Wood and hopefully Lawrence & Lenexa first though.
This was so interesting! I love your “Follow the Idea” posts😁 I haven’t read this yet, but I want to soon! And I really like that cover 🙂
I have definitely given in to demands for more before! Two of the three books I’m writing now and most of the ones I plan to write afterwards are because my sister told me to😏 And I’m so glad she did because I could never have got to this point without it!😂
And I am most definitely a reader that demands *coughs* I mean, politely asks for more😇 You may or may not have noticed😇🤣 And I have got a couple authors to give in…🤔 Still working on one author, Rebekah A. Morris, for a couple stories I want her to write, though😜 If you could help me talk to her, we might get somewhere😇😛😆
Glad you are enjoying this series. 🙂
Hmm, what stories are you wanting that particular author to write? Maybe I could talk to her about them. 😉 😛
Through an Author’s Eyes, Two Dollars and a Knife, the Coral story, the story starter with the fog from a couple weeks ago, and a sequel to By Paths Unknown, and just a very few like that;);) Really nothing much😇😇
Oh, are those the only ones? 😛
This was a fun post!! I enjoy hearing fun little things about how a book came to be! 😀
Glad you enjoyed it. 😀
Such fun! It’s really cool to hear how a story came about 😀
😀 Glad you enjoyed the behind the story story.
This is a fun behind the story! I haven’t read The Unexpected Request but I’d like to 😉
Oh, I think you’d enjoy it.
I don’t know if I’ve ever had someone beg me to write more… I’ll have to think about that one!
😀
I did beg Angie to write a sequel to Bridgers and while she HASN’T YET, she did give me a few details of things that happened after the story, which made my heart happy 😁
Oh, so you are one of those who help make a story grow. 😀 We need people like you.
This is cool, and sounds a lot like what happens with some of my stories!
Really? How fun!
Yeop, and you’re one of the people who wanted more of one of them! XD. Remember Andrew Herley from “On Farfectched Drive”?
I most certainly do. 😀
And that is why he has his own little story. 😁 (And now you know who the Frog is.😉)
Yep. 😀
Why hello! I was supposed to leave a comment somewhere on your blog, so here it is! 😉
*Hears the soft sound of Frog’s steps*
Well! Thank you Rebekah!
*Waves and is gone before Frog can catch her*
😛 You’re welcome. Be glad I don’t catch you and put you in a bucket and leave you in the sun. I’ve done that to toads before.
Toad! I found you! But… now you’re gone. 😔
I’ve put the world in a bucket before, but never a toad.
😀
Am I really that far away Frog?
It’s alright Rebekah, I don’t have too much fear of getting caught. 😉
Are you or are you not, that is the question. 😉
Yeah, Toad is very good at absconding. She almost never gets caught!
Silly girls. 😀
Your story sounds really interesting! I’ll have to check it out.
I hope you enjoy it if you do.
I listened to this book in audio form and loved it! It’s really interesting to hear how the story came about!
Oh, I love the reader for it!
And I would love to see the calendar picture that got you started!
I think I have it on my Friday blog, but I’d have to search for it.
I don’t think I’ve ever begged anyone for another/more of a story, but there are some books that I’ve finished and maybe sorta yelled at because there was no sequel available😜
Well, I guess that might sort of count. 😉 But really, some authors need readers to beg for more of a story for something to turn into a story or novel. 😀
That reminds me, I would love to have another Graham Quartet book! I have to audio books for those two and I’ve “reread” them multiple times as well as my sisters!
😀 You aren’t the only one who wants more. I would really like to get another one written too.
I haven’t read The Unexpected Request, but it’s one of the books I’d like to read before the end of the summer! And that is such a fun April Fool’s Day prank!! That would be fun to do to my siblings with a story….
There is a certain author who I’ve begged more from on more than one story *looks pointedly at you*, but she hasn’t given in. Yet. 😉 Something about not being able to write stories when she doesn’t have ideas for them. *shrugs*
Oh, I hope you get to read it, CeeCee!
And it’s true, I can’t write a story if I don’t have any ideas! *shrugs* You should try it and see if it works. 😉
Sisters are the best writing buddies! If I ever have a question about plotting or if something is out of character for one of my characters, I always go to my sisters. They are SO helpful and willing to listen to me ramble on for hours about my stories!
Yes! Not only does mine listen to my rambling thoughts, but she’ll tell me if my ideas are too far fetched, too common, or too cliche. 😀