Accepting Your Natural Bent ~ Kathy Herman

Before becoming a bestselling author and an award-winning poet, Kathy Herman worked on staff at the Christian Booksellers Association and served as a preliminary judge for the ECPA Gold Medallion Awards. She gained eleven years of bookstore experience as a children’s products specialist.

Herman earned accolades when her first book, Tested By Fire, became a CBA bestseller. Her popular Baxter series and successful stand-alone book, Poor Mrs. Rigsby followed. The author of twelve novels, Kathy’s newest dramatic series, Phantom Hollow, has now taken center stage. The debut novel in the series is, Ever Present Danger. The second installment, Never Look Back, is available in bookstores now.

Kathy Herman and her husband Paul, residents of Tyler , Texas , have three grown children and five grandchildren. Her hobbies include world travel, deep sea fishing and ornithology.

By Kathy Herman

Practically from the beginning of my writing career I recognized that I’m a “seat of the pants” suspense novelist who creates stories without following an outline or implementing a set technique. I’m required to give my publisher a synopsis of the storyline, usually a year before the deadline, but I know the story is going to evolve into something much better than what I include in the synopsis.

Truthfully, I would much prefer to follow an outline. I think it would be less stressful to have the entire storyline nailed down ahead of time. But I’ve learned to trust my natural bent because things always seem to fall into place. I’ve tried outlining and employing some of the techniques my peers do, but I feel as if someone has put me in a box. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m much more effective doing what I do naturally. I’m always guided by the synopsis I give to the publisher, but inevitably it develops into something much better as I get into the heads of my characters, who often move the story in directions that surprise me. But even in my less-than-conventional approach to novel writing, I have developed patterns over time.

First of all, I choose a setting for each series. I decided on Colorado for my current series, Phantom Hollow, because I lived in Colorado Springs for fifteen years and did a lot of traveling around the state. When I began to think about this series, my husband and I took a car trip to the western slope of Colorado to do a little research. One of the things I enjoy most about starting a new series is putting together a mental picture of the fictitious elements I want to create. Phantom Hollow does not exist outside the pages of my novel. But it’s as real to me as Durango, Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride. I can close my eyes and see the jagged peaks of the San Juans that rise high above the valley floor and surround the little town of Jacob’s Ear like a pure white fortress. I can smell the rich, robust aroma of coffee wafting from Grinder’s Coffee House and taste every buttery bite of a homemade fruit muffin Jewel’s Café. I tend to pick locations that appeal to me because I “live”(in my imagination) in that setting for the entire time it takes to finish a series. Once I feel at home with the setting, adding the fictitious elements is easy.

Also creating a host of characters is easy once I can picture the setting. I decide who should populate the story and give them names. They don’t come to life for me until I get into their heads, but I find it rather easy to develop a cast and come up with names.

Before I begin to write the story, I choose a Scripture that I can build a story around—something that lends itself to the suspense and is relevant to the reader. For example, in Never Look Back, book #2 in the Phantom Hollow Series, I chose Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” This verse lent itself perfectly to my protagonist, Ivy Griffith, who has just been released from jail after serving six months for covering up the strangulation death of a high school classmate ten years earlier. She’s paid her debt to society. Kicked her decade-long drug habit. And recommitted her life to Christ. But she hasn’t even begun to deal with the judgmental attitudes of other people.

Everyone in her hometown of Jacob’s Ear, Colorado knows what she did. And her brother Rusty wants nothing to do with her or the child he thinks she should never have had, seven-year-old son, Montana. Plagued by her own shame, her brother’s rejection, and her little boy’s cries for male affirmation, Ivy is reminded of her failures every single day. Keeping Psalm 103:12 as my central focus, I know that Ivy must eventually confront her doubts about whether God truly did remove her sins as far as the east is from the west—and not just the sins others judge her for, but the secret sins she can’t forgive herself for. Not only is this verse powerful, but it’s also easy to weave a highly suspenseful story around. The spiritual theme gives me direction but leaves the story wide open for all kind of twists and turns.

Undoubtedly this story would have been easier to write if I would have been able to determine ahead of time exactly how it would play out. But it was only after I was engrossed in the story and became intimately acquainted with the characters that I knew to take the story through twists and turns I would have never gone if I’d decided to stick to an outline. Again, this is so individual. Truthfully, I wish I were the type of writer who could follow an outline and bang out a story according to plan. But that methodology stifles my creativity and removes the element of surprise I can’t predict at the time I submit the synopsis.

I’ve learned that being a highly intuitive/feeling author working without an outline does not have to be a disadvantage. For me, it’s important to focus on the Scripture I choose and build my story around it, using as a guide the synopsis I give my publisher. So much of the story’s effectiveness depends on how well I develop my characters and how well the reader connects with them. When I create characters the reader cares about, I have the power to turn up the suspense by putting any of those characters in danger.

The writing of a suspense novel can sometimes be as exhilarating as the reading of it. I’m often surprised when one of my characters takes an unanticipated right turn. My choice to follow has resulted in my books being a much more exciting read. And when I submit that final manuscript to the publisher, it invariably turns out to be a deeper, richer, and more inspiring story than what was in the synopsis.

If you’re a “seat of the pants” writer, it probably won’t do any good to fight it. My advice is learn to accept your natural “bent” and let your own individual methodology of novel writing develop. But by all means, stay teachable. I know my way of developing a story has improved as it has evolved. I don’t believe there is a right way or a wrong way to write a novel as long as the methodology enables me to do my best work.