A Story’s Right to Life

by Felicia Ferguson @Felicia_writer

Christopher Hitchins is quoted as saying, “Everyone has a book in them and that, in most cases, is where it should stay.” But what about those lesser cases? Those stories that do need to be released? Need to be given life? January 22nd was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and while I fully support a human’s right to life, I also believe a story has a right to life.

The key is for the writer to do the work necessary to bring it to life. Although I’m not a fan of the current book launch trend of calling our works, “book babies,” there is something to be said for the comparison. After an idea is conceived, it then is nurtured as the writer delves into research, character histories, and story arcs and words begin to accumulate on the page. Along the way, the writer should feed the growing product with nutrients of writing craft techniques (showing not telling, snappy dialogue, unexpected plot twists, edits, and rewrites) until the time when it’s ready to be launched into the world.

But while we are busy creating and nurturing this new life, the writer must also listen to the story and the characters themselves. To follow Madeleine L’Engle’s sage wisdom and write the book that actually wants to be written. I think that’s where some writers stumble. As they’re growing their original idea, sometimes they stop listening and force the story or the characters to do something unnatural to them, like trying to put the proverbial square peg in a round hole. And the overall story suffers for it.

Why does that happen? Maybe it’s because the writer is following a popular trend and has an eye toward book sales. Maybe they feel uncertain about the choices and ramifications of following the character’s desire rather than their outline. Maybe they’re just being stubborn. After all, it can be rather fun to play God—and the power trip can be heady.

When I first told my mom I was writing a book about a seventeen-year-old who becomes pregnant after a sexual assault and then over the course of the story she has to decide what to do with the pregnancy, Mom said, “Are you sure that’s what you want to write?” I chuckled, shook my head, and answered honestly. “No, but that’s the book that wants to be written.”

And while The Choices She Made has won several awards, been made into an audio book, and is getting translated into Portuguese, the achievement of which I’m most proud is the feedback I’ve gotten from readers. How their faith has deepened after reading about Madeline’s. How their own child had to make similar heartbreaking choices. How they cheered Madeline as she fought through her fear and the unknown to make the hardest choices of her life.

However, I had to do two things before all of that happened:  give the story life and listen to my characters. So, as you stare at your blank screen or nurse the idea niggling in the back of your brain, take a moment and ask what story needs life. It might be exactly what you want to write or something completely different. But either way, respect its right to life because someone, somewhere needs to read it.

Felicia Ferguson achieved master’s degrees in Healthcare Administration and Speech-Language Pathology, but has written since childhood. An award-winning freelance writer, she has previously published devotions with Christian Devotions and Inkspirations, written articles for VIE magazine, and guest blogged on multiple websites. But her greatest writing love is contemporary Southern women’s fiction.