By Patti Richards
When someone asks me what inspires me as a children’s author, I think about what pushes me to spend
the majority of each day writing. I’ve been a writer for so long now that it really is who I am rather than just what I do; and it is intrinsically woven into my faith. So much so that it’s impossible to see where one thing ends and the other begins.
Because I write for both the mainstream and the Christian market, I’ve honestly never thought of myself as a Christian writer. I am a Christ follower who is a freelance author/writer, and my faith informs everything I do. If I cannot separate who I am from what I do, then I cannot put my faith and my work in separate boxes. For me, it just doesn’t work that way.
So that means that each story I write has a God-spark in it somewhere. Stories like my most-recent picture book release, MRS. NOAH (Little Lamb Books, October 2021) is based around a well-known Bible story but with a twist. While my story, Cupine’s Perfect Dance is all about seeing yourself as God sees you and appreciating all the gifts you bring to the world. I also enjoy writing about nature because I see God’s hand in every detail of creation. Last year I sold a poem to a children’s magazine about the changing of the seasons and how animals and people get ready for winter. And I’m currently working on a piece about trees that grow from nuts and how everything the tree needs to become what it’s supposed to be is contained in the nut you hold in your hand. No matter the market, I want everything I write to be a reflection of God at work in the world.
Not every idea (God whisper) that comes into my head and heart becomes a sellable story. Sometimes those ideas are meant only as exercises to hone my craft and strengthen my faith. My first attempt at novel writing was loosely based on an experience I had as a teenager with two people that I loved most in the world at the time. They both hurt me deeply, and I had to find a way through that experience and it was hard.
I had stuffed those feelings away in a corner of my heart for a long time, and suddenly, when I was around 40, they all came spilling out in a draft of a middle grade novel. After I got the first draft down, I shared it with my then critique group and my very best friend. It was raw and awful in all the ways that a first draft should be. And once I’d shared it with people I trusted, it was as if the need to do anything else with it vanished. I still have it saved on my computer and I’ll never delete it, but I also know that I’ll never revise it or submit it. The whisper came, the words came, the process of being vulnerable and open with others happened, and I came away from that experience able to move forward and leave a big part of that hurt behind me for the first time ever. God used that process to grow me as a person and as a writer, and that was a great gift.
So, what inspires me to write the stories I write? When you see the miraculous in the everyday, you never have to wait long for the next idea!
Writing inspiration can come from the most unlikely places when we look for the miraculous in the everyday and listen for the “God whisper.” @pattigrichards #ACFWBlogs #writetip #critiques #ACFWCommunity Share on X
Writer, teacher, mother, wife, Patti Richards has spent more than 30 years spinning yarns and telling tales. From children’s books and magazines to web content, Patti spends her days writing words that speak hope, love and joy into the lives of her readers. She lives in Farmington Hills, Michigan.