By Robin Densmore Fuson

My mind whirls with story. You might say that is expected for a fiction writer. Unfortunately, there can be times when I feel like I fell through a trapdoor that dropped me into the middle of the Sahara with miles and miles of dry land with nothing to feed my inner thirst for color and beauty. Dry spells for a writer are frightening and can be deadly.

Prompts can be helpful for overcoming a blank mind, devoid of imagery, and fill it with color and delight. There are websites where we can find story prompts or use ChatGPT for ideas. I also learned to view the world for prompts. God’s creation is a great stimulant for devotion writing. People watching can get the creative juices to flow.

Also, I can use those times of barrenness for deep spiritual discussions and request guidance from the Lord. After all, He is the One who gave me this desire to tell stories and write in the first place.

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One such time, the Lord showed me that He desired I change direction from writing children’s books to writing for adults. I thought my one “adult” story was an actual one-off, and I would go back to writing for children, but the Lord had other ideas. Fourteen books later and two websites reaching all over the world are proof His plan is always the best.

I thank the Lord I’m rarely plagued by writer’s block and have learned what to do if the void creeps in, robbing me of story.

Now, not only do I write fiction for children and adults, but my writing includes devotions and Bible lessons. Some of my devotions I turn into videos and am blessed beyond measure to speak for women’s events.

For this reason, I dive into many genres, causing my mind to zip in and out of those worlds. I want to be authentic and accurate to each genre and to every character, so research is critical. Exploring the invention of ice cream for my character Marian to enjoy her first taste in The Dress Shop. Or when automobiles traversed the streets west of the Mississippi River for another story. In other books I described my experience of riding in a helicopter and, because of research, took my readers high into a hot air ballon.

My parents used to live in Alaska, and I used my firsthand experiences there for some character adventures of a boat ride and an overnight stay in the Bush for the story for Restoration. In that book, Rebecca had a BFF who used a lot of slang and I needed accuracy through the decades of 80s, 90s and 2000s. That’s where my teenage granddaughter was invaluable and gave welcomed advice.

I stepped into 1776 and the War for Independence to write Reflection in Glass. There was so much to discover. Dog breeds and clothes. Weapons and spies. Authentic phrases, words, and places.

In my latest release, See You In 48, we crawl into the mind of a serial killer. His diabolical actions killed his victims in bizarre ways. To name a few, I researched acids, man lifts, snakes, bathtubs, chandeliers, pulleys, peanut allergies, locations, the jail in Durango, and I talked to a building contractor. DNA results take time to get back to the lab. It’s not instant like on TV, and that detail needed to be considered for the storyline of every forty-eight hours to work. I dove into detective and cop talk by watching real-life crime shows.

I am in the middle of writing a new genre—dual timeline. The story emerges in three-fold—present day, a hundred and fourteen years ago, and through a diary. The present-day timeline surrounds the reporter Jalyn and her investigation into the identity of a well-preserved body from 1911 discovered in a cave-in. By disparate and dangerous means, someone is discouraging her from uncovering secrets. The diaries are from Jalyn’s great grandmother, Estelle, who records her thoughts and feelings in her tragic life. The third prong is Estelle experiencing danger at the hand of others during the flood of 1911.

One moment I’m in present day forensics, cell phones, speech, and circumstances with a mystery to solve. Then in the next scene, I fall back to 1911 for the other side of the coin and use speech, clothes, weapons, means of transportation, and medicine in the tragedy unfolding. The diary is in first person. Each section needs to be the voice of time as well as the individual characters.

While writing one tragic scene, Estelle from 1911 referred to a quote, and I stopped writing to make sure it was legit for her time. No worries, Tennyson wrote it way before her twenty-two-year-old life. My characters bug me when they do that. I need to stop writing and research to make sure everything is all right. Most writers keep writing to get the story on paper and fix those things in edits. It niggles at my mind, pulling me out of the thought at hand, until I determine if it works or not, before I can continue. That might have to do with my temperament. I’m an extrovert sensory feeler organizer or ESFJ for short.

I invest time figuring temperament and personality for my characters. I keep an emotion thesaurus handy as well as Merrium-Webster’s dictionary and thesaurus open on the computer.

In waltzes the male character. They take over real estate as insignificant participants or critical drivers of the story. Some of my stories are told in the male perspective. Lasso Love opens in Wesley’s first-person voice while his love interest, Eliza, is in third-person.

Writing main male characters can be tricky. Questions arise. Do men talk that way? How do they think or act? The actions of males are easy to write because I observe them, but I have no clue how they think. My husband is my first reader of everything I write. After each writing session, I ask him to read. His opinion matters, especially insight into the male character.

All of this happens daily for me to enrich my characters and storyline for you, my dear reader.

Thanks for going on this adventure with me.

Robin recently moved to Sugarmill Woods, Florida with her husband Jimmy and their Belgian Malinois, Kenzi. She and her husband celebrate with an overflowing cup of blessings with seventeen grandchildren. An award winner for romance and flash fiction, Robin is multi-published in both fiction and non-fiction and has written well over a hundred stories on her blog for children. Two of her novellas are finalists in the 2020 Selah awards. Her historical and contemporary romances, and Christian women’s fiction, are wrapped around a twist of intrigue. The Rosita Valdez series for children lends itself to a character-building lesson through an adventure. Robin is a member of Word Weavers International, ACFW, and John316 Marketing Network. Robin loves company and challenging her young guests to discover the many giraffes in the obvious and hidden nooks and crannies of their home.