By Peny McGinnis @PennyFMcGinnis

I might not share this with many people, but I feel safe spilling my secret in the writing community.

Something unexpected happens when I open my laptop, call up Scrivener, and type. My storyline takes on the appearance of a curvy road in the mountains instead of a straight path through the desert. Why? Because my characters speak to me while I tell their story. I know it sounds like I’m hearing voices in my head, and I am, but these voices have something important to say. Like real people, instead of figments of my imagination, they have opinions, preferences, and words. Yes, words they want me to write. 

Generally I allow for flow and natural direction when I write, but sometimes the characters change their mind midstream. I think I have figured out the next scene, then I hear one of them clear their throat before they flip the path of the story sideways. Granted they don’t speak every word to me, but they do have input to the point, I learned to listen. Why do I let the characters direct the story? Because God knows the path I need to follow and He speaks through them, because He knows the hearts of not just me, the writer, but the readers.

In my debut novel, Home Where She Belongs, I pictured the heroine, Sadie, as a downtrodden, broken woman who needed rescued, until I heard her whole story. Yes, she is broken and her messy life crumbles around her, but she refuses to back down. Her inner strength rises from the page as she moves forward with the plans she has made. Sadie chooses to leave people behind, her ex-boyfriend, a toxic narcissist, and her overbearing father. She develops her own voice, which spoke to me and reminded me of the strength it took for her to move back to Abbott Island where she had spent summers with her beloved grandparents. Although they had passed away, she embraces the opportunity they left her to grow and find peace. Sadie’s voice rose over my own as she revealed her story.

The hero, Joel, seemed like the perfect guy, until he whispered his story to me. What seemed like the spotless life on the outside, covered the hurt he bore on the inside. As a police officer on Abbott Island, he loves helping other people. The problem though, he buries his own feelings in order to serve his community.

Home Where She Belongs is my second novel, but first to be published. In both books, the characters voices grew louder and stronger the more I wrote. I consider myself a partner with my characters. The story belongs to them and God uses me as the instrument.

A few key pieces to listening to your characters:

• Ask them what their heart desires.
• Ask what has hurt them and who has loved them.
• I can’t assume I know my characters any better than a person I’ve just met. I need to spend time with them, learning all I can about their past and present.
• Ask the character if they are learning anything new as the story progresses. That helps create the story arc.
• Write out some backstory that may never show up in the book, but will show where the characters came from.
• Pay attention to the interaction between characters. Do they like each other, or am I making them get along? Is there a conflict they need to resolve?
• People aren’t perfect, neither are characters. Let them show their flaws.
• Finally, allow God to open your heart to the story He wants you to tell. He knows who the readers will be and how the hero and heroine, and bad guy or gal will affect the reader.

Whether you plot and outline or write by the seat of your pants, give your characters voice, let them speak and tell their story. You might be surprised by what you hear.

If Penny Frost McGinnis could live in a lighthouse or on an island, she would. Instead, she and her husband are content to live in southwest Ohio and visit Lake Erie every chance they get. She adores her family and dogs, indulges in dark chocolate, enjoys fiber arts, and grows flowers and herbs in her tiny garden. Visit her blog at Hope for Today’s Heart, where she brings God’s hope to people’s lives through the written word. Home Where She Belongs, Penny’s debut novel, will be published May 1, 2022 with Mt. Zion Ridge Press.