How do you write what people actually want to read?

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I don’t write what is trending or what people want to read. I write what God gives me to write. I write what I want to read.

When I first started writing many years ago, I saw that most of what people wrote, wasn’t what I wanted to read. Books trended to smut and gore. Everything seemed to be about sex and if it wasn’t about sex it was about crime with lots of explosive gore mixed in. It didn’t matter what genre it was, all of them had sex and gore in them. I didn’t want that. So, I started writing what I wanted to read, something that echoed my faith and left a satisfied aftertaste when I finished the book.

Today, I have thirteen books published in several genres – Historical, Mystery, Science Fiction, and books that defy genres. They have a little bit of everything, but the one thing you won’t find in my books is explicit sex.

One thing all my books do is show the love of Jesus in a way that doesn’t make it preachy, but makes it something a person can dig into. I show lives – real lives. I do my best to show people how they really are. My goal in writing is for the reader to look at my characters and not tell themselves people don’t act that way. People don’t think that way. My books are filled with realistic characters – flawed characters. Characters who need redemption. Not in a preachy in your face Jesus Saves redemption plot, but in a normal life situation where people are people who need help and guidance on their journey through life.

Do I write what people want to read? I hope so. But more, I write what I want to read.

Do you write what people want to read? Thanks for reading. The image was taken at a Winter market where several members of the Writer’s Guild I belong to offered their books to the public.