Writing True to You

    Most of us begin an author’s life b/c we cannot not! We must write! We love words -the power, the ideas, images, adventures, communication with other humans. Some of us love the kinesthetics of writing, typing, speaking our created or favored phrases, names, places, actions and dialogue of characters.

    Perhaps we once learned that our writings humored, informed, inspired others. Oh, the thrill! We discovered the pride of a gifting and the power of the gift. 

    If and when we moved into the maze of publishing and marketing, we may have been dissuaded from writing from our hearts, our souls, to writing for profit. Or perhaps we still struggle to precisely, eloquently express our view, and feel left in the dust by those rushing to publication. 

    Truth is, every writer longs to be profitable doing the thing we love. Is it also valuable to write truly for you?

Do you find yourself on an inward search to learn what you have to bring to the conversation of the genre in which you excel? Do you consider what is generally being spoken to your niche audience-for your own response? Or do you quickly jump on the current bandwagon to get a piece of that pie? Are you enjoying the craft as an expression of yourself and the opportunity to connect with your audience? Or do you spend your writing hours primarily to please an agent, to secure influence and a paycheck? To whom are you most true?

    Linda Castillo is a prolific author originally from West Central Ohio. After working in local hometown jobs after high school, she began writing romances. She honed her writing skills and for a decade she churned out two to three romance novels each year for a major Romance publisher, 23 in total. 

    “I was always interested in and curious about stories of crime, but the romance industry paid well and kept me busy,” she noted at an author’s lecture in Arcanum, Ohio, early 2010s.

    One autumn, she returned from her current home in Texas to visit family in Ohio and traveled the Amish area. She was struck with the idea of marrying crime stories to the usual plain and peaceful Amish narrative.  She developed Kate Burkholder, Amish girl-become-police chief and produced a crime thriller series of 23 novels and short stories, her latest published in 2022. Castillo has won numerous writing awards for the mystery and crime genre and had one of her books made into a movie, starring Neve Campbell.

    Castillo would say she has written for profit but is more profitable today writing what is most true to her passion.