• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sandhenge Publications

Jim Potter, Author

  • About the Author
  • Author Blog
    • Sign Up for Jim’s Posts
  • Podcast
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact the Author
  • Check Book Reviews
  • Sign Up to Receive Blog Posts
  • All Books
  • Listen to the Blog Podcast

Seeds to Sow: Questions to Ask

September 13, 2017 by Jim Potter Leave a Comment

Share this blog post

Email
Share
Tweet
(To listen to the audio of this blog post, use the purple play button.)


 

·  Questions to Ask  ·

Recently, in a Hutchinson News article, there was a story about a long-time bar being forced to close due to dwindling customer support.

The owner was sharing a lot of memories with the reporter, but there was one that I knew immediately would fit into many a novel, maybe one of mine.

Surprise! It’s not a drunken fight scene.

The owner recalled how when she and all her female employees took the night off to attend an event, they left a few male employees in charge at the watering hole.

Here’s the rest of the story as reported by Adam Stewart. The owner “left three big, burly men to tend bar and wait tables in their absence, dressed as waitresses.” When the owner “got back to Vic’s, she found the bartenders dancing, singing karaoke and buying tequila shots to share with any money they got in tips, which customers found to be a laugh riot.

“The place was packed!” the owner recalled.

Now, if you were writing a novel, wouldn’t it be fun to incorporate a story like this into your plot? It could easily turn into an exciting chapter.

I take information like this and then begin asking “What if?” questions. For example, What if, when the owner returned, all the money in the cash register was missing? Who would be a suspect? Would the thief be caught? Would the burly-men waitresses be fired?

Since the news is often about catastrophes, it’s no surprise to hear or read about all kinds of fatal accidents.

One of my little clippings is titled: “Man dies after being hit by train in Wichita.” The brief story informs the reader that the man was hit early in the morning by a Burlington Northern train traveling about 25 mph.

Police commented that the deceased had been identified. He was “apparently sleeping on the tracks when the train hit him.”

When I read this, I want to know about people sleeping on railroad tracks.

I want to know why the man didn’t wake up before he was hit. Or did he?

Yeah, he might have been ill, or drunk, or he might have been suicidal, but how do you definitively prove anything?

In my novel, I might show how the police officer, reluctantly taking the report, is being forced to deal with one more dead body during his PTSD career.

To add a layer of tension, maybe the officer has just returned to work after burying a loved one, or the train’s engineer doesn’t seem to care about the fatality.

The officer and engineer could easily clash.

If I wanted to inform the reader about poverty, homelessness, and the lack of affordable housing, then I’d have the officer interviewing the victim’s friends at a soup kitchen and have him attempting to locate surviving family members.

I might show an emotional scene of the officer informing the parents of their son’s death. (Had they kicked him out of the house the night before?) There are so many possibilities!

Where would you take this story?

Until next time, happy writing and reading!

Share this blog post

Email
Share
Tweet

Related

Reader Interactions

Comment Form: Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Jim Potter, Author

author

Recent Posts

  • Publishing My Children’s Book in Six Months: Cover Reveal
  • Publishing My Children’s Book in Six Months: Designer’s Proof
  • Publishing My Children’s Book in Six Months: Sequel
  • Publishing My Children’s Book in Six Months: Promotion
  • Publishing My Children’s Book in Six Months: Collaboration

Post Archives

Testimonials

Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a… Read more “Larry Kruckman, anthropologist”

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental… Read more “Morgan Penner”

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centers on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to… Read more “Sean McArdle, Winchester, England”

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller… Read more “Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist”

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters… Read more “John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement”

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Podcast Listening Options

Footer

Follow Jim on Facebook

Follow Jim on Facebook

Interviews with Jim Potter

Video interview with James Lowe outside Bookends Bookstore July 21, 2022

Print interview with author Bill Bush September 1, 2022

Print interview with author Cheryl Unruh February 28, 2019

Hutchinson Magazine Article

Copyright © 2023 Sandhenge Publications · Website by Rosemary Miller