Brave Writing by K.S. Moore
Brave Writing
As writers, I believe we’re called to not only tell a rollicking good story but also to use our narrative, our characters, and our gifts to inspire. Our readers ought to feel better, be better, and live better because they felt our words and took them to heart. The world should be a better place because our story came alive for our readers and still burns in their hearts long after the last page is turned or swiped.
The inspiration for The Bravest Among Us came when my adventure-seeking husband bought a motorcycle. But the story also includes a great deal of my own experiences: growing up poor, a devastating sense of not belonging in high school, and a lifelong struggle with self-doubt. Even now, I wonder if I am enough to have written and published this book.
Needless to say, my husband and I had a serious conversation about the motorcycle, and he assured me he had no intention of riding it. He simply wanted to fix it up and resell it, make some money. He promised he wouldn’t even register the thing. Still uncomfortable with the idea, I wrote a short story about what it would do to our family if he were to get injured or killed riding that motorcycle.
A few years later, I took that short story and turned it into The Bravest Among Us. A broken-hearted widow seemed like a good beginning for a starting-over love story.
Part Casa Blanca, part Hillbilly Elegy, and with underlying themes of self-doubt, shame, and the war on poverty, the Bravest Among Us is a work of romantic women’s fiction about three unlikely heroes with a heart for kids in crisis. Devastated by her husband’s death, will my heroine dare to love again? Or will she finally pursue her lifelong dream to become a public defender, the warrior for social justice she’s always longed to be? And which man has what it takes to join her daring quest—her wrongly convicted ex-con teenage crush or the up-and-coming actor with a questionable reputation?
With every story, we writers put ourselves out there. It takes a great deal of courage and confidence. We must constantly tell ourselves we’re enough to write the story that’s in our hearts. Editors often comment, “This will offend,”—in my work, anyway—and I’m reminded of something Oprah once said: “Do not think you can be brave with your life and your work and never disappoint anyone. It doesn’t work that way.”
Am I risking a negative review or two (or God forbid, many)? Maybe, but if only one of my readers signs up to mentor an inner-city kid this fall, I’ll know my story meant something because at least one at-risk child has a chance at a better life.
And that makes being brave totally worth it.
“To inspire, comfort, and breathe faith and hope . . .”
An avid lifelong reader, I consume at least a book or two a week. When I’m not working, reading, or writing, I spend my free time enjoying the outdoors with my family, mostly at our home on a small lake in Southwest Michigan, occasionally visiting a rustic hunting cabin in Colorado and every once in a while, when we’re blessed with the means, a vacation in the Caribbean.
My stories are contemporary character-driven tales of ordinary everyday people and the challenges we all face in life: love, friendship, parenthood, morality, mortality, compassion, and faith. My favorite novels are those that reach down deep, wrap up my whole heart and soul, and make me laugh, and cry. And those are the types of stories I strive to write. I want to touch people’s lives. I want my readers to feel better, be better, and live better because they read my words and take them to heart.
Through my words, I endeavor to inspire, comfort, and breathe faith and hope into anyone who may despair that they’re alone in this world.
Website / Blog: KathrynSueMoore.com
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