WRITING YOUR PASSION
by Trish Jensen
In previous blogs I’ve argued for writing what you don’t know and writing what you know. Here’s a slightly different angle: writing your passion.
Here’s what I mean. Several years ago my long-time friend and critique partner watched me get down on the floor and lavish her new puppy with love. She was already well aware that I’m a fanatical animal lover, to the extent that at one point that when my then significant other said we couldn’t afford all of the bird feed I had on the grocery list, I told him, “Fine, don’t buy my milk, then, and use it to buy the bird feed.” I’m a milk guzzler. Alone I go through at least two gallons a week. So giving up milk in favor of watching the birds happily munch sunflower seed in my back yard will give you a hint of the lengths I’ll go to for any animals, including my spoiled brat black lab Cassie, whose weekly grocery bill easily doubles mine.
But getting back to the point, Sandra was watching me lavish love on her dog when she said, “You need to write a dog book.”
“Huh?”
“You need to write a book where the hero or heroine is involved with animals. A vet, a 
dog sitter, whatever. In fact, I read this article the other day about a dog spa.”
I instantly perked up. And my mind went to work. And Against His Will was born. A hardened, leery FBI guy inherits his aunt’s stubborn English Bulldog and is forced according to the terms of the will to take the brat mutt with an attitude to a dog spa run by, of all things, a certified Animal Psychologist.
He’s so sure it’s a scam, and that this woman has been scamming his beloved aunt for years that he’s actually looking forward to it, so he can expose this quack and shut her operation down for good. After all, that’s what he does. And what she deserves.
But when he gets there, his world is turned upside down, which kind of happens to be my modus operandi when it comes to my heroes. And then her world is turned upside down when his dangerous world intrudes on the serenity of hers.
The point being, though, is that Sandra hit it on the head by telling me to write my passion. Mine happens to be animals. There are tons of books about knitting (I tried that, I really did, but couldn’t even finish a scarf without dropping stitches at least once every couple of rows), music, painting, sailing, whatever. You can always tell when it’s an author’s passion.
So I write what I don’t know, write what I know, and write what I’m passionate about. Next time? Writing what I do and don’t know and what I’m passionate about all at once. Being Southern. : )
