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July 21, 2014

Leverage Our Writing Assets


By Steve Bradshaw


Writers are born—at all ages. We come from every part of the planet with our unique knowledge base, skillsets and perceptions that forever influence our view of all the universe has to offer. Although we are different in many ways, we are connected by the insatiable desire to tell a meaningful and worthwhile story—sooner or later. Although there are numerous factors that come into play, I believe a big part of our writing success is determined by how we leverage our unique assets.

Each day I pound my keyboard alone with my thoughts and dreams and objectives. I make huge withdrawals from my private-world depository and attempt to find the perfect words to create the perfect sentence to build the perfect paragraph that grows into the perfect chapter. I strive to erect the perfect plot, produce the perfect characters, forge the perfect conflicts, hatch the perfect cliffhangers, and bring into existence the perfect resolutions to give rise to the perfect novel. I gather my ideas like a man chasing a thousand butterflies with a tiny net. Most are never caught. Some flutter away for another day. Many die in my net or are horribly damaged in the process. But when I’m lucky, I find the perfect specimens that become the miracles from which my stories are born.

Leveraging one’s assets is like catching perfect butterflies. We all have them, but before we can leverage them we must know those relevant to our writing career. For example, my road to writing traversed fascinating worlds I now draw upon. I was the youngest forensic field agent in Texas history to investigate over three-thousand unexplained deaths. I also developed new medical technology with FORTUNE 500 companies advancing healthcare around the world. And I was a founder-president/CEO of a game-changing biotech company. I raised millions of dollars and developed new age medical devices. Just these life experiences alone provide an unlimited supply of butterflies relevant to my mystery/thriller writing career.

When I leverage my assets correctly, I write stories that draw upon my life experiences that will take my audience to places where I am the profound expert. With me they have a unique opportunity to go where they’ve never been, to see and feel what they would never experience. Because I personally controlled horrific death scenes and was on teams hunting real monsters, I have mountains of information to weave into the stories I create.

Because I controlled powerful boardrooms shaping business plans and futures in our modern world, I have intimate knowledge of people, technology, and business dynamics. I leverage these knowledge-assets when I create fascinating characters and define ground breaking science, and when I shine light on world changing concepts moving from theory to practice at great risk, and when opportunity for enormous success turns into a horrible catastrophe.  


Knowing our assets and using them effectively in our writing can increase the value of our stories because people listen to experts. They lose interest when we don’t know what we are talking about. We must know our fields of expertise. We must leverage the abounding assets that create unique experiences within our stories. If we do it well, we attract and build audience.  
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Steve BradshawForensic Investigator, Biotechnology Entrepreneur, Author—received his BA at the University of Texas, trained at the Institute of Forensic Sciences, and investigated 3,000 unexplained deaths. His career with FORTUNE 500s, and as founder-president/CEO of an innovative biomedical company, introduced advanced medical technology improving healthcare around the world. Now, Steve draws upon his experiences in fascinating worlds of biotechnology breakthroughs and the forensic pursuit of real monsters. Steve’s debut novel BLUFF CITY BUTCHER is a 2013 Darrell Award finalist—best science fiction, mystery/thriller in MidSouth. The second book of the Bell Trilogy, THE SKIES ROARED, releases July 2013 is a Darrell Award finalist for 2014. WEBSITES & BLOG www.stevebradshawauthor.com http://blog.stevebradshawauthor.com www.stevebradshawshow.com  SOCIAL NETWORK LINKS https://www.facebook.com/steve.bradshaw.9400   https://twitter.com/sbauthor 

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