Kelli Estes is the USA Today bestselling author of The Girl Who Wrote in Silk, which has been translated into eleven languages, was the recipient of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Nancy Pearl Book Award and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award, and is currently under option for film/TV; and Today We Go Home, a nationwide Target Book Club pick. Kelli is passionate about stories that show how history is still relevant to our lives today. Her lifelong love of Scotland has her learning the Scottish Gaelic language and the Scottish fiddle (both badly, but she’s working on it). She has walked three of Scotland’s long-distance trails (so far) and is currently planning the next. Kelli lives in Washington State with her husband and two sons.

One of my favorite writing tips is to make a list of everything you’re obsessed with right now and incorporate as much of that into your new manuscript as possible (when it makes sense). This will keep you engaged in the story and will add layers of interest for your readers. My lists have included random topics such as tea, the ocean, walking, the color pink, harbor seals, madrona trees, and yoga. It’s fun to read a book that exposes us to a hobby, occupation, or experience that we’ve never had any interaction with. It’s those immersive details that makes a reader forget the real world and get lost in the story world.

It is possible, however, to go too far. Put too much of your “thing” into your story and you risk losing your readers entirely with confusion, boredom, or even annoyance. If you’ve ever read a book with so much technical or industry-specific jargon that you felt lost, or if you were pulled out of a story with long passages of exposition, or you felt like the author was hitting you on the head with something that didn’t further the plot in any way, then you’ll know what too much looks like.

My current obsession is the Scottish Gaelic language, which I’ve been learning for the past three years. As I watched the last season of Outlander, I was delighted to find that I understood everything the characters say in Gaelic. I hope to similarly delight my own readers familiar with Gaelic when they read Smoke on the Wind, and I hope to ignite a curiosity in others to learn more. But let’s be honest here, very few readers will have interest in this language. So why include it at all? Couldn’t I have simply written the story entirely in English and implied that the character was speaking Gaelic? Sure, but I think it is important to show respect to the language and culture by including it on the page, and I think it portrays a more realistic depiction of my character’s life and experience.

But I knew I was walking a fine line between what is interesting and what pulls the reader out of the story. Even though I could hear my character’s voice speaking in Gaelic and I wanted to get nerdy composing those sentences on the page, I had to remember that the reader would not understand a word she was saying. Instead, I made it clear that my character is thinking and speaking in Gaelic, but the bulk of the story is written in English with only exclamations and terms of endearment in Gaelic when the reader can infer the meaning without knowing the literal translation. I also included Gaelic place names in chapter headings followed by the English name to expose the reader to more Gaelic and to give the story an authentic feel while still allowing readers to know what is going on. They can ignore these place name headings if they choose.

Is that still too much? It’s difficult to say. A few early readers have reported that the first chapter is a little daunting with all the Gaelic words and unfamiliar character names, but they keep reading and it quickly stops being a problem. I hope the glossary at the back of the book and on my website helps. Perhaps only time will tell as more readers give it a go and share their reviews.

How can you know if you’re putting too much of your random obsession into your writing? How can you find the right balance between sharing what is unique and interesting and turning a reader off? It’s difficult to know for certain, but consider these tips:

1. Remember that it is okay to challenge your readers a bit. Let them look up a foreign word or give themselves permission to not understand. Some of the best novels teach us something we didn’t previously know.

2. Only include your random obsession in your writing if it makes sense to the story and does not feel forced in any way. If it requires too much explanation, diverts from the plot, or slows pacing, leave it out.

3. Keep use of a foreign language to terms of endearment, exclamations, curses, and other dialogue whose meaning can be inferred and, if not inferred, when nothing of the storytelling will be lost.

4. Ask these questions: Can you give your random obsession to a main character? Does this interest make the character more well-rounded and intriguing? Does it influence the plot at all, or is it distracting?

5. Explain jargon and acronyms where appropriate or leave them out. When explaining something, have one character explain it to another character who is not part of that world. Avoid “as you know, Bob” situations where one character explains something to another character who should already know that information. If the explanation becomes too long or too pedantic, rewrite or consider cutting the term altogether.

6. Ask a beta reader who does not share your random obsession to read your manuscript and give you feedback on any areas that felt like the “thing” was losing the reader. Revise accordingly.

7. Consider including information in the front or back of the book or on your website where readers can learn more about the interest.

It can be difficult to know if you’re putting too much of your random obsession into your writing. Do the tips discussed above and write a story that you love. In the end, all you can do is trust that the right readers will love it, too.

Smoke on the Wind

Smoke on the Wind by Kelli Estes

After her marriage comes to a tragic end, Keaka Denney embarks on a hike through the Scottish Highlands with her son, Colin, before he goes off to college in Glasgow. But a simple hike becomes a supernatural experience when Keaka begins having visions of Sorcha Chisholm, a woman from the year 1801 fleeing from her recent eviction and murder charge on the same route that Keaka and Colin are traversing. Keaka and Sorcha’s love for their sons transcends centuries, and they rely on each other more and more to protect their own as the lines between past and present begin to blur.

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