We all use fiction as an escape from the stress and grind of our everyday lives. But what about the times real life is crazier than a song, wackier than any fiction? That can be just as good—as long as it’s someone else’s reality, of course.
There’s just something about knowing a scary story actually happened to someone that adds a little more thrill to the experience, like the police procedurals and medical dramas that advertise their episodes as “ripped from the headlines.” The only thing more frightening than the most terrifying story one can dream up, is knowing the terrifying story actually happened to someone.
Writers draw inspiration from all sorts of places—but for my debut thriller novel, The Better Mother, the idea came straight from a mother’s mouth (or, rather, her fingers—she typed it).
The Better Mother centers around thirty-four-year-old Savannah Mitchell., a messy but bright protagonist who’s struggling to get her life back on track after a devastating breakup. She has a short, casual fling with Max, a handsome guy she meets at a bar. Then the universe throws a wrench into the new smart, responsible adult life she was working so hard to build—she’s pregnant.
When she gets in touch to tell Max, she gets even more bad news—he’s just gotten back together with his ex, Madison. Max wants to be a part of his child’s life and form a friendly co-parenting relationship with Savannah, but he insists on being honest with his girlfriend and letting her be involved too.
As Savannah tries to keep the peace and get along with Madison, frightening things begin happening, and her life starts to unravel. She suspects Madison is behind it all, and isn’t actually as supportive of the co-parenting idea as she makes herself out to be, but she’s having trouble proving it.
It’s a story that I hope readers find suspenseful, action-packed, and tense—especially when they learn it’s all based on a supposedly real story.
Back in early 2023, I was working on my first stab at a novel, a multi-POV romance, and I wasn’t sure my concept was working. Plus, I knew what I really wanted to write was a thriller. I kept plugging away at my romance, but also kept my eyes peeled for a thriller idea that would really speak to me. And that’s when I saw it.
Reddit’s “Am I The A$$hole” forum is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. The drama, the whining, the takedowns by the commenters when the OP (original poster) is in the wrong—it’s just delicious. Why? Like I said—as long as it’s not our reality, it makes for juicy entertainment.
I came across a post by a woman who had just discovered she was pregnant with twins after a brief relationship with a man—a man who, in the time since the fling had ended, had gotten back together with and married his ex.
The pregnant woman appealed to the Reddit masses, asking if she was in the wrong for being put out by the new wife’s behavior. According to her post, the wife appeared to want to take control of her pregnancy and ultimately raise her child like it was her own.
The wife was trying to control everything the OP ate and what she did in her free time, and wanted to attend all doctor’s appointments. She went so far as to say she would prefer one girl and one boy (as if OP had any control over that), and even threw herself a baby shower, as the “mother-to-be.” Unsurprisingly, this behavior drove the OP to slowly lose her mind, and feel like she was being treated as an unwilling surrogate.
One of the best parts of the AITA forums is when the OP later returns and updates their post to let readers know what has happened in the meantime. In her follow-up, the OP said she had tried to take many commenters’ advice and draw healthy boundaries with the wife, but things had continued to escalate. Readers with some legal knowledge encouraged her to move and establish a new residence far away in another state before the babies were born and the courts could get involved. But when the wife learned of these plans, she attacked the OP at her place of employment. The last update, posted a few years ago now, indicated that with that proof of violence, the OP was finally able to get restraining orders against the father and his wife.
As far as entertainment value goes, I was salivating. I knew I had discovered the basis for my thriller.
The Better Mother draws on many aspects of the AITA post. I won’t drop any spoilers, but a few of the specific things the wife did to the pregnant mother appear in the book. Of course, I made it my own, by focusing on backstories and motivations. I asked myself, what would drive Savannah (the pregnant woman) to put up with Madison’s (the wife’s) treatment of her for so long? What would make Madison think she could take over another woman’s pregnancy—and why would she want to? You’ll learn my dreamed-up answers to these and other questions, and I hope you find them shocking.
It’s true—sometimes, nothing is scarier than real life. Sometimes all we need to do is turn on the TV (or fire up the Reddit app) and we’ll find stories that are more frightening than anything we could ever dream up. Inspiration truly is all around us.
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