I don't do that. I write mysteries. There are recognizable places, bits from my own life no one seems to spot, puzzles and social issues. Nothing is very violent or very gruesome. I
don’t intend to scare my readers, but I do sometimes scare myself.
A scary thought for the writer is the possibility that the skills are not up to the subject. That is much
scarier than any suspenseful scene you could write. If you don’t challenge yourself then you are writing the same
book over and over. True, there
could be a reason for that. It could be laziness but it is likely to be an
editor or agent you says, “Give the reader what worked before. Why mess with
success?”
For many writers, though, taking a leap in a new book is the
way to stay interested. Stretching
those writing muscles is as important as stretching the physical ones. (Maybe more important) It’s scary. That
is good.
For me, just getting the first few books in the Brooklyn
series written was enough of a challenge. My books are about neighborhoods and
the people who live there, the history, issues and changes unique to each place.
The first, Brooklyn Bones, was
about my own neighborhood. I had
it covered. The second, Brooklyn Graves, was about a famous place, not far, and
easily researched. I had that covered too.
For Brooklyn Secrets, the third? Ah. Another situation entirely. I wanted to write about a neighborhood
where I used to work. It has a surprising history and I soon realized I could not
write it without also writing about the neighborhood in the present. But could
I do it?
My time working there was decades ago. The library where I worked was then
closed for renovation, so a visit was not possible. It is, and was, a tough,
poor neighborhood, a culture not
my own, and not easy to research. Newspaper stories told me it had not changed much
from when I worked there, but nothing told me how it felt. I didn’t know if I
could do it and it wasn’t worth doing if I could not do it well. Could I portray a more complex
world than outsiders usually see? I grew anxious each time I drove near it on
the way to other places. There were some sleepless nights. I was scared the whole time I was
writing it.
The next book, Brooklyn Wars, was about a famous place, the
Brooklyn Navy Yard, and it was scary for a different reason. There was so much
to tell, the history was so rich, could I select the right pieces to both tell
a compelling mystery story and
also convey some of the flavor of the place and some of the stories of the
people who worked there? It was a
challenge every writing day.
Now I am immersed in a neighborhood with even more history,
and it is even harder to line it up into a story. I know this one, I even lived there many years ago, but there
is a religious element added to the usual political issues and it can’t be ignored. Or at least I can’t ignore
it. Can I write it fairly? Honestly? With some complexity?
Doing what scares us is how we get better at this writing
game. I will be reminding myself every day until the first draft is done.
