Thursday, March 14, 2019

The Writer as Magpie


LUCY BURDETTE: Remember I was asking for help with a Friends of the Key West library talk about writing a series a few weeks ago? It all went smashingly well, and I used lots of your comments. So thank you!

One of the things I wanted to talk to them about was how writers are like magpies, picking up characters and scenes and sentences wherever we go, from whatever we hear. The example I used was something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago and I thought you’d enjoy it too.

To set the scene, I was late for my appointment at the gym. I ran downstairs to get on my bike and discovered it was raining. John had the car that day, so I dashed back upstairs, got my raincoat, slapped on my helmet, and rode like the wind up the island. Two blocks from the gym, I glanced in my little rearview mirror and noticed flashing lights. They couldn’t be for me…

But I stopped peddling and turned to watch a tall police officer emerge from the driver side, and a smaller one out of the passenger. “Are you looking for me?” (A little old lady. On a bicycle. In the rain.)

“Yes,” the tall man said without a smile. “Were you aware that you ran two stop signs? I first will ask whether there is any medical reason why you were in such a hurry?”

“I’ve got nothing. I was late for the gym,” I said.

He went on to talk about how Key West has one of the highest bicycle accident rates in the state of Florida and etc. etc. And he was absolutely right, and I’ve been more careful ever since. But all I could think about was whether I'd get arrested if I asked him to take a selfie with me. And how I had one humdinger of a scene for the next mystery…

Here’s what I’ve got so far for the opening of Key West food critic #10, Hayley Snow talking of course…


To whom does our island really belong? That’s what I found myself wondering as I sat on my scooter in the rain, late for my pricy personal trainer, attempting to cross a massive traffic jam on Eaton Street. Underneath the beads and the beer and the outdoor burgers and music on Duval Street where the tourists found their “happy place,“ there was a struggle for ownership. I’d seen this on Instagram and Facebook when I posted something especially beautiful about our little knob of coral. Outsiders craved a piece of paradise as much as the locals – the insiders—wanted them gone.
This week between Christmas and New Year’s, Key West was bursting at the seams. Even my general practitioner confessed that he wouldn’t leave his condo complex unless coming to work: he’d never seen the island this busy. People wouldn’t stop for anyone – on a bicycle, walking, on a scooter, in a car. Already since Monday there had been five accidents, including two couples airlifted to a Miami trauma center, outcomes unknown.
And that pointed to one of the drawbacks of living on a small island and getting sick, with the way to mainland being a four-hour drive to Miami. You could get by fine visiting local doctors with a garden variety cold or a few stitches or an eye exam, but detach a retina or bash your head on the pavement, and you had an expensive helicopter trip to Miami ahead of you.
Because of the congestion, I seemed to be running late for everything. I dashed through a slight break in the traffic and whizzed across Frances Street, nearly slamming into a golf cart loaded with tourists.
“Even in Key West, a stop sign is not a freaking suggestion,” I hollered. 
They waved their beer cans and hooted with laughter.
“Chill, baby,” the driver yelled back. “Anger isn’t an aphrodisiac.”
Idiots.
Several blocks later I noticed blue lights in my rearview mirror. It had to be Nathan. My new husband, a Key West police detective, who was not usually a prankster. But we’d had a little kerfuffle this morning and he’d stormed off mad. He must finally be getting over it and lightening up. I took off my helmet, fluffed my hair, blotted the skin under my eyes where my mascara had no doubt been pooling, and smiled warmly.
But it wasn’t Nathan who emerged from the cruiser, it was two police officers I did not know, one tall and lanky with a shaved head, the other shorter, with the smallest smirk on his face. He stood about ten feet away from the tall man and watched him approach my scooter.
Did you mean for me to stop?” I asked, feeling confused and annoyed.
Yes. Were you aware that you ran through that stop sign without even looking? Do you have a medical reason to be in a hurry?”
How should a person answer a question like that, if she isn’t nine months pregnant, and clutching her contracting belly, or staunching an obvious blood flow?
Maybe, give me the freaking ticket and let’s get on with it?

Nathan would be furious. 

Writers, can you point to a scene from your life that you used in a book? Readers, have you ever wondered whether a particular scene really happened?

58 comments:

  1. Lucy, I love how you turned your encounter with the police officers into such a great opening for Hayley’s next story.

    Until now, I’d never really thought to wonder if a scene in a story was something that had actually happened to the writer. Now I’ll know better . . . .

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  2. What a great opening. Inspired by a true story, even.

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    1. thanks Mark! Hopefully it stays put, as I have a lot more words to write:)

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  3. No, don't stop! I want to read more. Lucy, I love this series so much, and this opening is fantastic. Now I will be wondering if other scenes are based on events in your Key West life. Of course, you have certain characters based on real people, so why not have scenes rooted in reality, too. I want Haley Snow to go on forever.

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    1. Oh you're so sweet:). You can bet the key lime pie tastings are real...

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  4. Wait, when did Hayley get married? I must be behind!

    Off to rectify this horrible situation, tout suite.

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    1. You didn't miss anything yet Karen...she's supposed to get married in A DEADLY FEAST, coming May 7

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    2. Ooh..."supposed" to? And the suspense builds!

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  5. Perfect, Lucy! Of course bits of real life creep into my books in all kinds of ways, but they're usually more subtle. I wrote about that edgy overtired feeling my midwife had when she'd been up all night at a birth and still had a full day ahead of her - because I've experienced it. I've put the ugly insulting curl of the lip my ex-husband had into several not-so-pleasant characters. And so on!

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  6. Good one, Lucy! Very often I will read a scene that is so absolutely right I figure it must be based on someone's real experience.

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  7. I don't know that I've ever wondered if a scene in a book really happened. However, I did read a book a little while back called Dangerous Boys. It was written by Greg F. Gifune and is set in 1984 in and around New Bedford, MA. Some scenes were very true to life because I actually stood in the places that were featured. A scene in a mall was amazingly accurate because I played video games in the very same arcade that the characters were in, and went into the hobby store that was next to the arcade.

    It made reading the book an oddly entertaining read for me.

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    1. That’s so interesting Jay! You had a very personal connection to those scenes…

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    2. Lucy, even the music that was mentioned in the book made me say, "Hey, that's what I was listening to at the time." Of course being the stickler, I had to look up and make sure the songs and albums being mentioned were actually released in the time frame the book was set in, just to be sure.

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  8. Great job! After completing the local Citizen's Police Academy, all the cops know me as "the writer".

    I drove through our Atlanta subdivision after school. The parking lot was filled with cars and fifty high school students spoiling for a fight. I scanned the crowd, checking for my kids. Not there. Scanned the crowd again, spotted the daughter of a friend. I assumed the police had already been called. Raced home, called my friend, and told her to get down to the parking lot before the police turned up. She did. The cops came. Never learned what the fight was about.

    I didn't stop and yell at the kids to break it up. They would have ignored me and retaliated by egging my car or TP-ing my trees. I remember the incident when I wrote about a high school freshman jumped by a girl gang. The mob mentality, the urge to unleash physical violence, the trivial triggering incident.

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    1. I can just picture that! You made such good use of your memories…

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  9. Great opening--no, I don't wonder if a particular scene was cribbed from real life when I read--but in general, you can tell when an author is a true magpie because their scenes will be so true to life. So you might think, oh yeah, this is so true!

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    1. It’s interesting to me that some writers don’t need to actually see a place to write well about it. For me it’s easier to be there and see what things smell like and sound like etc. of course I am writing about a real place so that makes a difference.

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  10. Great opening! Isn't it fun when real life inspires your writing?

    Have you ever been to Mackinaw Island, MI? No motor vehicles allowed except for the ambulance. Everyone else uses bikes and horses. On a really steep hill, there is speed limit sign to keep bikers from picking up too much speed.

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    1. No I have not been, but it sounds like a great setting for a mystery--hard to escape!

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  11. Lucy, I love what you have done with your incident.
    As a reader, I only wonder which parts come from research and which are made up when I read a story inspired by a real person.

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  12. I think sometimes writers don't put enough real life into their work. Every writer I know is a people-watcher, and we all particularly like to speculate about the more unusual people we watch. That lady with the big hat, sunglasses, and an outfit that matches the one she's dressed her dog in today? That guy who has been on the same corner with the same battered "lost all to fire" sign for the past two years? The really belligerent father-in-law, or the woman with 85 different breeds of rose bushes in her yard? We see these people all around us, all the time, but when it comes down to interviewing witnesses who do our investigators talk to? Nice, sane, succinct people who tell their stories and disappear forever. Why are our witnesses rarely our weirdos? Seems to me genuine eccentrics need more representation.

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    1. So noted Gigi, more eccentrics needed! and you describe them very well...

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    2. I think my cops have interviewed a few weirdos. But I can do more! Thanks for the suggestions, Gigi!

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    3. Since I have plans to age gracefully into full-on eccentricity, I know whereof I speak, Lucy! And anyway, I think oddballs make life more complicated for our sleuths, right? Because really, can we trust what they say they saw?

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  13. I love this, Lucy! Now don't go and get yourself arrested for murder just to research a new book.

    Seriously, what terrified me in key west was the number of people on scooters and motorbikes without helmets. We saw one guy who'd wiped out going around a curve. Helmetless. I'd be very surprised if he survived. Most cops out there really are trying to keep us safe.

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    1. Hallie, I remember well when I was writing the first book and you told me my character must wear a helmet! In key west it’s spring break right now, so there are even more lunatics without helmets on scooters. It’s a miracle any of us live through it! But I will not get arrested, I’m a chicken

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  14. Lucy, well done on the opening and I'm so delighted that there's more to come.
    I'm a reader and a WIP writer. I attend a number of gatherings/classes/conferences. I had "for-the-fun-of-it" business cards printed. On the front my name, email, and phone number. On the back they say "I am a writer. Anything you say or do may be used in a book." When people read this they more often than not lean in rather than pull away. We all want to be in a book!

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    1. I guess most of us do! And we hope to see you in print one day soon…

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  15. What a great scene, Lucy. I haven't used a real-life scene yet, but rest assured I will should one present itself!

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    1. They come in handy. The one caveat is not getting too wedded to the facts as you saw them. Because it’s fiction of course and the writer can change details that suit the story best

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  16. Lucy, I LOVE this. I've really missed Hayley--can't wait until May!

    I'm sure I've used all sorts of real incidents, but the first one that sprang to mind was from a very early book, LEAVE THE GRAVE GREEN. I had actually been driving in London (I swore never again after that trip) and I had an appointment to tour Lilian Baylis House in Hampstead, which is where the costumes are made for the English National Opera. I could not find it, even with a map. All the streets ran the wrong way. And then when I finally did get there, I couldn't find a place to park. I ended up a good half hour late, flustered and breathless. I made Gemma have the same experience when she goes to interview a suspect there.

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    1. That’s perfect Deb! I was thinking you probably use a lot of real bits since you go over to London and England every year to absorb details

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  17. Lucy! SO great..and I adore how your minds works. (Sadly...) . I know I have quotes in my books throughout...sometimes people just say the most perfect things. And I am so thrilled when I remember them....
    My favorite but most perplexing--I herd someone say "And not just Quakers! Seminoles!" And thought--what on EARTH are they talking about??? I almost asked. :-)

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  19. AND THE WINNER ! of Emily Carpenter's UNTIL THE DAY I DIE, chosen by Emily, is: Kaye Barley!! Email me! xx

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  20. I'd love to say, "When I fell in love with a hunky police chief," but alas, the vast majority of police chiefs I've seen or met have been... not on the hunky side. Hunky young officers all look like my son to me now. Sigh.

    I'm more likely to use something in my real-life environment in my fiction than something that happened to me. My books are full of renamed towns, houses my friends or family members own, and descriptions of woods and water that I've made to myself while walking. I do have moments when something happens to me and I think, "That would be good in a story!" But I never remember them when it comes time to sit down and write. Maybe I ought to start carrying a dictaphone with me at all times.

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  21. This is such a great post, Lucy! I absolutely love your opening! Although, I have to ask, did you get a ticket? Having written the rescue of our actual kitten, King George, into The Good Ones, you could say I plunder my life for my work. Also, I wrote my hooligans into Every Dog Has His Day but I made them girls. Shh, don't tell! I tend to pillage other people's lives for my work. I even put a plagiarism scandal in one of my latest because it was all over the Twitterverse and I needed a plot twist. Unscrupulous, I know!

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    1. I'm in the middle of the King George rescue book now! Where can I find one of those cowboy/architects types?

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    2. And T-bone is clamoring to be written into this book, and I say why not! I have King George’s book on my nightstand right now

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  22. I can almost always tell when real life is in a book if it is the normal everyday doings. Like traffic. If a character says "well, we can't take such and such a street at this time of day" I know that author has been there, done that. Everyday annoyances should blend in, because they're everyday, right? What sticks out like a sore thumb to me is a description that just isn't, could never be, of a place that it is obvious the author has never visited nor researched. An example? Think basements in New Orleans. We were in Key West for a few days in early December. At that time the local paper had an article about bike/car collisions being on the rise because bike riders didn't get that the traffic rules apply to them too.

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    1. It’s true Pat and I was guilty in this instance for sure. And then you get an influx of tourists who don’t pay attention to any rules including crossing when the light is the right color. As my landlord in East Tennessee used to say, makes a man scratch his head where it don’t itch...

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  23. Love it I can hardly wait to read more. This is my favorite series and Mackinaw Island series, there are two of them.

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  24. I often wonder about the truth behind the fiction, especially when it FEELS so real. I did use fictional death in "The NCLB Murder" when colleagues were advocating the real thing. I convinced them we wouldn't like prison.
    Now, I'm rather savoring the irony of being stopped for stop sign violation after scolding the tourist cart for the same thing. ;-)

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    1. No I suspect prison is a lot worse than Orange is the New Black!!

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  25. Great use of an actual police encounter! Having just spent February in Key West and noting an extraordinary number of motorists and cyclists disregarding stop signs your police stop amused me. Must’ve been a slow day!

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    1. Yes definitely a slow day. I think the big guy was practicing:)

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  26. Lucy, your story about the police stopping you reminded me of a story that two people told us. They were late to see a movie and they drove really fast! The police stopped them and explained to them that it is more important to follow traffic rules than risking your life to see a movie that will be shown again. They realized that they could have lost their lives because they were in a hurry. And yes, they had another chance to see that movie.

    Diana

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    1. So true and we all should remember this--and not leave at the last minute!

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  27. I loved the real story and I loved seeing how you used it in a book. Yes, I eavesdrop conversations, "record" in my mind what I see, and know it will end up on the page, sometimes without me even consciously remembering it. Isn't it fun?

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    1. Yes it is fun Triss. Last night we were listening to a conversation (monologue, really) and I whispered to my hub, "This guy has to die."

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    2. In Dec I heard a couple talking on a crowded sidewalk while carrying a large Christmas tree, he at one end, she at the other. It was so unintentionally funny I am still trying to figure out how to use it.

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