What We're Writing Week: Why Julia Writes

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I've been having difficulties getting back into writing regularly since taking most of June off to help with some family issues. It doesn't help that I'm super-distractable and am pretty sure I have adult ADD. (I asked my doctor about getting tested, and he said, "Well, were you ever diagnosed in childhood?" I'm thinking, Listen, 30-year-old dude, I grew up in the 60s and 70s. No one was getting diagnosed with ADD! No, I didn't say it out loud.)

Anyway, the best thing to do when you're struggling to get back into creative work and fighting off distractions is to read many articles about your issues, right? So I was reading one, which I unfortunately didn't bookmark, and have forgotten the name of, because, again, squirrel brain. But I do remember a part of the motivational exercise: Identify why you do the task you're having a hard time accomplishing.

In other words, why do I write? Since I also needed a blog for today, I decided to work the exercise right here, thus killing two birds with one stone.

I write because no one else is writing the particular stories I want to read. Honestly, I was thrilled when  saw there was some Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne fan fiction on Archive of Our Own. At last, I thought, someone else will write these people and I can just read it! But no, sadly, there's been no huge rush of amateur stories. And no one has copied me enough to scratch my itch. If I want to read about Russ and Clare and their friends, it's up to me. Sigh.

 

I write because I'm not really that good at anything else. I'm a decent mom, but I've happily aged out of that occupation. I was always a good student - again, lots of writing - but only so-so in the careers I studied for. I'm too lazy to start my own businesses (see below) like my sister, the Realtor/ Face Painter/ Acting Manager. And I can't think of anything interesting to podcast, so there goes that potential income stream.

 

I write because I do love being a part of the community. We all complain about the conferences and the bookstore appearances and the panels at libraries. But honesty, I love them. Not the travel so much - who loves travel these days? But hanging out with fellow writers, oh, that can keep me going for weeks afterwards.

 

I write because I get paid to do it. Authors tend to say, "Oh, I'd do it for free." But would we? Really? As one writer told me, "That check from my publishing company lets me know just how much they love me."

I write because I'm lazy. I've done other jobs. I've waitressed, I've worked in a fundraising office in a museum, I went to law school and practiced for a hot five minutes. Believe me, writing is easier than anything else. I get to sit in my comfy desk chair (with my Fit Bit reminding me to get up and walk every hour) and play with my imaginary friends. Four hours of writing? Ooo, time to crack my back and call it a day. Try that with an office job. 

I write because I'm egotistical. I confess to you, dear readers, that I love it when people tell me how much they like my book, and when they praise my talent, skill, etc. etc. It's like hearing people praise your children: it literally never gets old. 

 

Finally, I write because I've never found anything as personally fulfilling. No, not even motherhood - my kids are a reflection of me, but are also part of their dad, and their friends, their experiences, etc. Besides, the goal of parenting is to work your way out of the job. But writing - ah, that's a job you can go on and on with, digging in to get better as the years go by, exploring different places and plots and people. I, at the bottom, really love it. And I love what writing does for me.

Well, that turns out to have been a useful exercise! I'm actually feeling quite charged up right now. Maybe I'll try listing my reasons for writing at the start of each week, and see if it remains a motivating force.

Feel free to try it for yourselves, dear readers - why do you do that thing you're dragging your feet on?

What We're Writing--Debs on Getting the Detail

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am just home from a three-week stay in London, and I think it was one of the most productive research trips I've ever made. I had enough of Kincaid/James #20 plotted out that I had a very specific agenda, but for all the benefits of Google, it's not virtual reality. Sometimes you just have to get boots (sandals, in this case) on the ground. Halfway through my trip, I'd made it to Eel Pie Island, which I wrote about here. And I did make it back to Twickenham on another day to visit the Eel Pie Island Museum, where I had a lovely, and very personal (thank you, Kate!) tour of the museum's exhibits.

Then it was back to Little Venice and the Regent's Canal for my most challenging bit of research. I knew (spoiler alert!) that I had a body in the canal, and I knew exactly where it was discovered. But even though I'd done the waterbus tour twice, and studied and studied maps and Google Street View, I could NOT figure out how my first responders, police officers, and scene of crime team were going to get to that particular stretch of towpath.

Here's a snippet where Oliver, my fictional waterbus guide, makes a very unpleasant discovery.

The Maybelle’s prow eased into the watery gray light. At least the rain had stopped, thought Oliver, but he grimaced at the unsightly gray concrete of the retaining wall on the right-hand bank and the still, dark green water beneath it. For some reason, rubbish tipped into the canal tended to collect just there. He’d seen shopping trolleys and bicycles as well as fast food wrappers and the ubiquitous water-logged plastic bags.

Now, he caught a glimpse of something brown, swaying gently just below the surface, and he hoped to God it wasn’t a dead animal—the customers would be asking for their fares back. But before he could distract them with the next bit of patter, the single woman pointed. “Look. What is that? It’s moving.”

“Otter or vole, I expect,” said Oliver quickly, “but we’d be lucky to see one in day—”

He broke off as the brown patch bobbed and turned in an eddy from the boat’s wash, revealing something greyish white, like the underbelly of a fish—but with the distinctive features of a human face.

One of the women screamed.

And here is that deserted stretch of the canal at the east end of the Maida Hill Tunnel.

    Very atmospheric, isn't it? And on the right, concealed by the bush, is one of the towpath access points. It seems simple enough in retrospect, but finding that took me HOURS of walking--some of it in circles, I later discovered.

But there are always bonuses to this kind of research. Here's one, the moored narrowboat community along one section of the canal.

Including this most charming bathtub! I wondered if they were putting it in or taking it out, or if it was merely decoration...

I also stumbled upon Lord's Cricket Ground in St. John's Wood.

    It was only later that I realized Paul McCartney's house in St. John's Wood is just on the other side of the cricket ground. I'd have done the touristy Beatles-fan walk-by if I'd known! Abbey Road Studios are only a short walk away as well--close enough that Paul supposedly turned up in his pajamas and slippers on occasion.

This is a part of London I didn't know at all, and I've loved exploring its nooks and crannies. It will be so much fun to see which bits make it into the book. Maybe one of my characters will wave at Sir Paul as he comes out of his gate!

REDS and readers, what "accidental" but memorable discoveries have you made while traveling?

Lucy is Investigating ChatAI

LUCY BURDETTE: You may think I’m wandering a bit today, but I promise you everything is related. First, I’m working like mad to finish Key West food critic mystery #14, no title yet. It begins like this: 

Key West food critic Hayley Snow is working on this week’s articles for Key Zest magazine when an intriguing e-mail hits her inbox, titled Hemingway’s toxic love and an old story. Catherine Davitt tells Hayley that she has returned to the Keys to research a book, but she also wants to investigate the disappearance of an old friend back in the late 1970s. The two young women were part of a group of lost souls camping in the mangroves on Big Pine Key, until Catherine’s friend Veronica disappeared, and the Sheriff’s Office cleaned out the camp.

Meanwhile, I’ve been vaguely aware that all the world has been talking about artificial intelligence, but I have not paid much attention until recently. It seems as though over the past few weeks, it's turned up everywhere! I now know that we as writers (and other people!) have to pay attention because this technology could be life-changing. Already, the Authors Guild is calling on leaders of generative IA companies to compensate writers whose work was used to develop the programs. Here’s a good article on Authors Guild concerns. 

The subject also came up at my writers group meeting two weeks ago. You've met Ang and Chris before. Aside from writing, my friend Angelo is working on the New England Crime Bake conference schedule. They’ve decided do a panel on the subject of AI, since many writers are concerned about where it’s headed and what it will mean for our craft and careers.

Then he showed Chris and me how the website works. We put in a query from my current work in progress, that went something like ‘why would someone murder someone else in a commune in the woods?’

Here’s a screenshot of some the ideas that were generated:

Wow! I was impressed. AI wasn’t going to write the book for me, but I could imagine it might help with brainstorming.

After my pals went home, I decided to ask the chat site another question. As mentioned above, one of the characters in book 14 is writing her own book about what women can learn about toxic love from studying Hemingway’s wives. I assumed she would have written other articles about toxic love to land a book contract, so I asked the ChatAI: If a person is writing articles about toxic love, what might the titles be? This list was generated in less than a minute:

"Breaking Free: Escaping the Clutches of Toxic Love"

"Love Gone Wrong: Unmasking the Signs of Toxic Relationships"

"Healing from Toxic Love: Rebuilding a Stronger You"

"The Hidden Dangers of Toxic Love: Protecting Your Emotional Well-being"

"Toxic Love: Unveiling the Dark Side of Relationships"

"Breaking the Cycle: Overcoming Toxic Love Patterns"

"When Love Becomes Poisonous: Recognizing and Confronting Toxicity"

"Navigating the Labyrinth of Toxic Love: Finding Your Way to Healing"

"Toxic Love: Understanding the Impact on Mental Health"

"Toxic Love Red Flags: How to Spot and Avoid Unhealthy Relationships"

I was stunned! I couldn’t have come up with these titles in a week—and they are spot on! I wasn’t about to use this list and pretend it was mine, but it did spark the next scene:

I tapped Catherine’s full name into the search bar, thinking it might help if I knew more about what she’d been writing over the past ten years, or even longer. As she’d told me on the first day I met her, she had dozens of publications on various shades of toxic love. “Healing the Wounds of Toxic Love,” “How to Say No to an Abusive Relationship,” “Poisonous Love: How to Recognize and Confront Toxicity.” And then this one, “How a Toxic Family can Poison Future Relationships.” This surely had to do with Hemingway, and maybe Veronica, but I wondered if applied to Catherine herself as well? The next link really grabbed my attention: “The Mother Wound: How to Identify and Escape from Toxic Love in Your Family.”

I clicked on that title. Catherine had begun the article with a quote from Hemingway’s third wife, Martha Gellhorn, about how a woman should know better than to marry a man who hates his mother. That was followed by another quote from Gellhorn’s letters: “Deep in Ernest, due to his mother, going back to the indestructible first memories of childhood, was mistrust and fear of women.”

Finally I asked the website to write a book in the style of my series. Which it did—at least listing a summary of the chapters with titles. The writing wasn’t that great and only a total novice wouldn’t have recognized the difference. Phew!

So that’s what I’m writing and thinking about—my writer’s head is spinning! 

Have you had any brushes with AI? Where in the world do you think we’re headed? Are you concerned about this trend? Is it cheating for a writer to use this tool to brainstorm?

In addition, THE INGREDIENTS OF HAPPINESS is now in bookstores, and A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS will be published on August 8. If that’s not enough, the paperback edition of A DISH TO DIE FOR is out now too. I’m happy to give one away to a commenter today!

Don’t forget, all are welcome to my big double book launch party in Madison CT, at RJ Julia Booksellers on August 9 at 7. With cake! Call ahead to reserve your spot. 203-245-3959