Fact and Fiction: How My Journalism Background Prepared Me to Write Crime Novels
By Brenda Buchanan
When I was studying journalism at Northeastern University, I had the great good fortune to be a reporter trainee at the Boston Globe. The presses rolled around the clock in that era, churning out seven editions a day. I worked either 4 p.m. to midnight or the so-called lobster shift, midnight to 8 a.m. My beat was what we called city desk—fatal car accidents, middle-of-the-night fires, crime and mayhem.
I composed my stories on four-ply paper rolled through the platen of a typewriter, drank endless cups of dirt-cheap coffee and listened to the old guys who were winding toward retirement tell stories about their good old days. Everyone smoked, especially on deadline.
My reporter days are long past, but you never quite get the ink out of your blood, which is why it surprises exactly no one who knows me that the protagonist of my Joe Gale mysteries is a newspaper reporter. Joe’s a man, and young enough to be my son, but we’re alike in many ways.
My friend and Sister in Crime Barbara Ross, author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries and the Jane Darrowfield Professional Busybody series, interviewed me a few years ago about this author-protagonist connection and I thought her multi-part question was terrific. With credit to Barb and the wonderful blog then known as Wicked Cozy Authors (now known as The Wickeds), I’ll reprint it here, with updated answers:
Barb’s question: Joe Gale is a reporter and you were once a journalist as well. I've always wondered, how are the skills journalists develop applicable to writing a novel, and how are they a hindrance that must be unlearned or overcome? What was the best, most important thing you learned as a journalist?
A. Most important? Not to fear the blank page. When I settle in to write I’m kind of like a musician sitting down at the
piano. I tap out a few words, riff around a little, and pretty soon I’m pounding out a tune. It’s not always good music, mind you, but I’m not one suffer blank page paralysis. For better or worse, my experience as a reporter taught me to jump right in.
Still true. My day job confines my writing to evenings and weekends. I don’t have time to stare into space and wait for the muse. When it’s writing time, it’s writing time. I give myself permission to rewrite it or even trash it during revisions, but I get those words on paper, no matter what.
B: It was important to break myself of the notion that I was writing to deadline. A journalist must submit to her editor the best story she can write in the time allowed. A novelist needs to take however much time is necessary to write a story worthy of submission. Big difference there.
Four years later I know this now even more than I knew it then. Getting it right is more important than writing it fast, and unless I’m on a hard deadline, my work always improves when I give it time to breathe.
C: One habit I had to resurrect was the daily writing routine. When you’re a reporter, that’s a given. It took me a while to realize writing fiction would demand the same daily commitment to the keyboard. When I decided to take a crack at writing a novel, my routine varied with my energy level. If I’d had a hectic day at work, I’d give myself a slide on writing that night. That meant I never got in the groove and found myself endlessly fussing around with the first chapter. It was only when I committed myself to write two pages a night minimum, no matter what, that my first book began to take shape.
This remains true as well. If I step out of my daily writing routine, I lose that wonderful sense of living inside my story. It can be an exhausting place to be, especially when you dream about your characters, as I frequently do. But staying in the flow is key, and for me, that means writing every day.
Brenda Buchanan is a Maine lawyer and the author of the Joe Gale Mystery Series, featuring a diehard Maine newspaper reporter who covers the crime and courts beat. Three books—QUICK PIVOT, COVER STORY and TRUTH BEAT—are available everywhere e-books are sold. These days Brenda’s hard at work on new projects.