Monday 1 September 2014

Keeping it Real

with Karen M. Davis



When writing a romantic crime thriller, how do you keep
it real yet entertaining? 




Having been a New South Wales police officer for twenty years before ever attempting to write anything besides police reports, one of the biggest challenges I found was keeping the story authentic but also interesting and believable.

Not all police work is exciting. Writing about all the paperwork would put a reader to sleep in seconds. But I wanted to portray what it was really like to be a cop, show what police have to deal with, give an insight into the life inside a police station. I also had to get my head around the fact that I was writing fiction – not putting a brief of evidence together that had to be factual. I had to stretch my imagination but I feared some of my real experiences would be almost too unbelievable for readers to swallow. Real life is sometimes stranger than fiction as we know.


Wanting to have a strong romantic interest between the main characters, I became confused after a freelance editor looked at my first draft of Sinister Intent and told me that it was inconceivable that two detectives could fall in love during a homicide investigation. Though to police, this is not surprising at all. That is their bread and butter. They are working long hours together; relying on each other to possibly save the other's life if those circumstances arise. So is it unbelievable to imagine a bond could form? Isn’t that the reason so many cops are married to each other – they understand the job like no one else can.


So I decided to keep the more exciting and intriguing parts of police work as close to the truth as possible, while adding a bit of suspense, drama and a strong romantic theme to spice up the story. Both Sinister Intent and Deadly Obsession, follow young detective Lexie Rogers through her investigations and her budding romance with her handsome partner, Josh Harrison.


I love writing crime because I’ve lived the life of a detective. I love writing romance because what is life without it? And I can only hope I’ve blended the two to make for an entertaining read.


Do you read or write what you know and love? Or do you like to step outside your comfort zone and escape into another world all together?



        



I “love to love” precious time with my family and friends.

I “love to laugh” at every opportunity.

I “love to learn” something new every day.







32 comments:

  1. I find it crazy that you had a publisher tell you that two cops falling in love wasn't 'real' enough to be believed. That's wild! I'm so glad that didn't deter you from writing though!!!

    The truth can be stranger than fiction, I suppose.

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    1. True life is so much stranger than fiction I find...

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    2. And possibly the freelance editor had little idea of the genre she was reading, either that or she didn't see the potential in the draft. I know it's really corny, but one of my favourite TV shows was Remington Steele. It was big on fantasy, not much realism, but I loved it at the time.

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    3. Oh! Remington Steele! Sigh...I still love Pierce Brosnan.

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  2. Hi Karen, I LOVE the research part of writing. I love surfing the net for info, I love interviewing people in professions I have only a basic knowledge of, I love visiting the places I'm writing about. All the research helps to make my stories 'real' to me.

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    1. I enjoy a bit of both. I step outside my comfort zone, delve into different genre's but always enjoy coming back to romantic suspense, good cop/bad cop. Can love be resurrected when the soul is shattered by time undercover? I have great admiration for police officers and what their job entails, but I can't help asking, what turns a good cop bad?

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    2. Its great you love research Marilyn, it can make all the difference to a story. I have not had to do too much research as yet because I've written about something I know, places I know. Though I always check procedural information is up to date of course and anything else I know nothing about - like in Deadly Obsession I had to do some medical research.

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    3. Not sure I have an answer for that one Rosie? I think if someone is going to be bad, they just are. Sometimes it goes back to their upbringing and sometimes they might get influenced by corrupt, more senior officers. Being a bad cop - or a corrupt cop, covers a wide area. It can range from taking a free cheeseburger at McDonalds to murdering someone. I guy I once worked with, who was from a troubled family always in and out of jail, joined the police to learn the methodology and use it as his own opportunity for corruption. Needless to say he got caught and went to jail with the rest of his family. I'd say in his case, with his upbringing, he didn't have much chance of being anything but bad.

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    4. Funny you should ask this question Rosie...just today in the news a NSW police officer was apprehended trying to rob a store...seems he'd been planning it for some time.

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  3. Great post Karen. Being a writer of Historical Regency romance, research is very important to me. Although, nothing beats first hand experience and I think that is what makes your books so great. You've lived it, breathed it and survived it. Now readers get to experience a small part of what it is like to be a cop today.

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    1. Thanks Cassie, I have lived it and loved most of it and that is my aim when writing; to have the reader come along for the ride with my characters and see what it is really like to live the life of a detective for a while. See what they have to deal with, how they cope with some of the traumatic things they see and experience.

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  4. Thanks for your post, Karen. Keeping it real is a major hurdle for us all. Some would say fictional elements grow out of our dreams, subconscious and our longing for things we want. Keeping it real, for me, is part of the exploration of writing where research meets the subconscious, where motivations become real, where events taken from real life are explored in the psyche of a fictional character. There is nothing more exciting.

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  5. Great post, Karen. Yes, research is important for authenticity in characters and situations. Even when building worlds for paranormal stories which is what I write.

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    1. I love paranormal stuff Enisa. So interesting. Do you have any strange, deep and dark happenings you can't explain at your house? Probably going off topic but we have some interesting and unexplained things happen in my house sometimes...

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    2. Don't have strange happenings as such, but I have burned frankincense incense when I have meditated.. It's the spiritual incense.. Then some days or months later I'll smell the scent through the house and I haven't burned it then. I get a good feeling then, believe a good spirit or angel is saying hello. Sounds freaky but I don't think it is.

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  6. Karen, I really enjoyed both Sinister Intent and Deadly Obsession. The incredible long hours you describe in the books made me think that yes, in close proximity, it would be possible for two detectives to become very close to each other. There's been lots of buddy movies about two male cops, and the recent hilarious one with Sandra Bullock, so why not a couple falling in love? DCI Banks is about to... (I think?)... I think you bring a real edge to your writing. It's thrilling, tense, and fabulous romantic suspense. Thanks! Keep writing!
    Malvina

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  7. Great post Karen. I've added Deadly Obsession and Sinister Intent to my TBR pile. :)

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    1. That's great Nicole, let me know what you think when you finish reading them.

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  8. Nice to know that as exciting and thrilling we all think Police work is, that it has a boring paper pushing side like most of our day to day jobs :))
    What a great background of knowledge you can draw on and bring to your work Karen :)
    I've put your books on my wish list already.

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  9. Have you listened to the interview Karen did on the ABC the other day, Marianne Theresa? It's gory, insightful and funny. You can find it at : http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/08/26/4074579.htm?site=conversations

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    1. Thanks Marilyn. Was it really that gory??? I suppose what I consider gory is different to most people's idea of gory...

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    2. I loved the whole interview, Karen, as I think you gave a great insight into the types of things police officers deal with on an almost daily basis. The woman who set herself on fire was the gory bit for me. I have too vivid an imagination (funny about that, being a writer and all - lol). Reading about something like that is different to knowing it was based on a real event. The thought is horrifying to me.

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  10. On the subject of Gory; I was on a debate panel on the weekend at the book expo and the subject was, is there too much violence in crime fiction? I think some books are overly explicit when describing scenes of crime. When I'm writing those type of scenes I try to keep them real but not totally disgusting. What do you think. Is the too much sadistic violence in crime fiction these days?

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  11. I think it's a matter of individual preference...there's a 'gore level' out there just right for each of us.

    I'm really detail oriented and with my medical background I want those sometimes disturbing bits of information that 'make the writing real.'

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    1. I'm with you, Dee. Sometimes the reader wants that detail, even if it is gory. However, it needs to be included with the reader in mind and what would be too much. Too many intense images all at once could overwhelm the reader.

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    2. I agree with you both Dee and Georgia, it is very individual. Then reading is individual isn't it? What I like others may not and visa-versa. I like enough gory description to give me an image but I don't need it to be extreme. Although I have friends who love that stuff.

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  13. I'm very visual and detail adds the 'real' to what I see. I'm fine with the gory in crime fiction - because it's fiction. The gory in real life - the events reported in newspapers daily - does bother me, however. Because it's real. Do others feel the same, I wonder?

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