Writing What I Know (and Feel)
When I decided to try my hand at writing crime fiction, I took the advice often given to authors to write what they know. It was an easy decision for two reasons. First, I’m not one of those people gifted with the ability to create imaginary worlds.
(Write What You Know, or Know What You Write.)
Second, I missed my days as a TV reporter covering sports, crime, and breaking news. Writing about that time let me travel back to those adrenaline-filled days. Bonus—I didn’t have to put on television makeup or worry about my hair being messy. And, trust me, my frustratingly curly hair was a problem my whole career. If only I had known about flat irons and keratin treatments back then.
My hope is that, as an author, I can transport readers to places and situations they’d otherwise never see. Raise the curtain, so to speak. Reporting for Fox Sports Network, I got a behind-the-scenes look at many elements of the sports world off limits to most. I went into locker rooms to interview marquee athletes and reported live as a producer simultaneously rattled in my ear.
For me, those types of experiences translate into setting. Through my writing, I try to show the reader what it feels like to cover sports. Provide all the senses: the smells, sounds, feelings. For example, in the news van, the truck operators often had the Price Is Right playing during breaks. And the news vans always smelled of past meals, many—all at once.
Then there are the moments that translate to plot. Case in point, the dynamics between the station owners and news staff. In Dangerous Play, I delve into this topic, exploring how the fictional NetWorld’s media moguls employ a heavy hand, in an attempt to influence TRP SPORTS’ coverage of the Olympics, where my character Kate Green works. While workplace drama is a topic explored throughout the book, there are other, smaller, plot-points I also took from my reporting days.
During my first months at WNBC-TV, NYC, the roof of a supermarket collapsed on Long Island and I rushed to the scene, arriving minutes before I needed to be on the 11PM news for a live shot, with zero time to investigate. The anchor followed up my report by asking me how much the snow on the roof weighed. There was no way in the world I would have that answer. I knew it. She knew it. I mumbled something incoherent about not having that information, then broke into tears when the report ended.
Not only did I bungle the answer, I believe the anchor intentionally set me up for failure.
Elise Hart Kipness at Shea Stadium
While I never got revenge (yet), I did get an interesting element to incorporate into Dangerous Play. I put this experience into a scene between Kate and her boyfriend, who is also competing with her for a promotion. He’s speaking to her live from the anchor desk while she’s at Yankee Stadium, reporting from a soccer match, days after a woman was found dead in the locker room:
“We need you live, now,” Charlie barks into the phone.
“Did something happen?” I grab the microphone from Bill, looking around the field. Everything appears normal.
“Yes, something happened! We lost the feed to volleyball and need to fill! You ready?”
Bill pats down my flyaway hairs, then hands me a powder puff.
“Okay, Kate,” a voice whispers in my ear. “David is in the studio.” She tells me the main anchor is sick and will be out for a while. “David’s going to talk pregame with you. Okay?”
I nod and listen as she counts down in my ear. I hear David introduce me, and I assume I’m in a double box right now. “Our own Olympic star is covering the USA women’s team for us and joins me now. Hi, Kate . . .”
“Hi, David,” I say. “It’s a very different scene today than two days ago. You can see all the extra security on the field behind me and up in the stands. In fact, only about half the fans are here compared to Wednesday.”
“What reason did people give for not coming?” David asks, and I muster all my discipline not to yell into the camera that he’s asking an idiotic question. I haven’t spoken to the people NOT here. How would I know?
Still, it takes more than a stupid question to throw me off balance. “David, I think the better question is how the fans here are acting . . .”
In fact, responding to a bad question, by asking myself a better question was advice a senior reporter gave me after the grocery store fiasco. There were still some good eggs around!
And since I am writing fiction, instead of reporting facts, I decided to take liberties with my main character Kate Green. Is she based on me? Of course. But she’s a way cooler version. We are both TV sports reporters, but she’s an Olympic Soccer Gold medalist and I’m a soccer mom. She chases murder suspects through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium, while I chase my three labradoodles around the yard. Her demons are much darker and more interesting than mine.
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I also made her tall—I’m 5’ 0” and needed to stand on a milk crate to interview most athletes. She doesn’t have that issue.
Like many crime fiction writers, one question I often encounter is why write about murder. The answer eluded me for a long time. Even though, looking back, it’s so obvious. It didn’t click until I heard another author explain how writing about crime helps expunge the darkness inside of her.
As a news reporter, I covered a lot of crime and tragedy from the serial murder trial of Joel Rifkin, to the Long Island Railroad Massacre trial, to the Flight 800 crash near East Moriches, NY. In a practical sense, writing sports crime fiction meant marrying two things I knew.
But I believe it was the emotional element that drove me to this topic. Without realizing it, I was searching for an outlet for all the trauma I witnessed. After spending time in court listening to the murderer Colin Ferguson, who infamously represented himself, question a witness he shot, I felt sick. And interviewing parents who lost children in the Flight 800 crash was one of the saddest things I’ve ever done. Those emotions stayed bottled up for decades and writing about them has been both sad and cathartic.
I also hope I bring my news reporter skills to the pages. For example, in Dangerous Play, Kate interviews people for both TV stories and her investigations. I’d like to think, Kate is a shrewd interviewer. Did I mention I made Kate smarter than me too? Kate also demonstrates empathy and tact when she speaks to people—something, I’d like to think, I learned during my reporting days.
Maybe the saying shouldn’t just be to write what you know but also–write what you know and feel.
Check out Elise Hart Kipness’ Dangerous Play here:
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