Do Your Job

 For years I have argued with anyone who would listen – and more than a few who wouldn’t – that crime fiction writers have a responsibility to portray the world we live in as realistically as possible. Problems occur every day because people think what they see on CSI or Law and Order or NCIS is how things actually work.

The standard response is, “That’s boring. Our job is to entertain.”

And they’re right. That stuff is boring. We do need to entertain our readers. What’s the solution?

I’ve never heard it put more accurately or succinctly than Mandy Miller did at the last Bouchercon:

“It’s the writer’s job to make interesting things that could be boring.”

It’s as simple as that: Do your job.

I’ve heard all the excuses. People won’t read that. Readers want action. This is more entertaining. Those are beside the point. It’s our job to make the mundane interesting. That’s why we make the small dough.

“Okay, smart guy. How?”

It’s not that hard. It’s not as easy as looking up a detail online, but it’s not rocket surgery, either. What it takes is a conscious desire to get it right, and a little conscientious effort.

The highest compliments I receive as a writer come when people who read my work or hear me speak mistake me for a retired cop, even though I’ve never been closer to being a cop than chatting with Bruce Coffin and Colin Campbell at Bouchercon.

How do I pull it off?

For starters, my research is rarely specific. By that I mean I don’t often find myself looking up a single fact or process. Maybe once a book, if that. What I do is:

·       Read books by cops. Adam Plantinga’s 400 Things Cops Know and Police Craft receive attention every time I begin a Penns River book. Bernard Shaffer’s The Way of the Warrior is another valuable resource.

·       Read books about cops. Connie Fletcher ‘wrote’ five books by getting cops together, buying the pizza and beer, then sitting a tape recorder on the table and letting them talk. David Simon’s Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is still the gold standard, though it’s over thirty years old. Justin Fenton’s We Own This City gives a behind the scenes look at corrupt cops.

·       Watch selective TV shows and movies. This is trickier. It’s best if the show or movie has been around for a while and been vetted by people who know what they’re talking about. The Wire. We Own This City. 19-2.

The objective is to insert your research between the lines, making the interactions among the cops as true to life as possible. Here’s an excerpt from my first Penns River novel, Worst Enemies:

They found Neuschwander in the bedroom packing up. “I’ll get what I have here out to the lab soon as I get it logged and separated. When it comes back is anyone’s guess.” He held up a hand before Grabek could speak. “This ain’t the big city. We suck hind tit on this kind of stuff. I’ll give them the usual ‘violent offender at large’ spiel, so maybe you’ll get it in six weeks instead of eight. Except for the DNA. Jesus Christ couldn’t come down from heaven and get you DNA results in less than four months.”

“You have DNA?” Doc said.

“We should. She put up a hell of a fight. There’s skin, blood, and fiber under her nails. The ME will bag her hands and send what we find to the lab. If you luck into a suspect in the next few days, he’ll have scratches on him. Willie, you talked to the husband. Did he say anything about puking when he found her?”

“No.”

Neuschwander smiled. “Someone did. I’d guess he lost it when he got a good look at her. I see some swirls and a wipe pattern, so he tried a half-assed clean-up job, but I got a good enough sample to use.”

Now we know the local cops have a guy who knows how to collect DNA, and where DNA might be found, including in vomit, which will be news to a lot of people. We also know it will be four months – at least – before they get anything back.

DNA is not mentioned in the book again, except to remind the reader the results are still pending. And that’s all the reader needs to know about it.

It’s not hard, but it is important. As Thomas A. Burns said at the Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity conference, “There is a difference between factual distortion and fiction.” It takes practice and a lot of reading. A lot. Not just the research-oriented reading I mentioned above, but reading extensively in the genre so you have a feel for who went on too long, who didn’t tell enough, and who got the balance right.

That’s your job. Do it.