by Kaye George
This article was drawn to my attention by fellow mystery
writer, Molly MacRae;
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| by darnok |
The author talks about how her profession in mathematics feeds
her writing. Her discussion also concerns logic. It’s easy to see how that is
useful in putting together a plot!
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| by GeoffS |
The article got me to thinking. What do our previous lives
bring to our writing? For me, how have my many jobs/professions/careers helped
my mystery writing? Honestly, how could they not? I have contended before, that
what comes out of a writer’s mind is a mishmash of everything that’s ever gone
in, gotten stirred up, combined, recombined, and emerged as what sometimes
looks like an original idea.
I’m lucky in that I’ve had a whole lot of prior occupations.
I started babysitting at 15, waitressing a couple of years later. On school
breaks and in the summer, more waitressing, cooking, even dishwashing once
(never again), nurse’s aide, factory janitor, nanny. Then, after marriage, I
worked civilian for the Army for a year before following Hubby around the
country working at secretarial and bookkeeping jobs.
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| by Erean |
My college major, in case you’re wondering, was Russian Studies,
which in no way prepared me for any job I ever had. (But helps reading Greek
just a bit.) In college, I envisioned being an interpreter, but Viet Nam and
marriage turned out not to be the path to that career.
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| by Ferval |
Along
the way, I always played violin in local groups: community orchestras and
string quartets. And we had three kids, so child-raising is part of my résumé too. And puppy training, kitten training, goldfish care, fish
care, newt care, and probably some I’ve forgotten about. (And, now, grand-mothering.)
I finally settled down and worked at computer programming
for about 15 years before retiring from that to write mysteries.
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| IBM mainframe By Ing. Richard Hilber - Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8724964 |
Right after being a mom and grandma, this is the best job I
ever had. I’m so glad I made it to this stage!
What former positions have influenced my writing? All of
them, of course.
A few of the more obvious ones for me~~
From the food industry: recipes for my cozies
From music: a series with a composer/conductor as sleuth
From moving all over the country: locations galore that I
can use for novels and short stories
From office jobs: work relationships
From family: family relationships
Relationships are a big part of my writing. What we are
today is a result of every relationship we ever had, every job we ever had,
every book we ever read, every movie we ever saw, every piece of music we ever
listened to, every place we ever lived and visited.
It has just occurred to me that this is another way to answer
the perennial question: Where do you get your ideas? I’ll have to remember
this!
Kaye, I've lived and worked all over the country and raised three children. I worked in restaurant kitchens and a university medical center, wrote real estate ad copy, and landed in interior design sales management. The latter occupation, coupled with acting as general contractor on three house renovations, gave me enough background to write the Jericho Mysteries. I've volunteered in college admissions and performed enough scholarship interviews to create a living, breathing profile of a candidate.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't had enough life experience at 25 to create characters and plots. Now, I'm overwhelmed and have to pick and chose!
Get busy, Margaret! You have a dozen more series to write! (Just kidding, but it's nice to have a varied background.)
ReplyDeleteHysterical, Kaye, and so true! I don't even want to think about all the jobs I've had, but each one is fodder for the writer's mill. These days when I tell folks I kill people in my spare time, they nod sagely and say, "Of course you do, you work for lawyers."
ReplyDeleteKait, "You work for lawyers." You have a good cover occupation!
ReplyDeleteJust a reminder of how everything is so interconnected, it's impossible to tease the components of our lives apart. And it all contributes to our writing.
ReplyDelete