What Came Before?

 by Kaye George

This article was drawn to my attention by fellow mystery writer, Molly MacRae;

https://strandmag.com/the-mathematics-of-mystery/

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!

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. 

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. 

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. 

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!

How to Lose a job Without even Trying

How To Lose A Job Without Even Trying

Earlier in my life I was part of a committee that interviewed and rated applicants for jobs in a mental health setting.  We always had at least four or five applicants for every open position.  Several times ten or more people applied for each position.  Many people had similar backgrounds, experience and training.

Hiring was important enough to warrant the time spent by three employees when we found someone who could perform job duties well, get along with co-workers and stay with the program over a long period of time.

Fortunately for us, or unfortunately for them, a number of applicants effectively ruled themselves out by their behavior, thus making our task easier.  Believe me, some applicants appeared to go out of their way to disqualify themselves and lessen the number of interviews needed. 

How?

Some applicants didn’t meet the job requirement and sent in required paperwork anyway.  I can’t tell you why.  Practice for a job they might actually get?  Other applicants who either didn’t read or didn’t think what they read applied to themselves sent in resumes and answered question in a sort of generic way that might qualify them as firefighters or acrobats as easily as mental health professionals. 

Other applicants had the paper credentials and applied for the job offered, but demonstrated inappropriate behavior early during the application process.  Since we needed people who could write progress notes, treatment plans, reviews and so forth, misspellings, bad grammar and “humorous” answers to questions impressed us, but not in a good way.  I remember one applicant who paid a staff clerk to type his resume as he waited in the waiting room before an interview.  Another candidate sent in cartoons along with her paperwork.  Creative?  Yes. Persuasive? No.

 A third person got all the way to an interview. Everything was going along swimmingly until she was asked about her ability to work with various ethnic groups.  She answered quite well.   Then, without a query from us, she added remarks about a group we had not mentioned.  She volunteered her perceptions that the particular group fit negative stereotypes about them.  She did not get a job offer.  If she had not offered her opinion, she very likely would have. 

One memorable person gave funny answers about why he left his last job.  The humor, however, was derisive toward his former employer.  What would he say about his new one?  The hire was not worth the risk. 

In a more recent part of my life I was an editor.  As with the earlier job, some of the people submitting either did not read or did not attend to guidelines.  Some did not carefully check their spelling or grammar.  A number made promising, but not fully print-worthy submissions.  Some things never change.