Done any crimes?

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

You, know, serious crimes.

 

It's funny, they always say "write what you know".   (And what most of "them" know is campus politics)   So should crime writers have some experience?   

 

I'm not much of a criminal type.  Well, violence.  But that's not like planning out how to kill somebody or how to take all their money.  Then living with it.  I know some people who do serious crimes.  I don't really chase "bad boys".  More the other way around.  But I seem to have a knack for getting tight with guys who theive and brutalize a bit.  I've been present when crimes were committed, which can be the same thing when you get to court, it turns out.  Sometimes I feel sorry for the guy being worked over or ripped off.  But sometimes not.

 

But do you think you can really get into the head of somebody who can point a gun at somebody and say they'll kill them if they don't do something, then if they don't do it, they go ahead and kill them?   Or somebody who just got crippled so somebody could take their bank card and the $60 they just got from the ATM?   Much less more serious stuff?

 

We think we know what we'd do if somebody killed our mother or raped our daughter or smashed up our brand new BMW, but do we?  Is that really what we'd do?

 

Are most people law abiding just because they lack the guts to just take what they want?

 

 

[Mark Young]

Interesting perspective, Cammy.

I think it gets down to motive. Given the right circumstances, anyone might cross that line. As a father and husband, I would do anything to protect my family. As you may know, I was in law enforcement for a couple decades and worked undercover during narcotics and gang investigations. I ran with the bad boys--bikers, gangsters, and drug dealers. The one thing that seperated me from them was motive. I was authorized by law and department policy to engage in a certail level of criminal activity to gain acceptance by these low lifes. I did not relish breaking the law, and it went against everything I believed in. Their motivation was greed and predatory advantage over others. Some did it because they were addicted to drugs. Most did it because they could.

 

On the other hand, I know just how ineffective law enfoircement can be in trying to track down those who have kidnapped, violated or killed others. Here is where I would be tempted to cross that line. For example, if a sex pervert snatched one of my daughters, all bets are off. I would move heaven and earth to save them or bring down the wrath of God on that deviate. I would have laid aside my badge (because my actions would be so contradictory to what I had sworn to obey and follow), and become that pervert's worse nightmare. This is the motivation that drives characters of  novels and movies. I would become John Locke's Donovan Creed or Lee Child's Jack Reacher. The raw emotion that pushes the character into that new worlds were everything--including right and wrong--changes what a person is willing to do.

 

I think most people are law abiding for different reasons. Some do it because they don't want to suffer the circumstances, or they are afraid of getting caught. But I believe many obey the law because they recognized that with out it, we become one jungle where the weak die and and strong prevail.

[Miriam Pia]

I really liked most of this and found most of your comments reassuring.  I believe that a large portion of the population is actually often kind.  Not always, perhaps, but usually.  I think most human beings are what i would ethically call "OK", not "perfectly loving and well behaved" but not "demonic trash" either...Mainly, "OK".  usually they/we don't hurt other people much unless we/they were provoked - same as most wild animals in that respect; when relatively serene we're gentle.  We prefer to be loved and liked.  We get along more easily with only some of our brethren and sister/n humans.  We/they react badly to things we dislike intensely or feel the most threatened by or had bad experiences with in the past, and best to what we know makes us happy.

[J. E. Seymour]

I just did a guest blog post at Buried Under Books.  Topic - Write what you Know, and how it applies to crime fiction.  Check it out:

 

http://www.cncbooks.com/blog/2011/08/05/write-what-you-know/

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

So... anybody done any crimes?  Been a victim?  Aided and abetted?

[Stacy]

LOL! I don't think many folks here would admit they did crimes. I am sure a lot of writers have. Writers are just people like everyone else so of course some have done crimes.

This reminds me of what erotica authors always say. They say people always think they are sex-crazed perverts because they write about sex. Writers mainly write what they do because they enjoy it. If you've researched something enough or have been around it, you can write it.

I've always loved suspense. I loved Hitchcock and started watching his films as a kid. He is one of the main reasons I write this genre. I love mystery, stuff like that. I always have so I guess it comes natural to write it.

[Miriam Pia]

All of the above....

[Stacy]

Yep I can get in the heads of all kinds of folks to create characters. That's what writers do. We don't have to live it, we create it. If writers only wrote what we knew, unless we were serial killers or terrorist bombers, who would read our stuff? LOL! Our work would be pretty boring if we only wrote about what we knew. Write what you know is just what Dana explained that Stephen says in the book. It does not mean write just what you've done in your life or the life you live. No. Most fiction writers write what they don't know.

Look at fantasy writers and horror writers. I am sure they've never seen vampires or turned into werewolves or been possessed but they write about it. So the write what you know thing is just a saying someone passed down. It does not mean you only write what you know.

The point of being a novelist is being able to make stuff up. I've never raped anyone. I've never stalked anyone. I've never killed anyone. But I write about it all the time. Yep. And I love doing so. LOL!

Another thing, I've never been a man. I've never been white. But I write about characters that are not at all like me. Just to prove a point, if you look at the "write what you know thing" it becomes sillier every time you see it. Writers do not write what they know in fact they shouldn't in my opinion unless they're writing memoirs.

About how we find these emotions, I don't know. I guess it comes from our creativity as writers. Look at movie directors. James Cameron wasn't ever on the Titanic or any other ship that sunk but he did the movie. Stephen Spielberg never met an alien when he was a little boy but in ET he sure could pull those emotions out of you when you watched it. George Lucas probably hasn't even been to NASA or anywhere near a spaceship, but he did Star Wars. LOL! It's how you look at things. The  powerful thing about writers and filmmakers is their imagination and the ability to make folks believe what they read and see.

Best Wishes!

[Jon Loomis]

I've killed and eaten a couple of online reviewers, but I'm pretty sure that's legal in most states.

[Cammy May Hunnicutt]

No jury of your peers would ever convict you.

 

(How did you ever CLEAN those things?)

[Miriam Pia]

That was a bit spooky.  Personally, I actually prefer kind gentle folk for the most part.  I have met some people who were quite 'difficult' but it wasn't anything I had hoped to have to cope with.  Write what you know?  Well, in crime fiction I think having read good books on the subject or having watched lots of movies is more than enough.  I do not think experience with crimes is any real requirement for writing crime fiction. 

Are most people law abiding only out of fear or cowardice?  Well, that is a question which I view as particularly spiritual in nature.  I do not believe that all people are born criminals.  In reality, I used to believe that all humans were born Good - opposite of Catholic teaching about "original sin", but have since modified my view that there may be diverse natures.  The Hindus taught that there are people born in a natural condition dominated either by ignorance, or passion or goodness and that society can influence that nature.  Personally, I do not believe that all obedience stems from personal cowardice, but more so from love and the maturity to appreciate that one is part of a group and that excessive and harmful forms of selfishness are often counter productive to one's own well being. 

[Miriam Pia]

This is joke but very true in my own case:  I write fiction to avoid doing research and so that my weakness about journalistic precise and accurate details is unecessary but I do have to keep my story straight....