M. E. Browning on Leaving Things Out

LUCY BURDETTE: I met Micki Browning in March when the Florida Book Awards were announced. She won the silver medal for Shadow Ridge when I won the bronze for THE KEY LIME CRIME. We were honored to appear on a panel together for the Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, and I loved her story, and thought you would too! Welcome Micki!

M.E. (Micki) Browning:  I have a penchant for creating characters who are considerably smarter than I am. On the plus side, it’s improved my research skills, satisfies my hunger to learn new things, and taught me to recognize what information to leave out. That last lesson was the most difficult one for me to master, in part because I didn’t initially recognize it was a problem—and not only a problem, but a symptom of a larger issue. To become the writer I wanted to be, I had to first decompress from the job I once held.

As a new writer, I thought transitioning from crime fighter to a crime writer would be easy. If you count police reports and grant writing, I was already a paid professional. As for experience, over the course of twenty-two years, I had participated in hundreds of hours of training and amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience. I could cite chapter and verse when it came to the elements required to prove a crime had in fact occurred. I knew my way around a courtroom and understood that a well-written report could keep me out of the courtroom. By the time I retired, I’d attained the rank of captain and was in charge of the administrative division of the agency. 

What I didn’t know was how little that information meant when it came to storytelling. The maxim exhorting wordsmiths to write what they know, while pithy, is somewhat misleading. It’s not what you know but what you leave out that is important. In my quest for accuracy, my first two completed manuscripts were dense with policies, procedures, and minutia. I was so busy educating my readers that I forgot to entertain them. 

It was time to pivot.

After retirement, my husband and I relocated to the Florida Keys. There, I created a character who was a teuthologist—a marine scientist who specialized in the study of octopuses. As a scientist, she possessed the analytical, organizational, and observations skills that would make her a good sleuth. Because the mystery involved a missing person, a detective played a supporting role. Each character saw the role of investigator through a different lens and they both required me to dribble in only the details that were critical to the plot. 

It hadn’t occurred to me before writing this post that my police character played a larger role in the second book in that series. I’d amped up the danger to my protagonist and it was natural that the detective had a more active role. In hindsight, I was flexing new skills and preparing myself to write the story I’d dreamed about creating. 

My first police procedural was my third published novel. All the things I left out made room for deeper characterization and improved pacing. The perspective resulted in a more honest portrayal. The second in the series will launch in October.

I’ve noticed a similar need for distance and perspective while dealing with the tumultuousness of the Year That Shall Not Be Named. At a recent event I was asked if I intended to incorporate the pandemic into my writing. My response? It’s too soon to do it justice—I don’t know what to leave out.

What about your writing? Has there ever been anything you’ve been so close to that it’s impacted your ability to write about it? Are there books that you won't read because they're too close to reality?

M.E. BROWNING served twenty-two years in law enforcement and retired as a captain before turning to a life of crime fiction. Writing as Micki Browning, she penned the Agatha-nominated and award-winning Mer Cavallo mysteries, and her short stories and nonfiction have appeared in anthologies, diving and mystery magazines, and textbooks. As M.E. Browning, she writes the Jo Wyatt Mysteries. The first in the series, Shadow Ridge, was a finalist in the Colorado Book Awards and a silver medalist in the Florida Book Awards. Mercy Creek launches October 2021.

About SHADOW RIDGE:

Death is one click away when a string of murders rocks a small Colorado town in the first mesmerizing novel in M. E. Browning’s A Jo Wyatt Mystery series.

Echo Valley, Colorado, is a place where the natural beauty of a stunning river valley meets a budding hipster urbanity. But when an internet stalker is revealed to be a cold-blooded killer in real life the peaceful community is rocked to its core.

It should have been an open-and-shut case: the suicide of Tye Horton, the designer of a cutting-edge video game. But Detective Jo Wyatt is immediately suspicious of Quinn Kirkwood, who reported the death. When Quinn reveals an internet stalker is terrorizing her, Jo is skeptical. Doubts aside, she delves into the claim and uncovers a link that ties Quinn to a small group of beta-testers who had worked with Horton. When a second member of the group dies in a car accident, Jo’s investigation leads her to the father of a young man who had killed himself a year earlier. But there’s more to this case than a suicide, and as Jo unearths the layers, a more sinister pattern begins to emerge–one driven by desperation, shame, and a single-minded drive for revenge.

Ps from Lucy, sorry about all the type size changes, Blogger would not listen to my suggestions!