5 Things I Learned While Writing Without Consent
Today marks the release of the third book in the Nicole Long Legal Thriller Series, Without Consent.
This is my twenty-seventh book and my thirteenth legal thriller. When I was a little girl, people would always ask the question about what I wanted to be when I grew up. My go-to answer was doctor. I found it ended a conversation I wasn't especially keen to have. I ended up going to law school and becoming an attorney. It wasn't a job I was particularly keen to have. I think if I'd really had the guts to reach for what I truly wanted, I'd probably have answered with the profession of author.
After years of quitting the law over and over until it finally stuck, I'm doing what I truly love. That said, writing is both a joy and a pleasure, and the hardest job I've ever had.
My goal with every book is to tell a great story and to become a better storyteller. While I'm sharing my nuanced understanding of the legal with readers, I'm also learning more about myself. As with every book I write I learn something new. Here's what Without Consent taught me:
1. Secrets fester.
Nicole Long's parents and Nicole herself are the keepers of secrets. I was raised as a secret keeper myself. I know that people who have been traumatized, and families feel like they have good reason to keep secrets. But secrets never stay that way. Instead, they lie under the surface waiting to erupt at the worst times.
2. Battling addiction is hard…even in fiction.
Nicole Long has trauma that she manages that with alcohol. It's an awful way to handle her past and the difficulty of her job. I want her to quit, but in Without Consent, she wasn't ready.
3. Writing a formidable villain is hard.
In the March 2023 episode of A Time to Thrill me and my guest talked about Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. One of Vogler's most famous quotes is "every villain is a hero of his or her own story." When I was a child cartoon villains twisted their mustaches and cackled with fury. In my books, however, they're more nuanced. My villains often think they're doing the right thing at best or something neutral at worst. Whether they're lying to themselves or everyone else is the sticking point when writing.
4. Morality is on a sliding scale.
Similar to number three, most characters I write about want to do the right thing. Many times, the strictures of both codified law and unwritten rules limit that. The question they always encounter is whether to push forward with their agenda in the face of obvious boundaries.
5. Punishment never fits the crime.
America is a country that prefers punishment to rehabilitation. In the last twenty years, the number of prisoners who have been sentenced to ten years or more has ballooned and now comprises more than half of the U.S. prison population.
In 2021, the longest prison sentence ever, 30,000 years was imposed on an Oklahoma man found guilty of child sex abuse. While I think grievous crimes deserve punishment, without any realistic attempt at rehabilitation, we have created a massive prison industry that has done little to address the causes of criminal behavior.
And yet people will always do things society thinks are abhorrent, and at least for now, I’m going to continue writing about them.
Aime Austin is the author of Without Consent a Nicole Long legal thriller. She is also the host of the podcast, A Time to Thrill. When she’s not writing crime fiction or interviewing brilliant creators for her podcast, she’s in a yoga pose, knitting, or reading. Aime splits her time between Los Angeles and Budapest. Before turning to writing, Aime practiced family and criminal law in Cleveland, Ohio.