Ask the Author: Marissa Harrison
Answered Questions (3)
Marissa Harrison
Listen to music or go for a run. Or I just write terrible things until I can think of a way to make them better.
Marissa Harrison
The moment that planted the seed for the idea behind my first book occurred during a lazy night of watching Netflix. My husband and I had started getting into documentaries about the eighties, and I was feeling very nostalgic about my childhood. We decided to watch old episodes of Saturday Night Live. One of the episodes skipped past the musical performance, and showed only the band after they'd finished. That band was Nirvana. Something went off in my brain. There was something about Kurt Cobain, the way he stood there so uncaring and nonchalant, and I said to my husband, "I want to watch a documentary about him. I want to know everything about him." And so began my obsession with Grunge and Seattle in the 1980s.
As I was researching, I started reading a lot of true crime, and stumbled upon a book about the Green River Killer. I couldn't believe what I was reading, I couldn't wrap my head around the number of young girls whose lives were cut short by the brutality of one man. The more I read, the more I wanted to remember those girls. They were the people who mattered to me. I wanted to know everything about them, and what brought them to a life on the streets. I think a lot of crime stories focus on the who done it, but I found myself wanting to know more about the victims.
So there I was, obsessed with the music of bands like Alice In Chains and Nirvana and Mudhoney and Soundgarden. I was struck by the story of teenage prostitutes working in Pike Place Market. And I saw there was a commonality in both worlds, a disease called addiction. It was a disease that affected my family and has affected countless others. And I decided I wanted to tell a story about loving an addict, the pain it causes and the forgiveness it requires, and how a young woman is forced to learn how to navigate a dangerous world.
As I was researching, I started reading a lot of true crime, and stumbled upon a book about the Green River Killer. I couldn't believe what I was reading, I couldn't wrap my head around the number of young girls whose lives were cut short by the brutality of one man. The more I read, the more I wanted to remember those girls. They were the people who mattered to me. I wanted to know everything about them, and what brought them to a life on the streets. I think a lot of crime stories focus on the who done it, but I found myself wanting to know more about the victims.
So there I was, obsessed with the music of bands like Alice In Chains and Nirvana and Mudhoney and Soundgarden. I was struck by the story of teenage prostitutes working in Pike Place Market. And I saw there was a commonality in both worlds, a disease called addiction. It was a disease that affected my family and has affected countless others. And I decided I wanted to tell a story about loving an addict, the pain it causes and the forgiveness it requires, and how a young woman is forced to learn how to navigate a dangerous world.
Marissa Harrison
Read the book you want to write, and write the book you love to read. When I first began writing my debut novel, Rain City Lights, I had no idea what I wanted to accomplish (aside from writing a book as amazing as The Night Circus, which was the inspiration and catalyst for me to finally take the plunge). All I knew was I had this male lead character whom I became utterly obsessed with, and that I wanted to dive into the eighties to uncover all the mysteries that occurred when I was too young to understand them. But I had no idea where to begin, and found myself circling the drain of mediocre writing (this part is inevitable. The writing is always bad until it's good). So I read and read and read some more, stories that moved me and technical books on the craft itself. Then I started to write a book that fit in the genres of the books I most enjoyed.
There are so many more steps, but the first one is defining what it is you want to write, or will feel good about writing. And then write that book!
There are so many more steps, but the first one is defining what it is you want to write, or will feel good about writing. And then write that book!
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