Don’t apologize to your family for needing time, space, silence and solitude to write.

 My mother was a librarian and my father was an author, which was the perfect recipe for a chronic storyteller like myself. Growing up, I was lucky to have inherited a narrative tradition from my parents, which has made writing a very natural process for me from a young age. In terms of my genre, it was my experience at the District Attorney’s Office that inspired me to become a crime novelist. At the time, I was reading two or three crime novels a week, but I realized that everyday at work, I was surrounded by characters, dialogue, and an atmosphere that was different than anything I saw on the page with crime fiction. As a prosecutor, I was working directly out of a police precinct, going on ride-alongs with cops, leading in-service trainings, and teaming up on pre-indictment investigations—I felt like I was ready to try my hand at writing a crime novel.

I am a full-time faculty member at Hofstra Law School, so my crime writing is a little catch as catch can. If I have a free day, I try to write all day long. I have a studio that I use just for writing. Otherwise, I’ll write wherever I need to: planes, hotel rooms, the bar at my favorite lunch hangout. 

You’re not a writer if you don’t write. And if you’re going to write, you have to think of yourself as a writer. Sounds simple, but conceiving of yourself as a writer can be an adjustment. There are some perks. Buy yourself a comfortable chair. Create a productive working space. Don’t apologize to your family for needing time, space, silence and solitude to write. It is, after all, your job. But thinking of yourself as a writer also creates responsibilities. You have to write. This is not a hobby. It’s your job. Your identity. Your compulsion. Write every day. If you skip a day, make sure you have a darn good reason, and make sure you don’t skip the next one.

Alafair Burke is the bestselling author of eight novels, including NEVER TELL in the Ellie Hatcher series and the standalone thriller LONG GONE. A former prosecutor, Alafair lives in Manhattan and teaches criminal law and procedure at Hofstra Law School.