First-hand experience for the sake of a novel.

A lot of serious authors do it. A lot of other serious authors watch us do it and view us in league with idiots. But some people truly believe (and I, among them) that experiencing what your characters are experiencing firsthand helps you be more convincing and thorough in your writing.

Some authors go to some scary extremes. I would never go down the line of self-harm like some more hardcore writers do, but I've gone through some great lengths to recreate some scenarios to help me think better and put myself in my MC's position.

Example. Once I asked my swordfighting class (oh yeah, I took sword fighting lessons for six years...) to help me recreate some fight scenarios so I could record them and write from the results. Once I had a friend a dozen times quicker than me to chase me down in a field and tackle me to the ground so I could feel the impact and how it happened. I've gone running through thunder storms, sliding down wet hills barefoot, swimming across lakes, and once laid in a bed all day without moving with my limbs "bandaged up" to figure out what being horridly injured would feel like for a day. I've put weights on belts and strapped on a heavy backpack and gone hiking through a city's river valley for a few hours, and gone for midnight walks in the country by my family's lakeside cabin all in the name of proper feeling.

So I tried to do some tonight and I regret it. Thoroughly. Sometimes you have to be smart, and tonight I was very not smart.

I've gone running this time of night all summer, in the same general area that I was in tonight, completely without incident. So I figured, what's a walk in the park in the middle of the night? I get nervous in the city in the dark, as any woman should, but for whatever reason it doesn't bother me when I'm running because I'm always near busy roads and I'm going faster than other people. Tonight I armed myself with a pocket knife strapped to my arm (seriously), dressed in the same clothing my MC might (or very near to it), and headed out for a night in the park. A little armed with overconfidence, extensive combat and martial arts training, and the ability to practically sprint the distance from the park to my house, I was pretty okay until I got into the middle of the park and noticed a man.

I'd seen him upon entering the park, and he'd been going in the other direction. Now he was walking in my direction. So I turned course and headed for the middle of a field, on a small hill where a group of three trees were. When I got there, I stood behind the trees so he couldn't see me in the dark (I was dressed in all black and they were evergreens, so their branches touched the ground) and watched him through the branches. He stopped and was staring in the direction I'd gone in. After a few moments, he walked straight for me.

I was swearing at myself and kicking myself for being an idiot. One man isn't a huge threat to me, but who knows if he had friends or weapons or what.

So I looped around behind the hill and cut across the field again, keeping an ear out for him as I went back to the main path and headed for the road. He went to where I'd been waiting, stayed there for a moment, then followed me out. Still angry at myself, I headed in the opposite direction of my house to gain enough ground to lose him so he didn't know where I freaking lived. He followed me at a distance for almost 5 blocks around two turns before I randomly turned a corner and, once out of sight, began running down the road and cut down a side path (another not-so-safe route but at least this one was lit by street lights), through a network of condos, and back onto a road a few blocks from my house. I jogged to my house, cut into the back yard, and got inside, locked all of my doors, and slapped myself (not really) for being so dumb.

Uh, of course a freaking dark park in the middle of a city isn't safe, idiot.

That being said, one man is hardly a threat to me, regardless of whatever weapon he might have had (even learned how to beat a gun in a fist fight...) but first rule of all martial arts is run. Run, and if they catch you, break them enough so that they can't follow you.

So yeah, a bit heart-pounding. Gave me some GREAT stuff to write on, though!

Also, my getup was pretty badass. What you can't see in this picture is that I'm wearing black knee-height boots and black tights in addition to this. And a black hood. But you can kinda see that. I felt like the badass female action character that you see in movies and shit.