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October 2018 Out of Office - Life With the Law

by Solange E. Ritchie

I recently opened the July edition of Orange County Lawyer magazine, turned to the President’s Page, and was pleasantly surprised to see a group photo which included yours truly dressed in a very 80s-looking outfit completed with pink-glitter hair. The photo was from the OCBA Charitable Fund’s 80s-themed event that Nikki Presley Miliband and I co-chaired years ago. I remember that event like it was yesterday. It was at the Marconi Automobile museum. Steve Hittelman won best costume for his “Ghostbusters” outfit. Everyone had a blast. Those were the days. At the time that photograph was taken, one of my passions was fundraising, just as Nikki explained in the article. The other two passions in my life were practicing law and writing thrillers.

The love of words and stories started for me at an early age, probably when I was seven years of age. I always loved to read and to write. Let’s just say my English teachers adored me.

Some people see the profession of law at odds with novel writing. I do not. As a trial lawyer, we are trained story-tellers. We are trained to take the facts of a case and turn them into a compelling story for a judge or jury. We take that judge or jury to a new place where they can understand our client’s situation, and hopefully empathize with it to obtain a good result for the client at trial.

We must do so with a pure heart and true passion.

To do otherwise is to live a lie.

The same is true of novel writing. If you cannot write with a pure heart and true passion, readers will see right through what you have written. If you write what you think they want to read, the purity of the story and your passion for it are lost. If you write what others tell you to write, the words lose their power.

For me, juggling law and writing fiction is not work at all. I find enjoyment in both. I find peace and fulfillment in both.

Writing, after all, is a solitary pursuit. The practice of law is far from a solitary profession. Even if you are doing appellate or transactional work, there are still meetings with other lawyers in your firm and client meetings to attend to. So the two are different in that respect.

There are puzzle-solving and analytical aspects of practicing law that actually help my fiction writing. One must think about theme, story, plot, and pacing when writing a novel. The same is true for telling a story to a jury.

Fiction writing, however, offers a feeling of being free and unbound by a given set of facts. There is more creativity in writing fiction. When writing fiction, you create the story, the characters, the plot line, theme, etc. You are in control. You choose who your main character will be and what qualities they will display to the world. This is different than working for a client, where they are your “main character” for all practical purposes for trial, and you have to work with the qualities they already have and the acts that they have done, be they good or bad. So, both professions have some similarities and some differences.

As I studied fiction writing, I became a better writer in my law practice. As I became a better writer in my law practice, my skill in verbally telling a story became more laser-focused. It is as if fiction writing improved my focus in the courtroom. Fiction writing also improved my ability to write law and motion, as funny as that sounds. I started to pay more attention to the words that I chose to tell a story—be it for a client in a courtroom or for a novel.

Many folks have asked me, “Where do you find the time to do both?” My answer is always the same: “When you have a passion for something, you find the time for it.”

It’s just that simple. There is no magic formula.

There were many early weekday mornings spent, before my work as an attorney began, “penning” novels at my home computer. There were many weekends spent writing, and many vacations spent writing. Sometimes, an idea for a novel or plot twist would pop into my head at three in the morning! A nightstand notebook became my new best friend.

As you read this article, think about the thing in your life that brings you true joy and happiness, in addition to the practice of law. Is it fundraising and giving back to the community like the current OCBA President, Nikki Presley Miliband? Is it traveling the world and climbing Mount Everest like former OCBA President Joseph Chairez? Is it a life devoted to politics like our own Ashleigh Aitken?

Where do you see your passion taking you?

How do you see that passion helping you bring balance to your law practice?

How do you see it enriching your life and making you a better lawyer?

Only you have the answers to these questions in your soul.

I ultimately decided to pursue writing novels full time, and wrote my first thriller, The Burning Man, which was released in May 2015 to critical acclaim. My second thriller novel, Firestorm, was released in May of this year.

Follow your passions and your dreams. They will take you to new places you never imagined.

Solange E. Ritchie is a current member of the OCBA living near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She is the author of the Dr. Catherine Powers thrillers, The Burning Man and Firestorm available on Amazon, and the soon-to-be-released Slayer and Blast in the same series. Solange is working on a Southern Gothic novel, Fiona’s Box, and writes a weekly blog called Notes from Solange. You can email her directly at solangeritchie@hotmail.com.

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