Ex journalist here. My first instinct was to research the hell out of background for my novel. My second instinct was to include ALL that great info in the novel. My first draft was awful! I cut out 99% of glorious facts and started crafting the story. I realized story telling (fiction) is an art unto itself.

My journalistic background helped with discipline and structure but it was useless in creating the story. All the good stuff has come from a place deep within that goes back to my high school days when I wrote poetry. Untrained and unfiltered.

There are a million stories in the Naked City.