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Stephen King's house in Maine,
soon to become a writer's retreat and archive.
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Halloween - How Stephen King Shows You How to Be a Better Lawyer
Plenty of lawyers appear in crime fiction – some of the best ones written by both practicing and non-practicing attorneys. With Halloween approaching, finding lawyers appearing in horror fiction and lawyers writing horror were a little harder to find – but we did find a lawyer/horror writer in our area, and he tells his story below.
But first, the most surprising thing revealed by exhaustively searching Google, was how many lawyers credit the writing of Stephen King in helping them become better lawyers. Not because of Thinner, a novel that features a lawyer who faces supernatural retribution after accidentally killing a woman with his car. Neither is it because of The Dune, a short story involving a lawyer in King’s anthology Bazaar of Bad Dreams. In a world full of writing manuals, tutorials, and legal writing classes; King’s book, On Writing, has struck a chord in the legal community.
Charles P. Golbert, writing a review for the NAELA News and Journal said: “Although On Writing is intended for authors of fiction, it offers wisdom for attorneys struggling to write compelling motions and briefs.” He highlights practices that are especially useful to legal writing, including using plain language and avoiding the passive voice. He especially likes King’s admonition against adverbs. “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”
Golbert adds, "King maintains that, in addition to telling a story, all writing should have a theme that appeals to a moral force. … Similarly, legal pleadings, in addition to advancing a theory of the case, should have a theme. Lawyers, in their trial advocacy, are adept at using both theory and theme to the best advantage. But for some reason, attorneys sometimes forget about theme, which is an invaluable advocacy tool, when they write. Just as a good novel has a story and a theme, a legal pleading — like a trial — should be a persuasive synthesis of theory and theme."
Below are More articles by lawyers praising On Writing for its usefulness. Below that is the article about Lawyer/Horror Writer Nicholas Battaglia.
https://www.naela.org/NewsJournalOnline/OnlineJournalArticles/OnlineMarch2019/BookRevGolbert.aspx?subid=1049
https://nysba.org/thoughts-on-legal-writing-from-the-greatest-of-them-all-stephen-king/
https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2011/10/stephen-king-on-writing/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stephen-king-taught-me-better-bankruptcy-attorney-larry-a-pittman-ii/
https://abovethelaw.com/2019/09/dont-be-a-nerd-sit-down-shut-up-and-write-something/
Noreen Braman
NJLAP Communications Manager
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A Lawyer Turns to Horror Writing for Fun, Stress Relief, and
A Return to a Genre He Loved Since Childhood
By N.A. Battaglia
I’m originally from Bergen County, NJ, and I was first admitted in NJ and the DCNJ. But my first employment was in Albany, NY and I’ve remained in the state ever since. And the reason why, has to do with Halloween.
On October 31, 2014, using advice from a local medical malpractice lawyer, I settled almost a $1 million in two cases with a partner from the law firm I was employed with at a conference before the Appellate Division, Third Department, in the Civil Appeals Settlement Program (CASP). Afterwards, I thanked the medical malpractice lawyer for his advice. However, the very next week, his wife won her election to the New York State Supreme Court and needed a court attorney — and the medical malpractice lawyer told her that he knew a young guy who just settled almost a million dollars last week — and that’s how I started (and stayed) in chambers ever since.
Working from home during the pandemic was tough. You spend day in and day out working at the same desk, feeling like you are not experiencing the world at all, yet often seeing the worst in people through truly horrific (and real) cases. There is a sense of “always on the clock” — especially working in chambers — because you want to always be available to give answers and produce work to show that you were productive. To that extent, I think some chambers were proficient and benefited from that — I know we got a lot done because we were insatiable.
That constant work combined with its difficult topics, lack of scenery, and a need for other ways to unwind inspired my wife to suggest I write a horror story. I have always loved horror, ever since the days of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and of course the great R.L. Stine, but it was reading Stephen King’s On Writing that helped me make the make the [shape]shift from writing law to horror.
On Writing contained brutally honest advice on becoming a fiction writer. The advice, unfortunately, was you’ll fail — and a lot. King recounted tons of rejection letters for his short stories, especially early on, until he got one rejection that was more than boilerplate and offered some short (but candid advice). His major tip was to collect short story acceptances so when you query for a larger novella or novel to a press or publisher, you have a portfolio that demonstrates others have liked your writing enough to pay you for it and publish it.
So, I did that. It was a release and a way to refresh and re-center. I started to submit my stories, expecting rejections, but instead got at least 10 acceptances my first year. With the birth of my son, writing has proven more challenging. I think I’ve had about 7-8 acceptances, which sounds great, but there were many, many more stories submitted and rejected than the previous year — probably 30 or more rejections — on these stories, evincing how distractions and challenges can affect your writing, whether a legal brief or a horror story. Nonetheless, it was still an enjoyable process.
For me, writing horror has become a nostalgic journey back into my childhood which was reigned by Goosebumps and Halloween, while also mending my current experiences as a lawyer handling truly horrific cases, and synthesizing that into something that others can experience vicariously. It is no secret that horror is one of the most successful writing and movie genres and getting to be a part of that while recharging and refreshing myself is a rewarding endeavor.
I also think that writing horror — and reading horror, for that matter — can help lawyers refine their craft. Yes, there are the E.B. Whites and Bryan Garners out there who can help you get technically better at writing legal papers and forming arguments, but there are also the Stephen Kings, Jack Ketchums, Paul Tremblays, and many others out there who can help you form arguments that create empathy — as the best horror stories are those that build empathy and rapport with the reader, then eviscerate it. Using empathy as a lawyer can help sway a jury or judge to your side, especially if you can create a lovable character that then suffers a horrific outcome, but the jury can then rectify it (think personal injury). There might be no better way to both entertain yourself and work on your writing skills as a lawyer than by writing horror H; a good lawyer is a good storyteller, and the horror genre is built on emotion and intended to provoke that kind of response from a reader that mirrors the response a lawyer hopes to provoke from a trier of fact.
— Nick Battaglia
Find out more about Nick here
And Nick has some legal advice about Haunted House published in Hallowzine.
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Free registration now open for NJLAP's Second Annual Recovery Summit, an event for members of the legal community who are in recovery or sober curious, and special invited guests.
Register Here
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Our Outreach Hub provides you, your law firm, or your specialty or county bar association with up-to-date information on lawyer resilience and how to achieve and maintain well-being. Check out our always-growing list of available in-person or virtual presentations, sharable printed materials, and NJLAP-authored well-being articles for your newsletters.
Th schedule a presentation or get more information, email info@njlap.org or call 800-246-5527 and ask for our Communications Manager, Noreen! We look forward to working with you!
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Never again will a
NJ attorney, judge,
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"There was nowhere to turn."
NJLAP Vision Statement
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NJLAP
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New Brunswick, NJ
800-246-5527
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