I Traveled Across New York City to Write a Book

Writing can be a rather sedentary activity. But it doesn’t have to be.

I’m writing a mystery novella set in my hometown of New York City. The story unfolds across various locations over the course of a day, as the protagonist detective chases leads to solve a missing persons case.

A sense of place in a story is very important to me. I want to paint the picture of a location with enough detail and authenticity to immerse a reader in the world, whether it’s our own or an imaginary one.

So I had the idea to go to the places where my book is set, and add depth to my descriptions with details I could observe firsthand. To make this more of a challenge, I set out to visit six locations from the book in one day. This journey would take me, like my story’s protagonist, Benjamin, between two boroughs and from one side of the city to another. Here’s how it went.

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– Grayson Taylor