Here I am, about to wrap up my first-ever Thrillerfest,
which I could only afford because like so many events this year it was online.
My ticket entitled me to videos of 58 internationally known thriller writers
who would normally have gathered for their annual conference in New York. I’ve
watched fewer than a dozen because I can’t sit still more than an hour or two
before my dogs demand to be let out (and back into the fortunately
air-conditioned house because Texas is damned hot in July). Still, it seemed
unfair to make readers wait until I’ve seen everything – which will be online
until next year – before sharing, including that there’s more than one way,
maybe more than a dozen, to become a famous author in my favorite genre.
To plot or not
Most of those I’ve seen interviewed raised their hands as
devotees of outlines. A few, not surprisingly to those who’ve read their books,
did not. And then there was the author who outlined after the fact and had a
good reason for it.
 |
| l-r, Ryan Steck & C. J. Box |
“I start out with a couple of topics, items of interest
to me,” said writer of the Joe Pickett Wyoming game warden series, C.J.
Box, “then usually an idea or two from the wider world.” At this point,
although some of his books are unplanned, Box typically begins an outline,
which can run up to 40 pages, and which after 20 Joe Pickett books can be
helpful in keeping track of characters and events.
“Does anything ever blow up the outline,” interviewer
Ryan Steck asked. “Totally!” Box said. “Sometimes something happen in the
middle. Sometimes it’s just throwing a curve.”
“I create a lot of outlines,” said Dan Brown, author of
the Da Vinci Code among other thrillers featuring the professorial Robert
Langdon. “I usually write the last scene first so that I know where I’m going –
though it will probably change.”
“I like to set the story evolve organically,” Sandra
Brown said. “The first draft is the rough one. The next draft is the crafting
one, making sure I’ve milked everything I can out of every scene.”
Diana Gabaldon also famously writes outline-free, having
started her first book, Outlander, with a single image – “a man in a kilt” –
from an episode of Doctor Who set in 18th century Scotland.
After writing for about three days, she “came upon an Englishwoman (character)
who wouldn’t shut up,” and incorporated the story’s time travel element (again,
probably thanks to the good Doctor).
On the other hand, for lawyer turned author John Grisham.
“Everything starts with a plot. . . I don’t think I’ve started with a
character. I know the last scene before I write the first page.”
“I always have a grand plan,” thriller/historical writer
Ken Follett said. His special take on plotting/outlining is – making lists. “I
do that all the time. It’s great because it gives me a perspective I wouldn’t
have if I just wrote sentence by sentence.”
And then there’s the unique take of Kathy Reichs, author
of the Temperance Brennan “Bones” series for adults as well as the Virals
young adult series co-written with her son Brendan Reichs. “I don’t do a lot of
outlines,” Reichs said, “(but) my son is a fanatic about it! I outline maybe
six to seven chapters and then write the rest.” Her twist is to outline
retroactively, to remember where to find something she wrote earlier. “So, I
end up with an outline, even I didn’t start with one.”
Oddball characters
C. J. Box’s first agent (in New York) told him he
couldn’t sell his book because “who wants to read about a game warden in some
place nobody’s ever heard of?” Box deliberately set out to make Pickett “a
state employee, a Dudley Do-right, who doesn’t make much money and dotes on his
wife and family. Wouldn’t that be unusual? . . .I’m proud to say 51 percent of
my readers are women. I think it’s the family relationships between Joe’s wife
and daughters.”
If a game warden seems like a strange protagonist for a
thriller, how about a college professor like Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon? In Brown’s
case, it was a case of writing what he knew, he said. Having grown up in an
academic environment, why not have an art history professor as the hero –
although he admits Langdon’s specialty of “symbology” is completely fictional.
Villains
“It’s all about point of view,” Box said. “Once we know
what drives (villains), even it’s despicable reasons, readers can understand
them.”
The attraction of villains, for Dan Brown is, “the
ambiguity, that is, a villain who does the wrong things for the right reasons.
. . (and) finding an argument I can argue from both sides.”
What is it about bad characters that readers like,
interviewer Jeff Ayers asked Grisham. “Most lawyers are good, hardworking
people who make much money,” he replied. “Nobody wants to read about that!”
Follett’s take on a great villain is, “You have to hate
him but (not) in the way you do COVID-19. He has to be a person. He must be a
bully but he must have people around him. I don’t think it has to depend on
violence. We can hate him for just being nasty.”
Series vs. standalone books
“Standalones are the harder to write,” Box said, although
after 20 Joe Pickett books, he finds himself walking “a fine line between
introducing (backstory) to new readers without boring longtime readers. I try
to sum it up in a sentence or two for new readers so they don’t fee lost.”
Grisham, on the other hand, prefers standalones. “Once
I’ve finished a book, I’m done. You can’t do that with a series.” Although,
he’ll never say never, having written a middle-grade thriller series, Theodore
Boone: Kid Lawyer, and his Camino Island mystery is threatening to
morph into a series with its follow-up, Camino Winds.
Author branding vs. genre
jumping
“I had written 40 series romances before I wrote my first
crossover (into suspense),” Sandra Brown said. “It was freeing but terrifying.
My publisher said, ‘Do we sell you as a romance writer or a suspense writer?
You’re sending mixed signals.’”
“After ten legal thrillers, I asked myself about writing
other types of books, Grisham said. “(My mystery) Camino Winds, for
instance doesn’t have a single lawyer!”
Follett’s take on switching from his original, trademark
thrillers to historical novels with the crossover historical fiction of The
Pillars of the Earth, is there was a common thread tying all of them
together. “Two things that appeal to me enormously are writing about people in
love and people in danger. So long as I have those very basic human (issues)
there was a continuity between my books.”
Research
“I always go (to sites),” Box said, “if I’m going to
someplace other than the mythical Saddlestring, Wyoming,” which is Joe
Pickett’s home. “I put on my old reporter hat.” Visits to settings can turn up
unexpected insights – such as how much wind turbines can sway -- and conduct
interviews. “Even though there might be some hesitancy at first, everybody I’ve
talked to has been incredibly forthcoming – sometimes more than I anticipate.
Just like cops, people love to talk about their professions.”
“I read a lot and go to locations,” said Dan Brown, for
whom location is character. “I also interview a lot of people, but
before I can talk to specialists, I have to know something.”
Gabaldon had, again famously, ever been to Scotland
before selling her first novel, which made enough money to finance a trip to
the country for her and her husband (who, not incidentally, is tall and
redhaired like her book’s hero). “I don’t do any (research) before I start,”
Gabaldon said, “because the research is concurrent with the writing. I just
trip over stuff as I go along.” She reads primarily for “atmosphere,” she said,
while using the Internet for particulars.
***
That’s all for now but with a year until the 2021
Thrillerfest to finish watching all the author interviews, I’m sure to be
posting more advice here from time to time. Stay tuned!
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