In Brian Klems' Writer’s Digest Column on Writing, I read a great article titled, "The 5 C’s of Writing a Great Thriller Novel.”
While I’m not a thriller writer, the information in this article is applicable to just about all fiction writing.
There are fundamentals elements needed in all fiction to make it reader engaging and friendly. In other words, to make it ‘page turning good.’
The
On Saturday, ThrillerFest ThrillerMasters Sandra Brown (Unspeakable), R.L. Stine (Goosebumps) and David Morrell (First Blood) got together for a chat on the craft hosted by Peter James. As James said, these are giants of the genre—and “each of them would make E.L. James turn 50 shades of green.”
Here are their writing processes and where they get their ideas.
SANDRA BROWN
WRITING PROCESS
Brown started writing when her children were young, so she would take them to preschool and then write in the small timeframe when they were gone. That process informed the rest of her career.
“I think I’ve always kind of patterned my day after basic banker’s hours,” she said. “It’s generally 9-5 for that reason, because they were in school. Nowadays I go to an office, and I typically deal with correspondence and things like that for a couple of hours, and then I start writing.”
Brown also has ritual escapes.
“Several times a year I go completely away,” she said. While gone, she has no appointments, and she turns off her social life. “Those are my favorite times. That’s when I just totally immerse myself in the book. My favorite day is the day when I have maybe like 8 hours of nothing, except just make believe.”
WHERE SHE GETS HER IDEAS
“When I finish a book, I start looking around and thinking what I’ll write about next. I’m always totally convinced I’ll never have another idea. Sometimes it takes a while, and sometimes it comes very rapidly. Not all ideas want to be books.”
“In terms of where I get the ideas, sometimes I can tell you very specifically, ‘I read this in the newspaper,’ or, ‘I heard this in conversation’ or ‘I saw this on a television program’ … and then other times I have absolutely no idea.”
R.L. STINE
WRITING PROCESS
“Kids think you just sit down and start writing. I always tell them you never do that.” Instead, Stine plans and outlines extensively. “If you do enough planning before you start to write, there’s no way you can have writer’s block. I do a complete chapter by chapter outline.” Stine said his readers hate to hear that—“And I hate it, too. But I can’t work without it.” Once he has his outline, Stine can then sit at his desk and know how he’s going to get to The End. “I know it all. And the writing is just fun because I’ve done the hard part.” Stine works about six days a week, and generates 10 pages a day—typing with only one “magic finger.” “I used to do it faster, but that was before email and Twitter, which is a horrible distraction. And I’m too stupid to turn it off.”
WHERE HE GETS HIS IDEAS
Stine has one of the most unconventional processes out there—he gets his ideas from titles. For instance, he was once walking his dog, and he thought, “Little Shop of Hamsters.” That’s a great title. Coming up with a title sets him to pondering, and then he creates a fictional universe and plot around it. “It leads me to the story, and I do that all the time.”
For much, much more about Stine’s writing process, read our full profile of the bestseller here:
More & More & More Tales To Give You Goosebumps (Yeah, We’re Talking About R.L. Stine)
In her insightful panel “Life or Work? Balancing Life’s Demands With Writing,” moderator Joan Johnston (Shattered, Hawk’s Way) quizzed a group of established publishing pros about how, exactly, you can quiet daily demands so that you can get those voices in your head down on the page and into the hands of readers.
David Bell (Cemetery Girl)
Bell said he excels at compartmentalizing. “I just think you have to be able to do that,” he said. And, “You have to be able to communicate with people in your life.” Simply explain to them that you have to do this work—it’s important to you, and it must be done.
Bell later added that you should not delay the pursuit of your dream. “Be patient, but don’t wait. … Start today, because the sooner you start the sooner you’re on the road to doing it. I always say you have to write bad stuff before you write good stuff.”
Literary Agent Josh Getzler
Getzler has three young kids at home, and he described his house as a whirlwind when he gets off work. So, he wakes up at 5 a.m. and works for a couple hours before all the chaos starts up. Like Bell, he also believes in the power of communication. Sometimes, he’ll simply tell his family that they can’t go out that week until he has done the necessary writing. “It’s always very much a challenge, and it’s never easy,” he said.
Later, when you have a manuscript ready to go and you’ve submitted it, Getzler said patience is key. “Luck is important, and patience is vital.”
Melodie Johnson Howe (Shooting Hollywood)
It’s an epidemic you may be familiar with—“When you say ‘I’m writing,’ people don’t always take that seriously,” Howe said. But writers have to find time to write. To keep her prose life productive, Howe said she has conditioned herself so that when her kids and husband interrupt her, she can still keep her train of thought going. “They get what they want, I get what I need,” she said.
Ultimately, “You put your ass in that chair, and you sit down and write. You just have to commit to it.”
Vladimir Lange (Fatal Memories)
To make the most of his writing time, when he goes to bed Lange visualizes the problem he’s trying to solve in his manuscript. When he wakes up the next morning, he goes straight to his work-in-progress, because if he permits any distractions to interfere, he can’t easily slip back into the creative mode.
Overall, Lange’s advice to those who want to be writers is to first focus on mastering the basics at courses, seminars, etc.—you don’t want to spend three years writing a book, only to find out you’ve broken some big no-nos that will doom the book.
Nancy Naigle (Sweet Tea And Secrets)
With a background in the banking industry, Naigle identified herself as a lister and a planner. She writes her goals out, knows her timelines, and comes up with solutions for what will help her achieve those goals. “The biggest thing you can do is just remember we do make time for the things we want to do and we love. I think you have to remember to put your own things first. … ”
In a scene from one of author Ted Dekker’s novels, a man gets a chicken out of the freezer—and then beats someone to death with it. It’s a wild image, and a strange, captivating scene.
But when it comes down to it, how do scenes like this actually thrill, and how do they keep readers hooked? Is it because it’s action? Is it because of the violence?
No. And this is something that kept coming up in various panels and sessions at ThrillerFest: When it boils down to it, it’s all about the character, and the emotion.
In the case of the chicken incident: Who is this guy? Why did he do it?
If characters aren’t brought to life through solid development and the other key ingredients that span all forms of writing, the action will mean nothing—even in thrillers, a genre that often features a surplus of action.
“Action bores me, so I search for the deeper meaning behind the action,” Dekker said in Jon Land’s panel “How Do You Amp Up the Action Without Losing All Credibility?” “I want to be moved.”
It’s key to consider the why. Why is someone running for their life? Why does this spy care so much about saving this one person? Dekker said the reader has to identify with a challenge they find in themselves.
Author Lisa Jackson said imbuing each character with a motivation for their actions is the most difficult part of her writing. After all, she said, anyone can write about someone doing something wild. It’s the emotional resonance that brings everything to life.
