How My Teenage Diaries Inspired My Novel When I decided to write a novel with a dual timeline—present day with flashbacks to 1989—I got out my old teenage diaries for a bit of inspiration. As you might expect, there were times where I laughed or cringed as I read, but actually I was mostly […]
Category Archives: Writing Tips
The Long Arduous Path to Becoming a Professional Author
The Long Arduous Path to Becoming a Professional Author I often wonder what brought me here. Here, being my writing desk in my office at home, sitting under my framed Wall Street Journal review and posters of the covers of my three novels. Here, being me, being a full-time writer. I know I took […]
Five Tips for Writing a Compelling Legal Thriller
Five Tips for Writing a Compelling Legal Thriller Courtroom Scenes Are Inherently Dramatic. A courtroom can provide a perfect locale for drama and tension. Events take place in a confined space. Authors can “play to the jury” while playing with readers’ expectations, allowing the suspense to build. Judges can be depicted as people who […]
Writers and Day Jobs
Writers and Day Jobs A writer’s gotta have a day job. I knew that going in. I was in high school back then, learning about the Civil War and differential calculus and the reproductive system of the earthworm. It was important stuff, all of it. Earthworms are hermaphrodites. They have both male and female […]
Why you haven’t written your book yet (and 5 ways to change that)
Why you haven’t written your book yet (and 5 ways to change that) There are plenty of good reasons to write a book: to have something to work on while loitering in coffee shops; to shape the way your grandkids remember you; to have something to talk about at cocktail parties in case you’re ever […]
Jeff Abbott’s Top Ten Writing Tips
Jeff Abbott’s Top Ten Writing Tips I think we’ve entered a time when we’re a lot more suspicious of writing advice than we used to be. A lot of writing chestnuts feel prescriptive to too many people—not everyone can write every day; sometimes, yes, you want to tell rather than show; passive voice isn’t inherently […]
SCRATCHING THE TENSION-JUNKIE ITCH: GIVING THE READER A REASON TO TURN PAGES
SCRATCHING THE TENSION-JUNKIE ITCH: GIVING THE READER A REASON TO TURN PAGES Why do people read? What makes someone stay up late, turning pages? The easy answer is curiosity. But all writers wrestle with how to create it. All writers toil to make it look effortless. Humans are tension junkies. We’ve survived through the […]
Thirst: On Writing, Harry, & Flying Jumbo Jets by Jo Nesbø (Excerpts)
What am I thinking when I set out to write a book? First of all, I think it’s impossible. It’s impossible to transform my thoughts and feelings into letters that can convey them to a reader without losing most of—and the most important parts of—their meaning. And it’s definitely impossible for these vague, sound-mimicking symbols to […]
What Can Sherlock Holmes Teach you about Writing? It’s all in the Clues…
What makes a Great Clue? Writing Lessons from Masters of Mystery Before I turned ten, I devoured The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes I read by myself but often I read out loud with my father, who loved Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories and recited passages from memory with great dramatic flair. His favorite, and mine, was […]
The Long Shadow of Raymond Chandler…
The Long Shadow of Raymond Chandler… Raymond Chandler changed my life. I was assigned to read The Long Goodbye for class, and although only five chapters were assigned, I devoured the whole book in one night. As a young writer, I wasn’t sure what sort of stories I wanted to write, but Chandler’s prose, […]
Tweet This: Social Media Has a big impact on Nonfiction
Tweet This: Social Media Has a big impact on Nonfiction The benefit of writing a nonfiction mystery story this way is that you can transport the reader into the narrative so they get lost in its pages. One of the best techniques to draw the reader in is to paint a picture of what […]
The Balancing Act: Keeping Your Series Fresh for New and Existing Readers
The Balancing Act: Keeping Your Series Fresh for New and Existing Readers I have a photograph of myself taken years ago inside a hotel room in York, England, where I’m reading Peter Robinson’s novel In a Dry Season. To this day, it’s one of my all-time favorite mysteries. Peter had already written several Inspector Banks […]