Thrillers and secret societies seem to be a perpetual trend. What lies behind this fascination? The first thing I’d like to say is that while I am a terrific fan of a good secret-society thriller, Dominus is a story that I wrote, in part, to challenge some of the assumptions of that genre. It’s not […]
Category Archives: Writing Tips
Essential Writing Tips: Giving characters their own voice
Giving Characters Their Own Voice As long as there have been creative writing classes, aspiring authors have received the same advice: Write what you know. Unfortunately, unless you know a lot — and even if you do — that advice will only take you so far. You’ll still face the issue of building […]
Finding the Way In: How to find the perfect setting for books without getting lost…
Finding the perfect setting for books… For some years now, a large part of my creative life has taken place in a dismal collection of offices, spread across three floors, in a fictional borough of London that nevertheless exists in the real world. I’ve never set physical foot on these premises. The closest I’ve come […]
I Don’t Know How to Write a Book, yet I did!
They say that all you need to write a book is a good idea. And I didn’t have one. It was June 2012 on a cold, crisp afternoon in the shaky isles of Middle Earth, or as I affectionately call it, New Zealand. I was huddled under a blanket on the couch staring blankly […]
Murder in the Fjords…
Murder in the Fjords… I have enjoyed telling creepy stories since I was a child. I’ve always had this voice in my head that asks, “What if …” When you write a crime novel series with a recurring protagonist, one of the most frequently asked questions you get from readers, journalists, and panel participants—and it’s […]
Keep on Writing!
(Keep on Writing! An order that needs to be heeded by aspiring writers) How do you go about writing a story that’s several hundred pages long? “Seriously, how do you do it? “some people ask me in astonishment, as if writing were some kind of magic and all those pages of text just erupted from […]
Writing Tips from J.A. Jance
If you want to be a writer, read! Why people who don’t read books still want to write them is more than I can understand. If you want to be a writer, write what you love and respect your readers. If you look down your nose at genre fiction and are only writing a mystery […]
Researching Gangsters to Gadgets
Researching Gangsters to Gadgets To paraphrase the memorable line from the movie Goodfellas: As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to write about gangsters. The idea started when I was five years old. My grandmother, Mary, had been born in the early 1900s and told me how she grew up in […]
Nelson DeMille on Writing, John Corey, and Digital Publishing
Nelson DeMille on Writing… TSM: Your books often have a great feel for the ongoing political climate—where do you get your news and sources of info on current events? ND: My novels have been described as geo-political thrillers, which sounds impressive. I’m a news junkie and my major in college was Political Science and History, so […]
Tess Gerritsen’s writing tips for completing a novel…
by Tess Gerritsen It invariably happens to me about halfway through a manuscript. Inspired by an intriguing premise, I launch straight into the story, set my characters into action, throw in a few initial twists…and then I smack into a wall. Because I have no idea what happens next in my story. Or I don’t […]
A Writer’s Inspiration: How to come up with new ideas…
A Writer’s Inspiration: How to come up with new ideas… I’m often asked whether my writing is inspired by real life. And by real life, people usually mean my life. Occasionally, I do lift small details from my own life and use them directly in my writing—the way my sister’s hair falls, the taste of […]
Character Motivation and Beyond
Character Motivation and Beyond Motivation drives the decisions both of the characters and the writer throughout a plot. Books on literary analysis, such as the Norton Anthologies, often lump motivation with character and identity, whereas mystery readers have long regarded motive as a full and separate category in its own right. Carolyn Wells devoted a […]
