An Extra! Extra! Feature
Yesterday I completed my 9th novel (DUST & DECAY, to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2011) and today I started writing my 10th (DEAD OF NIGHT, St. Martins Griffin, June 2011). That’s nine-plus novels since 2005, with more sold and as yet unwritten. I love writing novels and I can’t imagine ever getting tired of it…but I have friends and colleagues who have written a dozen or two dozen or many dozens of novels. So…I asked some of them how they stay enthused and how they keep it fresh.
Joining us today are Sandra Brown, Wendy Corsi Staub, Tess Gerritsen, Gayle Lynds, Douglas Preseton, David Hewson, James Rollins, Jack Ketchum, John Connolly, Jeff Abbott, and F. Paul Wilson
SANDRA BROWN: I think staleness is a consequence of the writer’s boredom with what he/she is writing. The first reader I must entertain is myself. If I’m not intrigued by the plot, if I don’t care what’s going to happen next, if I’m indifferent to a character who is a complete ninny and, as such, deserves total defeat, then my paying customer will feel the same. So I keep it interesting for myself. And with each book, I try to do something I’ve never done before. I build in an element that will make this story, and the telling of it, new and interesting for me, so that it will be fresh for the reader.
WENDY CORSI STAUB: The characters keep it fresh, always. We’ve all heard the saying that there are only so many plots, and only so many variations an author can create within those plots. Only when you breathe life into a character who can step into any premise and own it do you come up with something unique.
TESS GERRITSEN: What keeps it fresh? The material. Always striving for that chill up the spine. Even though ICE COLD is my 22nd novel (if you include my early romantic suspense novels) I got just as much a thrill imagining that story as I did with my very first book. I got just as lost in the crisis, just as horrified by the predicament of the characters. If I can’t feel the emotions my characters are feeling, then the story is a dud.
GAYLE LYNDS: I’m riveted always by the next book. I begin thinking about it long before I’m writing. At this point I have notes to myself for the next three books. When one loves the work, and doesn’t mind having no sense of comfort that one can pull it off again, it’s just darn addictive.
DOUGLAS PRESTON: What keeps it fresh is when I think of what else I might be doing to make a living. Digging ditches? I sit in my little 8 x 10 shack in the Maine woods and think that this isn’t a bad way to make a living. The truth is, I love writing, I love entering that mysterious quasi-universe that exists in my head and is slowly forming on my computer screen as I write a novel.
DAVID HEWSON: It took me a while to realize this but essentially every book is different. I have an ensemble cast, not a single protagonist. I vary the location, the point of view, the tone, the nature of the book. Some are mysteries. Some are thrillers. Some are just novels. There’s a lot of pressure to write the same thing over and over again and you have to resist it. Otherwise you’ll get bored, and not long after the readers. I can honestly say I feel more enthused about this series now, with the ninth book halfway done, than I did five books ago. Avoiding Conan Doyle syndrome is important for series writers.
JAMES ROLLINS: Some people think I’m crazy writing two books a year (okay, three books this year), but I think that’s a key to staying fresh. Each of the books is very different. Once I’m sort of burned out with writing a staccato-paced modern thriller, I get to switch to something entirely new: a fantasy, a kid’s adventure, a dabble into horror. Once done with that, I’m ready to return to the modern thriller. If I had to write thriller after thriller, I think I might burn out. So the more the merrier is my credo.
JACK KETCHUM: Doing stuff that’s not the same kind of stuff I did last time. That, and not doing a damn thing at all for a while. I like what Robert Mitchum said when asked how come he did so few movies. He said something to the effect of, “I like to lay off now and then. That way I’m always the new girl in the whorehouse.”
JOHN CONNOLLY: Well, at least since THE WHITE ROAD, I’ve tended to write every second book out of contract, or just about, which gives me the opportunity to experiment. NOCTURNES, THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS, THE GATES and, I believe, BAD MEN were all written without a contract or an advance, and I’ve been very fortunate that my publishers have been willing to give me that space, and to publish whatever results from it. As a consequence, I get to play with new forms, new genres, and different ways of telling a story, all of which feed back into the Parker novels. In addition, after taking a break from those books I tend to come back to them very refreshed, which I hope is communicated to the reader. The downside is that perhaps a certain amount of momentum has been lost in terms of gaining readers, as one Parker book doesn’t necessarily follow on from the previous one every year, and that really is the way to become a big bestseller: give the people the same thing every year, but just slightly different. On the other hand, if I did that I’d go crazy. I think I’ve achieved a nice balance, but not without making certain sacrifices.
JEFF ABBOTT: What keeps it fresh? Never repeating yourself. I mean, every book is a new challenge; it never gets easier. I am always learning something new about writing with every book. I cannot let myself become bored; that would translate into a boring book. So I always, always have to push myself.
F. PAUL WILSON: Fresh, shmesh. Trying to make each book at least as good as, if not better than, the last is an ongoing challenge that keeps you sharp. I can see, however, how a series could become a chore. I sidestepped that with Repairman Jack by deciding from the start that it would be a closed-end series – I would not run Jack into the ground. The stories would loop out from The Tomb and end at Nightworld. I’m just starting the 15th and last novel in the series and I’m as psyched as ever.
The truth is, I can’t imagine not writing. Yes, it’s work, and it’s frustrating at times, but so is anything worth doing. For me, writing is an obsessive-compulsive disorder. If I won $80 million in the lottery today, you know what I’d be doing the very next morning? Well, I’d be in a CCU recovering from the heart attack winning caused me. But as soon as I got out, I’d be writing.
New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry is a multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author and Marvel Comics writer. His many novels include PATIENT ZERO and THE DRAGON FACTORY (in development for TV), THE WOLFMAN, and ROT & RUIN. He also has the dubious distinction of being a co-founder of the Liars Club.
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