Writer to Writer

Jeff Abbott, a regular reader and an acclaimed crime writer in his own right, has started a new series of author interviews that focus on the process and craft of writing. The first two installments feature Harlan Coben and Laura Lippman, and based on the questions Jeff has asked them, I can’t wait for the next set of interviews.

Coben talks about his new book, JUST ONE LOOK, why he has issues writing proposals, whether Myron Bolitar is coming back (although honestly, it would have been nice for him to give a bit of a different answer considering Abbott’s a friend of his) and reveals why his books are so damned twisty:

Jeff: You have taken complicated plotting to a new art form. How do you work all the threads so the story resolves so seamlessly?

Harlan: I confess — there are very few twists that I’ve met that I haven’t liked. I love twists.

Jeff: You’re a twist whore.

Harlan: I prefer twist slut. And in Just One Look, I pulled a hip with this twist. I love those hands-out-of-the-graves moments where everything changes at the end, I love reading those. This is just the way my mind works — I can usually tell with about 90% of other crime novels, not to offend anyone, by page 30 I know which way it’s going to go and what’s going to happen, and I’m terrified a reader will have that reaction to my book. So there’s just no way I want that to happen — I’m going to try and fool you. Whatever gifts we’re given, I can keep all these plot threads going in my head. I love the E. L. Doctorow quote: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog with your headlights on — you can only see a little bit ahead of you but you can make the whole journey that way.” I never want to take the expected route. I love to take readers down the road they think they’re going to go, and then take them someplace else.

Lippman answers questions about her standalone EVERY SECRET THING, including the genesis for the opening line of the book and where she drew on personal experience to craft the important female characters of the book. She also gets into the process of writing her new Tess Monaghan novel and where mainstream authors could learn a thing or two from genre folk:

Jeff: You’ve said before that you’re weary of the “division” between genre writers and so-called mainstream writers. How do we as crime/mystery/suspense writers get past this? Because I think, frankly, lots of readers could care less about this division. A very wise reader once said to me, “I just want to read good books.” And it strikes me that many “mainstream” writers have not figured out that the publishers have made them into a genre of their own, at least for marketing purposes.

Laura: What are we fighting for? We’re in this together. When something like The Da Vinci Code sells 5-million plus copies, the proper response is to wonder how to get those new readers to try other books. Here’s an idea — publishing houses should take their “literary” writers who write about crime and tour them with mainstream crime writers with serious literary ambitions. Or pair “relationship” writers with the chick-lit types. What’s the worse thing that could happen? The readership would cross-pollinate. I’m happy to be the big chewy brownie that comes after the lamb vindaloo. (I have no idea how I came up with that culinary combination, but lamb vindaloo has such a nice ring to it, I’m not going to change it.)

Food metaphors aside, this is a fantastic idea and now I’m going to spend the rest of the day thinking up combinations for potential events….