Insights and Stories From My Journey
Two things come to mind:
- All the stuff I learn! I do a lot of research for each book and it’s like going to school (in the best possible way) all over again each time. I love all the fascinating things I learned about the martial arts, famous escapes through history, the Crusades, how the Aztecs lived, or the world’s worst tyrants. Sometimes it’s the little details that capture your imagination.
- Playing with words and language. You can sculpt a sentence like clay. Little changes take it from ho-hum to something that sings. Stretch it out here, smooth it out there, chop off that little bit that just doesn’t look right. When it works, you know it (or maybe your editor knows it). When it’s just right everything hums like a smooth-running machine. The right words can reach out and grab a reader, making them understand what someone else saw, felt, or thought, as if they were there, too. It can also make them feel like they’ve been understood. Then the whole process of writing feels magical.
Ideas can come from almost anywhere: a news headline, a conversation, a picture or object in a museum with an interesting story behind it. It’s a good idea to jot down ideas before you forget. Some never seem to lead anywhere, but others grow over time in your imagination, taking shape into something more complete that might make a good book. The next step is to ask yourself: is there a book like this already out there? Or is my idea different enough from what’s already been done? The answers will tell me when I’ve stumbled on something waiting to be written!
First of all, read! And think a lot about what you read. If you love a book, ask yourself, what makes it so good? Good books are the best writing teachers, really.
