Dan Jorgensen's Blog, page 83

'What writing suspense - and success - is all about'

 

Ioften will write a scene from three different points of view to find out whichhas the most tension and which way I’m able to conceal the information I’mtrying to conceal.  And that is, at theend of the day, what writing suspense is all about.”– Dan Brown

 

Born on June 22, 1964 Brown hasutilized the technique to perfection. His thrillers exude suspense and his readers flock to them and have sincehis first success (The Da VinciCode) in 2003. Brown's novels are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour period,featuring recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes and conspiracytheories.  

 

While writing is his life today itwasn’t that way until the mid-1990s.  Until then he was a singer, songwriter and pianist in Hollywood,where he also taught music at the prestigious Beverly Hills Preparatory School.  Brown grew up with classical music and still is a composer.  His highly regarded Wild Symphony features 21 individual orchestral movements representing the funny or interesting sides of various animals’ personalities.  "My engagement with music has never waned," he told one interviewer. "I still play piano and compose nearly every day."

 

Another writing technique Brown likes is using real people in his life as key characters, answering the old familiar question many writers get: “Where do you get your characters?” 

 

Characters aside, Brown’s secret to writing success is simple:  “Hard work. I still get up every morning at 4 a.m. I write seven days a week, including Christmas.  I still face a blank page every morning, andmy characters don’t really care how many books I’ve sold.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'You collaborate with your readers'

A Writer's Moment: 'You collaborate with your readers':   “I love the fact that you collaborate with your readers when you write a book.” – Robert Crais Born in Louisiana on...

'You collaborate with your readers'

 

“Ilove the fact that you collaborate with your readers when you write a book.”– Robert Crais

Born in Louisiana on this date in 1953, Crais is one of America’s best-selling crime fiction authors.  But he didn’t start writing his novels until longafter he had made a name for himself as a script writer forsuch television shows as Hill Street Blues and Cagney and Lacey. 

 

It was in the late 1980s before he tested thebookwriting waters.  His first novel, The Monkey’s Raincoat, was an instant hit and earned every award from “Best First Novel” to “Best Mystery.”  Since then he’s had 22 otherbestsellers.  Among his many awards are the Ross MacdonaldLiterary Award for crime fiction and being named a Grand Master bythe Mystery Writers of America. 

 

 In 2020 his novel Suspect was named Best Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade by the Barry Awards.  Perhaps his best-known novel, also made into a movie, is Hostage, often cited for its great character development.

               

“My books come to me in images,” hesaid about his inspiration.  “Sometimes theimage is at the beginning of the book, and sometimes it's simply a flashsomewhere in the middle.   

 

 “Iwrite characters and stories that move me,” he said, “and I write from theheart.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Leaping tall buildings'

A Writer's Moment: 'Leaping tall buildings':   “Take something you love, tell people about it, bring together people who share your love, and help make it better. Ult...

'Leaping tall buildings'

 

“Takesomething you love, tell people about it, bring together people who share yourlove, and help make it better. Ultimately, you'll have more of whatever youlove for yourself, and for the world.” – Julius Schwartz

 

Perhaps few people even knowSchwartz’s name, but he left readers with a lasting legacy by helping developsome of our most iconic comic book “superheroes.”  Schwartzalso came up with the concept (and title) of the Justice League of America.

 

Born on this date in 1915, Schwartz(who died in 2004) was DC Comics’ primary editor in the development of the publisher'sflagship superheroes Superman and Batman. Also a literary agent, he co-founded the Solar Sales Service LiteraryAgency, where he represented such writers as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury and H.P. Lovecraft, placing some of Bradbury's first published works andLovecraft's last.  

 

And, he is credited with helping organizethe first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939.  The organization, which is now known as WorldCon, presents the annual Hugo Awards for best science fiction and fantasy.    

 

Schwartz is one of just a feweditors to be inducted into both the Comic Industry’s Jack Kirby Hall of Fameand the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, something he found almostunbelievable.   

 

 “Not too many people,” hesaid,  “ever know who the editor is.”

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A Writer's Moment: 'Witness to history; opportunity to live it'

A Writer's Moment: 'Witness to history; opportunity to live it':   “Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.” –   John Hers...

'Witness to history; opportunity to live it'

 

“Journalismallows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunityto live it.” –  John Hersey

Born in China (to missionaryparents) on June 17, 1914 Hersey is perhaps best known for his bio-novel A Bell for Adano, and for hisfeature story "Hiroshima" about the aftermath of the first atomic bomb.  In the span of two years he won the PulitzerPrize for Bell, and waves ofaccolades for “Hiroshima,” later judged “the finest piece of American journalism ofthe 20th century” by a 36-member panel associated with New York University’sjournalism department.

 

Adanois the story of an Italian-American military officer whowins the respect and admiration of the people of Adano, Sicily, by helping themfind a replacement for the town bell that the Fascists had melted down forrifle barrels.   The tale grew directlyout of his own WWII experiences.

 

That book was the third of 27 that Hersey wrote, including a terrific book based on his parents’ andtheir contemporaries’ missionary experience titled The Call.   Hersey also had a long journalistic career ledby “Hiroshima.”  Written in August, 1946 the 31,000-word article was published by The New Yorker and told from the viewpoint of 6 survivors.  Thestory occupied almost the entire issue – something The New Yorkerhad never done before, nor has since. 

 

Shortly before his 1993 death, Yale(his alma mater) honored Hersey by creating an annual lecture series in hisname.  In dedicating the series, fellowYale alum and author, David McCullough said, “Hersey portrayed our time with abreadth and artistry matched by very few. He has given us the century in agreat shelf of brilliant work, and we are all his beneficiaries."

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Sharing the possibilities that storytelling embraces

"Storytelling makes possibleredemptions and healings that can't happen in any other way." – Stephen Donaldson

Donaldson, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1947 may be American but he is mostly “other-worldly” in his writing.  Over his lifetime he's written a widerange of fantasy and science fiction novels that have cemented his position asa leading writer in the genre’, knocking around in alternativeuniverses like he successfully does in his 10-volume The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

Characterized bypsychological complexity, conceptual abstractness, moral bleakness, and the useof an arcane vocabulary, his writing has attracted critical praise for its"imagination, vivid characterizations, and fast pace."   I think he also should get high marks for his titles (one I especially enjoyed is The Rune of Earth).
Agraduate of The College of Wooster and Kent State (both in Ohio), he currently makes his home in New Mexico. “I may not be as old as dirt," Donaldson said, "but dirt and Ihave an awful lot in common.”

A Writer's Moment: Sharing the possibilities that storytelling embraces

A Writer's Moment: Sharing the possibilities that storytelling embraces: "Storytelling makes possible redemptions and healings that can't happen in any other way." – Stephen Donaldson Donaldson ,...

A Writer's Moment: 'The poet's job is to render the world'

A Writer's Moment: 'The poet's job is to render the world':   “The job of the poet is to render the world - to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever ta...