Sunsettowers asked S.J. Watson:

I loved Before I Go to Sleep, and am planning to reread it soon. How do you come up with and decide on the twists and turns for your thrillers?

S.J. Watson Thanks! So glad you enjoyed the book and I hope you enjoy it second time round!

With Before I Go to Sleep I mostly let the story evolve organically. I knew my starting point and my destination, but most of the route evolved along the way. The twists and turns weren't planned, as such, but they came about as part of that process. Often it was simply because I wanted very much to write a book that surprised the reader, so any time I felt things were getting a little stagnant I'd say to myself, 'What's the last thing people will expect here?'

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As an author, were there any specific stages in your writing where you had to backtrack to make sure that the different fragments of memory Christine was given made sense in the bigger picture?

Michelle asked S.J. Watson:

When you were writing BIGTS did you find it easy to stay focused on the story, or did you discover a few subplots or meanderings that you needed to cut in order to stay focused? And if you had to make cuts, did you save those for a future work?

Arkopaul Das asked S.J. Watson:

When you write a book with a complicated plot ,do you usually make a outline of the whole novel beforehand or do just start writing and wait to see where the story takes you to ?

All answers from S.J. Watson…

S.J. Watson

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I loved Before I Go to Sleep, and am planning to reread it soon. How do you come up with and decide on the twists and turns for your thrillers?

More Answered Questions

As an author, were there any specific stages in your writing where you had to backtrack to make sure that the different fragments of memory Christine was given made sense in the bigger picture?

When you were writing BIGTS did you find it easy to stay focused on the story, or did you discover a few subplots or meanderings that you needed to cut in order to stay focused? And if you had to make cuts, did you save those for a future work?

When you write a book with a complicated plot ,do you usually make a outline of the whole novel beforehand or do just start writing and wait to see where the story takes you to ?

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