Since I published my first novel
four years ago, I’ve been waiting to hear from James Patterson. In my wildest daydreams, he asks me to coauthor a book with him. I’m also an avid reader of his suspense books and admire his creativity and no-nonsense writing style. So when I saw that he was offering a writing class for authors, I signed up.
Why I signed up
1)
I need
help changing from a Pantser to an Outliner.
I am a true, write-by-the-seat-of-my-pants author and harbor a strong resistance
to any form of outlining, despite trying every method I’ve come across. In an interview with Patterson, I heard that he does fifty-page outlines. I figured if
the master of outlining can’t inspire me to change, no one can.
2)
I want
to entertain my readers
Scoff
at Patterson’s style all you want—(it is no accident that he’s a millionaire)—Patterson’s
books are sheer entertainment. His fans gobble up his books by the hundreds of thousands.
What I’ve learned so far
1)
Love, love, love, this Patterson quote on self-editing. “Go through your manuscript
and delete everything a reader would skim over.”
As a reader I skim over any sections that bore me, especially backstory
and family history. Not my thing, and judging by Patterson’s popularity, not
many others’ thing, either.
2)
Using an extensive, Patterson-style outline, a good story is constructed on a rather bare outline, and then built upon and worked into a thing of sheer entertainment
much like a symphony is arranged by a musician. The huge payoff to spending
time outlining, is that when you’re ready to write the story, it will
practically write itself. For me that means no downtime from writing when
I get stuck in the dreaded nowhere land that is the middle of the novel or spending
weeks trying to figure out how to wrap it all up.
Who should not sign up
(Patterson’s style is not
for everyone)
1) Anyone
striving to be a “literary” novelist, don’t even think about Patterson’s
lessons. You know who you are and I refuse any attempt to define literary
writing.
2) Authors
who love to embellish with extensively-detailed backstory, description, and family history.
Dear Readers,
I’m resolved to do my sixth novel, #3 of the Detective
Kendall Halsrud series, using the Patterson method. I have a good start on my
outline and I am already frustrated because I want to start writing. I’ve
overcome the urge by extending my outline, and feeling excited about my
progress.
Thanks for stopping by, will add more on this topic later.
Marla
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