Top Ten From Thrillerfest - Jo-Ann Carson

Top Ten From Thrillerfest

“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.”

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, (83) Wikiquote

Top Ten

The top ten ideas I took away from Thrillerfest 2013:

  1. “Be a first class version of yourself and not a second class version of someone else.” David Morrell (see post David Morrell on Creating Vivid Settings)
  2. Use “stealth description.”  Put in a detail here and there. Don’t do long paragraphs to introduce people. David Morrell
  3. Literary writing is like looking at the world through a stained glass window. The reader is aware of the writer embellishing the world he sees. Genre writing attempts to put the reader right into the story – windex writing. David Morrell
  4. The simplest device to create vivid stories is to let the reader feel the setting by using all the senses (especially smell). David Morrell
  5. At the core of the series character is a longing or “incompletion”. Michael Connelly (see post Michael Connolly says There’s No One Way…)
  6. Concentrate on the book in front of you. The series will come… Michael Connelly
  7. He starts by writing himself a long letter (talks about things that interest him – he puts them all down and then prioritizes. It’s like planning a dream vacation at no cost. T. Jefferson Parker (see post T. Jefferson Parker on Outlining)
  8. Always have a specific model of a physical place in your mind. John Sandford (see post Sandford’s Advice on How to Polish Your Manuscript)
  9. The number one problem in stories by new writers is that they lack structure. Steve Berry (see post Steve Berry’s  Advice on Story Structure)
  10. Thrillerfest rocks.

You can purchase tapes of the sessions from the Thrillerfest site.




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