“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:
- “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)
- Use “stealth description.” Put in a detail here and there. Don’t do long paragraphs to introduce people. David Morrell
- 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
- The simplest device to create vivid stories is to let the reader feel the setting by using all the senses (especially smell). David Morrell
- At the core of the series character is a longing or “incompletion”. Michael Connelly (see post Michael Connolly says There’s No One Way…)
- Concentrate on the book in front of you. The series will come… Michael Connelly
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Thrillerfest rocks.
You can purchase tapes of the sessions from the Thrillerfest site.