Neil Gaiman Speaks

Thriller Guy met Neil Gaiman a few years ago and found him to be as likeable and smart as

everyone says he is. Gaiman is massively talented, the author of comics (Sandman) novels (Anansi Boys, American Gods) movies (Mirrormask) short stories and a TV series, just to mention a few of his many and varied accomplishments. He blogs at www.neilgaiman.com and recently wrote a short blog on that perennial topic: how to write a novel. TG is going to re-blog his piece. Gaiman is such a nice guy TG is sure he won’t mind.

"Write your ideas down. If they are going to be stories, try and tell the stories you would like to read. Finish the things you start to write. Do it a lot and you will be a writer. The only way to do it is to do it.

I’m just kidding. There are much easier ways of doing it. For example: On the top of a distant mountain there grows a tree with silver leaves. Once every year, at dawn on April 30th, this tree blossoms, with five flowers, and over the next hour each blossom becomes a berry, first a green berry, then black, then golden.

At the moment the five berries become golden, five white crows, who have been waiting on the mountain, and which you will have mistaken for snow, will swoop down on the tree, greedily stripping it of all its berries, and will fly off, laughing.

You must catch, with your bare hands, the smallest of the crows, and you must force it to give up the berry (the crows do not swallow the berries. They carry them far across the ocean, to an enchanter’s garden, to drop, one by one, into the mouth of his daughter, who will wake from her enchanted sleep only when a thousand such berries have been fed to her). When you have obtained the golden berry, you must place it under your tongue, and return directly to your home.

For the next week, you must speak to no-one, not even your loved ones or a highway patrol officer stopping you for speeding. Say nothing. Do not sleep. Let the berry sit beneath your tongue.

At midnight on the seventh day you must go to the highest place in your town (it is common to climb on roofs for this step) and, with the berry safely beneath your tongue, recite the whole of Fox in Socks. Do not let the berry slip from your tongue. Do not miss out any of the poem, or skip any of the bits of the Muddle Puddle Tweetle Poodle Beetle Noodle Bottle Paddle Battle.

Then, and only then, can you swallow the berry. You must return home as quickly as you can, for you have only half an hour at most before you fall into a deep sleep.

When you wake in the morning, you will be able to get your thoughts and ideas down onto the paper, and you will be a writer."

TG here. Like I said, he’s a funny guy. This shows how maddening it is to keep answering the how-to question with the same advice, TG’s all-purpose, Sit Down, Shut Up, Get to Work. People don’t want to hear it, they think there’s a secret that’s being kept from them. And TG can guarantee that somewhere, sometime, someone will try and follow the above advice. And when it doesn’t work, he’s going to be pissed off. TG only asks one thing…

Don’t write to me, this is all Gaiman’s idea. You can reach him at his website: www.neilgaiman.com TG is sure he would love to hear from you.

The Killer

Back when Thriller Guy was writing movie scripts he read an interesting piece of advice on how to craft a good action/adventure film. Scripts are short (each page equals one minute of screen time, hence around 100 to 120 pages) and they are traditionally divided up into three acts. To understand this soon-to-be-revealed piece of advice, you should know the screenwriting definition of the word “whammie.” A whammie is anything exciting, usually an explosion, car chase, gunfight, anything that gets the viewer's blood pumping. Here's the advice on how to structure your script:

Act One: Whammies.

Act Two: More Whammies.

Act Three: All Whammies.

With his recently published The Killers, Tom Hinshelwood has written a thriller that is all whammies.

The primary elements are not all that unusual – a CIA traitor, hired killer, beautiful agency operative, Russian spies, and an espionage coup of invaluable proportion, betrayals and double crosses – but what he does with them is a steely, joy to read: a thriller that kicks ass from beginning to end without any sag in the middle, no fussy romantic entanglements, no cliched backstory that attempts to explain the psychological origins behind the ongoing mayhem. This book slams into gear from the first pages and roars along till it smashes into the end. Terrific.

Victor is a hired killer who is coldly efficient. He's doing a hit on a Latvian national, killing the man and retrieving a small flash drive. When Victor heads back to his hotel he has to fight his way through a gang that suddenly attacks him. From then on legions of other hit men try to take his life, eventually culminating in an assassins duel between Victor and another hired killer, Reed, who may or may not be his equal.

There's a scene soon after Reed is introduced where he is attacked, randomly, by a gang of street punks. Thriller Guy loves these scenes which are often found in thrillers. The street gang shows up, hones in on the professional, and you just know what is going to happen. Here, the leader of the punks demands that Reed hand over his wallet, phone and watch:

     Reed's expression remained blank. “Why?”

     “Say what?”

     In that moment when confusion combined with anxiety, Reed grabbed the outstretched arm before him, wrapping his left hand around the wrist and pulling the kid forward sharply, directing the gun away to the side. He took hold of the kid's triceps with his free hand and twisted the wrist in his grip, locking the arm. He wrenched it downward, hard – against the joint – snapping the arm at the elbow and into an inverted V.

     The gun clattered on the asphalt and the awful wail momentarily stunned the others. Reed released the wrist and the kid collapsed. Among the screams he managed to find his voice.

     “FUCKING KILL HIM.”

     Reed sprang forward toward the other drawn gun, knocked the weapon aside as it was raised to fire, using his forward impetus to multiply the force of the elbow he sent into the kid's face. His head snapped backward, blood splashing from his mouth and the kid went down heavy, out cold, jaw broken.

     The other youth armed with a gun backed off, palms showing, eyes wide, head shaking. Reed ignored him, heard the click of a switchblade opening, turned, sidestepped as his attacker lunged and overextended himself into empty air, stumbling, completely off balance, arms flailing.

     The next one came from behind, his feet scraping on the ground. Reed whipped round, threw the edge of his hand into the guy's throat. He fell down convulsing.

     Two more attacked at the same time, one wielding a hunting knife with a four-inch blade, the other a crowbar. The crowbar came at him first, from the left, swinging for his head. Reed caught it and the attacker's hand together, redirected it downward, using the kid's momentum against him to twist the bar from his fingers and into Reed's own.

     He smashed an elbow into the youth's side, knocking him backward, as the youth gasped, ribs cracked. Reed followed through with the crowbar, backhanding it into the side of his attacker's skull. Blood splashed on faces in the crowd.

     The hunting knife passed within inches of Reed's face, a wild swing, clumsy. Reed dodged backward, waiting for the next attack, used his forearm as a shield to turn the blade aside and the crowbar to sweep his attacker's feet out from under him and drove it down into the kid's face, exploding his nose across his cheeks.

     The small youth with the switchblade recovered and yelled as he attacked again, a frenzied stab. Reed dodged, invited another attack, and brought the crowbar down hard on the youth's exposed arm, shattering bones. He screamed and dropped the knife, wrist and hand hanging limply from mid-forearm. Reed reversed his grip on the crowbar, swung it upward, cracking the youth under the jaw, the force lifting him off his feet and dropping him back to the ground in a silent heap.

     It was all over in less than seven seconds.

This is pretty much just a throwaway scene, tossed in for the sheer, exuberant love of havoc. Hinshelwood cranks this stuff out by the ream, making it look easy when TG can assure all you writers, published and unpublished, out there, it isn't. It's damn hard to do a few times, much less over and over the course of the entire book. And without repeating himself, without, dare I say it, becoming gratuitous. Whenever an ass kicking comes, it is always well deserved and functions to move the plot forward. The point of the above scene: don't screw around with Reed. If you do he will kill you.

TG will contact Hinshelwood and see if he'll donate a signed book to the first one of TG's readers who requests a copy. Maybe TG will do a small interview and find out where the man learned to write and to kick butt. So let TG know if you want a copy. And remember, all you Thriller Writers:

Whammies.

In the end, it's all about the whammies.

A Report From the Front Lines

Thriller Guy's quote for the day is stolen from the literary quote gadget on his Google homepage. From John Steinbeck, “Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.” Probably good advice.

Constant readers of this blog may remember that TG is shepherding first time thriller writer, code named AJ, through the long and difficult process of actually producing a novel. AJ has a large family and is the CEO of a company that does something really complicated having to do with security. That is to say, he's a regular person with responsibilities, leaving him with little free time to write, and yet he's decided to tackle writing a novel. TG applauds his courage and contends that the process is possible if you break the project into doable segments. TG's first advice was to read Albert Zuckerman's valuable book on how to go about writing a novel. TG asked AJ for a report on how he is doing. AJ sent in the following:

"I bought the book you recommended, 'Writing the Blockbuster Novel' which as Amazon calls it - is part fiction-biology textbook, part cookbook. Its author, Albert Zuckerman, dissects the commercial bestseller, then provides recipes for each discrete element. Settings, according to Zuckerman, should be "topical, trendy, 'sexy'"--either newsworthy hotspots or uncharted territory--and main characters, à la Don Corleone and Scarlett O'Hara, should loom larger than life. Like Hollywood blockbusters, "mega-books" should be high concept, with high stakes. Zuckerman discusses point of view (there should be multiple), character relationships, plotting, revision, and especially outlining. "Every mega-book with which I've been involved was planned and replanned and planned again," he confides. Indeed, a 63-page chapter here features four versions of Ken Follett's outline for The Man from St. Petersburg and an analysis of each. Still, no matter how good your outline, remember that there's a learning curve. A beginning novelist writing a successful blockbuster novel, says Zuckerman, is about as likely as "a high school athlete trying to play with the Dallas Cowboys."

I tried not to be disheartened by that last statement, but the information does seem valuable and very helpful, so I figured I would go through the exercise that he recommended - which involved me reading The Man From St. Petersburg before covering chapter 3, which I did (and enjoyed, who knew homework could be fun?) and am now going through the analysis of the outlines, as presented by Mr. Z. It appears, even from his own advice, that I shouldn't worry too much about the first draft of the outline, but should get it done, so as soon as I finish reading through this particular chapter, I am going to finish the outline according to the advice I found there. I found that I didn't really have any idea how to go about creating an outline for a novel, so I am looking at the examples to get a feel for what I need to do.

I have learned a lot in the past two weeks, and have a lot of ideas developed during that time that will have an influence on what I am putting together. I've also picked up some interesting bits from reading or watching interviews of current best selling authors where they discuss a what they do, and have been squeezing in story related research every stretch that I can. For example, since I have an iphone, during idle moments while out and about I have web pages open, you tube videos to watch, and thriller reading to read. (I have kindle on my iphone, which is how I got through Follet's novel in just a few days).

So, I'd better leave off here, I can hear my work email chiming new messages several times during the typing of this, and I'm sure there are other demands that won't be ignored. Lunch? That cup of coffee that I ran upstairs to get."

TG's advice at this point? Soldier on, AJ. Don't worry about the length of the outline at this point. If you can manage one page, that will do. It's a place to start, not a finished product. You'll find yourself going back to it time and again to write in new ideas. The outline will grow as you begin to work on the actual book.

Courage. Onward, always onward.

The Glories, and Perils, of Research

What Is Thriller Guy Reading?

Out last month from Tor, Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice teaming up again with Red Dragon Rising: Shadows of War. This is military adventure at its finest. There's little time wasted on complex characterization or scene setting, instead the authors cut straight to the action. It's 2014, gas in the US costs $14.39 a gallon and the recession continues unabated. China decides to invade Vietnam then take over the rest of Asia; the US has to step in to save the world. In no time at all the missiles, bombs and bullets are flying. If you're interested in the genre, these guys are among the best.

AJ Update.

As a reminder or for first-time viewers, TG is shepherding a first-time novelist, AJ, as he begins a thriller. Here's a sliver of his comment on the blog below: “Part of what does slow me down is the tons of research I find myself diving into on every little aspect of the story. There are some procedural things that I needed to find out, which makes other questions come up, which leads to new ideas, etc.”

TG loves doing research for a novel. The subject is always a place, time or concept that he's interested in, so what can beat whiling away hours on the Internet, in bookstores and libraries? Nothing. Certainly not writing, the painful act of putting words on paper. TG's suggestion is to do a small amount of research while you're getting your concept together, making sure things will work, then doing your outline to get the story down, go back and do any specific research you need for your first several chapters and then START WRITING. Everyone's schedule is different, but if you've got all day to write, a solid four hours in the morning, followed by a couple of hours rewriting what you did the day before followed by another couple of hours of research is a good day's work. A ratio of 4:2:2. If you're squeezing the writing in around a day job, try to stick with the ratio, even though your time will be shorter; splitting the various aspects up over several days if need be.

Research will suggest new lines of attack, new plot twists, new characters and sometimes entirely new directions. It is (usually) wise to follow these leads; beware of thinking that because it means going back and rewriting what has already been written to make the new material fit, that it will be too much work and not be worth it. This is a mistake. Plots, characters and concepts grow because they are fed new material, either from your own brain where you make it up or from outside sources. Research, in other words. You will be amazed how your book will grow from what you will come to see as the paltry, spindly little thing it was when it was first conceived, to the big, strong bruiser it will become when it is finished.

Another Useful Book.

At the other end of the spectrum from Zuckerman's, How to Write the Blockbuster Novel is the newly published, Talking About Detective Fiction, By P.D. James. TG has not had the time to read this, but it's obviously going to have some good stuff in it. Everything that P.D. James writes has good stuff in it. Perhaps some kind soul out there might find a copy of this and review it for us on these pages? For a look at the first chapter, go here.

OK, Tough Guy, So You Want To write a Novel

OK, Thriller Guy has a proposal to make. Those of you who haven't read Anonymous's respons to Anonymous the writer (this is getting difficult. Let's call the guy who wants to write a novel who wrote the interesting post below, Anonymous J, or AJ, from now on) go ahead and read his comment, which TG put up as a post, rather than a comment. AJ wants to write novels rather than doing his regular day job. Fine. He can't seem to find time to “knock out a novel or two or three.” Also fine. But you're not going to knock out anything, you're going to have to write every frigging word, rewrite every frigging word, and agonize over it all. But it's not impossible. So here's the deal.

Thriller Guy will lead you through the hell that is writing a novel. It's mostly a matter of breaking every step down into doable size, doing it, then moving on to the next step. The difficulty usually is, most folks don't know the steps involved. TG does. TG has published, geez, he's not even sure how many books it is now, but at least five novels. And written at least five more. TG knows what he is doing.

If you, AJ, want to really write your novel, send TG a one page explanation of what your book is going to be about. If TG thinks it has promise, he will start you at the beginning and in small steps lead you through the process of writing the book. When you are done, he will send your book to one of the many agents he knows in the business, with his recommendation.

And not just AJ. If anyone else out there wants TG's help, send him an email. Use his alter ego's email address, appelworks@gmail.com. TG will pick someone else to go through the same process. TG doesn't care if the book is already written or just the germ of an idea. Send a one page explanation of what the idea is and who you are and TG will pick someone else to mentor. Everyone will remain anonymous, but TG will occasionally run blogs about the process and how it is going. The limit here is two people at this point. TG has his own books to write and he can't help everyone. If this works, well, maybe he'll expand the idea.

So all you writers out there who can't figure out how to get a toe in the door, this is it. It's not a matter of time, no one has the time to write a novel, it takes years. But anyone can MAKE the time to write a novel, if they break it up into small enough pieces. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

So let's kick some ass with this thing. If you've got the guts to do the work, send Appeworks@gmail.com an email. If you don't, stand back and let the others through.