Author Mark Sullivan (@MarkSullivanBks) shares his learning experiences writing novels with James Patterson. Sullivan says, “I thought I knew what I was doing when it came to commercial fiction. Working with Patterson, however, I discovered quickly that I didn’t.”
Characters, especially heroes and villains, were to be thought about carefully. They had to be human, above all, and then we had to subject them to terrible ordeals that took them to the brink of their capacities and beyond….
Exposition was severely limited. The old adage—show, not tell—was critical, and the element of surprise was paramount….
The sum of this advice was to sacrifice all for the story and the characters. Outlines were trusted navigational charts, yet we were free to sail in other directions as the novel evolved. But if you were going to change something, it had to be a terrific change….
Also see our previous blogpost, “James Patterson Explains Why His Books Sell Like Crazy.”
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