Interview: Bestselling novelist James Scott Bell

By Mark Young

Whether his character is a butt-kicking nun or zombie attorney, novelist James Scott Bell’s active imagination always manages to create vivid characters that come alive on the page. And when it comes to humor, Jim can make the grim reaper crack a smile.

You want examples? Try this—opening lines to Jim’s bestselling novel, Try Darkness:

The nun hit me in the mouth and said, “Get out of my house.”

Jaw throbbing, I said, “I can’t believe you just did that.”

“This is my house,” she said. “You want more? Come on back in.”

Sister Mary Veritas is a shade over five and half feet. She was playing in gray sweats, of course. Most of the time she wears the full habit. Her pixie face is usually a picture of innocence. She has short chestnut hair and blue eyes. I had just discovered those eyes hid an animal ruthlessness.

See what I mean? Can you picture Sister Veritas? If you have not experienced this author’s writing style, you’re in for a treat. Sometimes Jim writes funny stuff. Sometimes, he can explore the darkness, looking for the redeeming light.

James Scott Bell is a busy man—writer, lawyer, teacher, mentor, a man of many talents—and willing to take a risk. Legal thrillers. Historical suspense. Even writing zombie attorney legal thrillers under the pen name K. Bennett. Jim practices what he preaches, publishing with some of the top publishing houses in the business while also venturing out into the self-publishing venue himself. Most recently, he earned an Thriller Writers Award finalist spot for his self-published novella, One  More Lie. He is a regular contributor to Writer’s Digest Magazine, where he served as a fiction columnist. WD  has published a number of Jim’s books on writing. Walking with a foot planted in both publishing worlds, Jim is able to provide a unique perspective on this ever-changing game of publishing.

MARK: Welcome back to Hook’em & Book’em, Jim. First, give us a synopsis of your current writing life. What is happening in the fast-paced world of James Scott Bell?

JIM: He's yelling out the window of the runaway train, "Slow down!" The reason is that I've got more

projects on my writing board than I'll ever get to. But, honestly, I like it that way. With the current self-publishing boom, you just never run out of things to write. I'm having more fun than ever, which I think the writing life should be.

MARK: How are your teaching seminars going? Who do you co-teach with and what topic do your students seem most interested in?

JIM: I love teaching workshops around the country. When I have the chance to teach over two or three days, I like to include interactive exercises along with the tools and techniques. I want to get writers deeper into their own work, and come up with gold. In November of each year I get together with Donald Maass (Writing the Breakout Novel) and Christopher Vogler (The Writer's Journey) for a big, 3-day conference. We each take a whole day, and find that our approaches complement each other nicely.

MARK: What do you try to focus on in these seminars?

JIM: My focus is on techniques that work. I've never stopped studying the writing craft, even after I was making a living at it. It fascinates me, why things work, how writers can get better at what they do. When I teach I'm trying to give extremely practical advice any writer can use to improve their work.

MARK: I am an avid follower of THE KILL ZONE, a blog where you and your co-writers share information and advise about all aspects of writing and the publishing world. One particular article you wrote a few weeks ago, titled Field Report From the eBook Revolution #3: The New Equilibrium, brought attention to such controversial topics as digital only contracts from traditional publishers, the continuing decline of physical shelf space in books stores, and the disappearance of the midlist authors. Where do you see the publishing industry headed in the next few years?

JIM: We all know things are changing, but no one knows the rate or content of the changes to come. No one. It's all up in the air. Which makes it exciting for the fast movers—which include authors who like to write—and challenging for big publishers who are like huge zeppelins propelling through storm clouds. I find the landscape fascinating.

Surely more and more people will read on tablets and e-readers. Print will still be around, but limited. One interesting development is the survival and even the rise of independent bookstores. They are like flowers that have grown up through the asphalt. They are small but pretty, and people appreciate them. Tight communities of print book lovers will congregate here.

It's all good for writers, who have options and opportunities.

MARK: What are some of the obstacles that traditional publishers face?

JIM: The same obstacles typewriter manufacturers faced when the PC caught on. There are still typewriter specialty shops that repair old machines. But these are boutiques for lovers of the old things. Some typewriter companies and shops saw what was coming, and moved into the computer age, and have managed to survive and, sometimes, thrive. But they did have to change.

Major publishing today faces a tsunami that few people saw coming back in late 2007. That was when the Kindle was introduced.  Can you believe it cost $399? Virtually no one anticipated the speed of change that happened next.

The rapidity of it all put pressure on every part of the industry. It's what led to Borders going into bankruptcy in 2011. The big publishers took that like a blow to the sola plexus, and they've been staggering around since. But in a

blog post I likened the industry to Jake LaMotta, the "Raging Bull." It refuses to go down.

But with physical shelf space disappearing, their main mode of operation and distribution is fading away. That was their main advantage. Now they've got to find ways to make themselves advantageous again.

MARK: What are some of the obstacles indie authors/publishers face?

JIM: There are two main obstacles: quality and discoverability. The former is about having the discipline and drive and work ethic to make yourself better and better, all the time, not giving up, producing the words. This is always job one for a writer. All the digital savvy in the world isn't going to help you if your writing is subpar.

The second aspect, discoverability, is an ongoing process. In one sense, taking care of the quality also takes care of the discovery. Word of mouth works. Great writing catches on. The depth and degree of discovery is always going to vary. But it will happen for the writer who is doing excellent work. Then come various tools one can use to try to get leg up. Like the Kindle Select program which you, Mark, have used very successfully. There are others. The self-publishing writer should set aside a certain amount of time each week, even if it's just an hour, to study what's possible in terms of marketing.

There's also social media, but writers can misuse it. I've seen it over and over. Variations on "buy my book" don't work. You have to engage and be real. But also, don't put so much time into it that you're taking away from your most important job—writing.

MARK: Your latest novel, Don’t Leave Me, released last January, seems to be doing quite well in the rankings. Tell us about this suspense novel.

JIM: It's the story of two brothers. The older, Chuck Samson, is a chaplain who served with a Marine unit in Afghanistan. He was captured, rescued, and came home with a rare form of PTSD. And he needs to take care of his autistic brother, Stan. In Chapter One, an unseen enemy, for some reason, takes aim at Chuck. And things just get worse from there. Chuck has to run for his life, and from the cops, who think he's a murderer. There's a secret buried deep in Chuck’s psyche that is the one thing that could save him and his brother. But can he ever get to it?

I wanted to write a thriller with a lot of twists and turns, but the crux of it is the love and loyalty of two brothers.

MARK: I know you’re hesitant to discuss future writing projects until they’re hatched. However, I noticed on your web site you shared that you are  “currently at work on two series: pulp style stories featuring Irish Jimmy Gallagher and the vigilante nun series Force of Habit”. What can you tell us about these writing projects? Trying to bring back pulp fiction?

JIM: I think pulp fiction is already back. It's a great time to be a productive

writer! Just like in those days, a writer who knows how to tell stories can carve out a decent wage. I love the fact that short form (stories, novelettes, novellas) have a place now.

I wanted to write boxing stories set in Los Angeles in the 1950s. So I did, and that series is up and running. So is Force of Habit, which started as a joke my son told me. He thought a nun who can do martial arts, and fights for justice, could have that title. Ha ha, right? But I liked it! I told him I was going to write it. I wrote it as a novelette and it caught on with a lot of readers. So I wrote a sequel,  Force of Habit 2: And Then There were Nuns. I keep getting emails wanting to know when the next one's coming. I'm working on it! It's called Force of Habit 3: Nun the Wiser.  

MARK: Where can writers go to learn about your teaching seminars? Where are these going to be held? What other events are you going to be involved with this year?

JIM: Simply go to my News and Appearances page.

MARK: Thank you for your time, Jim. Look forward to reading your next work.

JIM: Thanks, Mark. It was great to be Hooked and Booked today.

*******

JAMES SCOTT BELL is the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & Structure, and numerous thrillers, including Don't LeaveMe, Try Dying and Watch Your Back. His novella One More Lie was the first self-published work to be nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award. Under the pen name K. Bennett, he is also the author of the Mallory Caine zombie legal thriller series, which begins with Pay Me in Flesh. He served as the fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine and has written highly popular craft books for Writer’s Digest Books, including: Revision & Self-Editing for Publication, The Art of War for Writers and Conflict & Suspense

Novel Writing

Aspiring Novelists: How Do You Kick Start Your Next Novel?

Author James Scott Bell openly shared his thoughts, challenges, and concerns last Sunday on The KillZone blog as he neared the end of the first draft of his latest novel. This is a finish line Jim has crossed many times before. This conversation spawned more dialogue on Brandilyn Collins' blog site as other authors added their own comments. Many of these writers have authored dozens of published novels. They still experience an emotional roller coaster as the creative process persistently taxes every author.

But what about those just starting a new novel?  Particularly, those authors who have yet to find a publishing home or an agent but still plug away at the craft, churning out one novel after another. How do you do it?  How do you stay charged up?

If you have completed at least one novel, you know what the future holds as you start a new manuscript: Months of writing, editing, re-writing, and blurry-eyed proof reading, finally ending up with another novel you hope someone will accept. Only to start the process over again. And again. And again.

These brave souls are called aspiring novelists. By the way, have you ever think thought about how many novels one must write before that troubling intransitive verb aspiring can be dropped from your job title? Or is this word dropped the moment you are published? Regardless, aspiring novelists are a hard-working class of writers.

Do you belong in this category?

I want to find out a little more about those plucky souls who bravely and tenaciously continue to bang away at those keys every day, still putting dreams and stories together, still waiting for a chance to land on the bookshelves some day. And, I'd like to share a few suggestons I've collected from other authors and editors on this writing journey.

Do you find getting started the hardest part?

For those who have written at least one novel, you know the cost to complete that next manuscript. The creative process is exhilarating and depressing, boosting your energy to new heights and crashing your system at times when writing refuses to go the way you planned. Over the coming year, a novelist can expect to eat, breathe, and sleep with this new creation. To live and re-live the story until the final draft is finished. Like you, I don’t want to waste time going down a path that becomes untenable, unmanageable, and, frankly, unsalable.

Getting started on the right foot is very important. So how does one do it?

I’ve been privileged to attend some great writing classes over the last five years. Each novelist, agent, editor, or publisher has a little different way to start a novel. How do you know what works for you?

Here are a couple of ideas I learned that made sense to me.  Maybe these tools might help you, too.

First, where do you come up with a tenable story idea, a plot that will intrigue others. One reservoir of possibilities is the newspaper—clipping  stories and photos that catch your eye. Imagine the what if in each story or photo. Allow you mind to start planting a seed of an idea or concept to match that news item. File these stories and notes away until you have time to pull them out and sift through them once more for ideas that might work.

From wherever you pull these ideas, one concept must finally emerge that really stands out ahead of all of the others. One brilliant idea—at least in your own opinion, which is the only one that counts for the moment—must rises to the surface, lighting your imagination on fire. A concept that offers tension, twists, and  complications at every turn.  Whatever you come up with must stay alive and kicking until the novel ends. Like a boxer in the ring, make sure your idea can go the distance.

In Donald Maas’ novel Writing the Breakout Novel, he shares how this initial gem of an idea must be put to the test. “…Not just an idea, though, but one with soil rich enough to grow a hugely memorable novel; one that will both feed the author’s imagination and, finally, nourish millions of readers. What I’m talking about is a breakout premise.” He goes on to suggest ways to testing your idea.

You can’t procrastinate forever. At some point, you and I must take that plunge. Bestselling author John Grisham—appearing before a PBS audience about his writing life a few years ago—told the crowd he likes to start his next novel around the month of April and finish in November. He starts with a number of story ideas which have been percolating in his mind for months. However, come April, Grisham said it is “time to pull the trigger.”

Once you have this idea, you also must be ready “to pull the trigger.” Time to take that idea and run with it.

Writers must populate that idea with characters, plot, setting, character arc, and all the other nuances of writing that come together to create story. Time will not allow us to do justice to everything authors, editors and publishers suggest on this subject. So, let’s just grab onto two of the big ones— Plot and Character—and digest just enough to get started.

Plot

Novelists seem to fall into three major categories:  plotters, partial plotters, or those who write by the seat of their pants. The last category—my terminology— seems the scariest approach to me. (As you might guess, I am a heavy plotter). A writer needs some kind of road map, no matter how brief, to chart safe passage through the novel. The story needs to hang together from beginning to end regardless of whether you are a careful plotter or enjoy hanging by your fingernails. In my opinion, if you don’t have a road map (plot), a writer might easily fall right off that literary cliff. Again, writers approach this from as many angles as a geometry class.

So how do you hang the story together. One idea I found interesting came from novelist Angela Hunt, a novelist whose published works number in the triple digits. Angela introduced our writing class to a skeletal diagram, breaking this guy down from head to foot, linking each bony part to a writing concept. For example, she pointed to the head—representing the protagonist—to remind writers to show the main character’s obvious and hidden needs.  She travels to the neck where the protagonist is pushed into the inciting incident, an unusual situation; to the spine, representing the protagonist’s goal; the ribs, swinging from positive to negative stages until reaching the bleakest moment. She carries the writers down the rest of the skeletal path: the thighbone, in which the protagonist needs help; the heel, where the protagonist  learns, changes, and/or grows; and finally the foot, upon which  the resolution of your story rests.

Skeletal Man just might be the tool for you. Here is another concept.

Novelist James Scott Bell came up with an acronym to help break the plot  structure down to its simplest form.. He calls it the LOCK system—Lead, Objective, Confrontation, and Knockout. Simply, Lead stands for the compelling lead characters needed for a good plot. Objective: Lead character needs an objective, a want, a desire. Confrontation: Opposition from other unique characters and outside forces that make the story alive with action, tensions, and conflict. And finally, Knockout: Readers want to see a knockout ending. He expounds on this teaching tool in his book.

Other writers find their own technique for creating these plots. Each of us must learn what works for our particular style. The point is to develop a viable and compelling plot that lures readers deeper and deeper into you story.

Characters

Characterization is one of my weak points, so I try to pay attention to those who seem to know something about this subject. And when I talk about character, I mean that creation that populates our novel, not the one staring back at us in the mirror each morning.

Ever hold a conversation with your characters? This may appear strange, but these characters will begin to talk back to their creator if the writer allows each one to become its own unique self. Now, before you suggest I become a candidate for One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, let me assure you that there are many writers just like me. Honest. After all, you're going to live with these characters until the story is done—maybe longer. You’ll know every intimate, dirty secret these characters have hidden. At least let them tell their side of the story.

It is important to spend time developing your characters. Readers will only become connected to your story if these characters become living-breathing entities that come alive on the page.

In novelist Brandilyn Collin’s book, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets A Novelist Can Learn From Actors, she writes about the importance of bring your character to life:

“The techniques of personalizing each character is just as important in writing fiction as in acting. Without personalizing, we face the pitfalls of clichéd characters such as the old man or the young woman. Our adaptation of personalizing focuses not on hair color and body type, but on the discovery of a character’s inner values, which give rise to unique traits and mannerisms that will become an integral part of the story."

Writer/editor Sol Stein describes this in a different way. In his book, Stein On Writing, under the chapter heading, “Competing With God: Making Fascinating People,” he writes:

“We know what love is, we think of the other person at odd moments, we wonder where they are, what they are doing, we seem a bit crazy to the rest of the world. That’s exactly the feeling I have about characters I fall in love with in books … From these experiences I am convinced that we need to know the people in the car before we see the car crash. The events of a story do not affect our emotions in an important way unless we know the characters.”

We must take these characters and breathe uniqueness into their inner core, each subject coming alive to the reader, each literary creation revealing their humanness—warts and all—in order for the reader to connect.

Ideas for plot and characterization are coming to the forefront as I get ready to launch a new novel. A part of me wants to hold back.  I want to make sure these intricate parts—plotting, characterization, dialogue, conflict, voice, all components of this complicated, novel-driving engine—will hold together like super glue. Not unravel like flimsy baling wire a few months down the road.

But there comes a time to stop procrastinating. Time to jump in and get started. As John Grisham aptly phrased it, time “to pull the trigger.”

Q4U: How do you kick-start your next novel?

Book Sales

What Makes A Bestselling Novel?

When was the last time a new author caught your attention? What made you wheel around in the book store or on-line, glancing through this new treasure and fork over hard-earned money?

I’m talking about novels that escaped attention until that moment you walked into the book store. Something so compelling you just had to reach for your wallet and pay the price of admission to enter into the author’s fictional world.

And what about those so-called overnight successes. Those debuting authors that seem to hit the New York Times bestseller list with their first novel. You know those ones—busting all sales records, getting translated into more languages than Rosetta Stone teaches. What did these new authors do differently that the rest of us writers failed to grasp?

These thoughts crossed my mind last week when I came across two such successes—John Verdon’s launch of Think Of  A Number and  Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s translated novel, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (His remaining Trilogy sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest are now available). I am probably one of the few writers around who never heard of either of these two guys until I walked into the bookstore last week. So give me black marks on my report card for not knowing who’s who in the publishing zoo.

I wound up buying both novels.

I bought Verdon’s book after walking through a Barnes&Noble Store just to see what was there. First mistake for a book addict. A couple days later, I bought Larsson’s first novel via my Nook e-Book reader. At this point in time, I have not read more than a chapter from each novel.

So what made me dole out my money to read these novels.

Verdon’s book sat front and center as I entered the book store. Snazzy cover and great location. Customers practically had to walk around this book to enter. A bright red band hugged each expensive copy of Verdon’s book with these words: “If you love Baldacci, Gerritsen, Kellerman, Demille, and Lescroart, you’ll love Verdon.”

If shoes can make tread marks, I left a ski mark the length of Manhattan. Come on—Baldacci, Gerritsen, Lescroart. I love these writers. So who is this Verdon guy, I asked myself. Then I glance  at the bottom of these fabulous authors as read this line: “Debut Thriller At A Great Price.”

Debut Thriller?

Give me a break—hardcover copies, author endorsements to die for, and a publishing house right up there in the clouds. I picked up the novel, wondering how this young whippersnapper catapulted into stardom over night. I glanced inside and saw Verdon’s photo—he's been around for a few years. For some reason, this made me feel better about the whole thing. The book cover simply says the author “has held several executive positions with Manhattan advertising firms.” Immediately, I think: A James Patterson protégé from New York’s advertising industry. This guy knows how to put words together.

I searched the Internet and found dozens of interviews with this author, including one from Reuters Life that points out Verdon’s novel has been translated into 19 languages with $1 million of advance sales before its release this month.

Before the novel is released?

Now, I know I’ve been a little secluded trying to put words together for another novel and writing these blog articles about writers, readers and cops. But where did this guy come from?

Later in the article, I find that Verdon never lined up a publisher or agent up until he completed Think Of A Number. After finishing, he sent a one-page letter to a number of literary agents. One agent called back and wanted to see manuscript. Two days later, she call to tell him she loved the novel—although she has not finished reading it— and urged him not to show it to anyone else. A couple weeks later, Random House buys Verdon’s novel. In fact, the publisher likes it so much Verdon won a three book contract.

That’s what I call an overnight success.

I glanced inside Verdon's novel, read a few paragraphs, eyed what other authors had to write about the novel, then doled out my admission to the party.

The second novelist, Steig Larsson, came to my attention while I still in the same Barnes&Noble. I took out my Nook—using the store's online service—and thumbed to see what bestselling mystery e-Books popped up on the screen. Steig Larsson's novel topped the list. I see his novel, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was first published in 2005 and still topping the lists. I glanced across the store and see another of Larsson's books blocking another isle.

So who is this Stieg Larsson. Another overnight success? (Further evidence of my self-imposed cultural ostracism seeping through).

I learned this author died five years ago without every realizing his success. He’d become a publishing sensation in Scandinavia, selling millions of books  before his Millennium trilogy took off for the stars in 2005. His novels have been selling fast and furious ever since. I learned that Larssonn was the editor of a Swedish journal, he was co-editor of several science fiction fanzines because of his interest in that genre, and he became involved in a lot writing and political pursuits over his career.

Another writer who knew how to put words together.

Sales of novels by Verdon and Larssonn are spiraling upward as of this writing. How did this happen? Can one duplicate these publishing home runs?

Aspiring novelists—yes, I am in that category—can learn many things from those published authors who’ve crossed over that publishing threshold and made it into publishing heaven. Marketing strategies, social networking, writer’s conferences, great query letters, and even better book proposals are all part of what we're told makes for a successful writing strategy. But there is one key element that must come before anything else.

Great writing.

Writers are in a business, the business of writing. Now, don't go all literary on me. Face it. Writers need to sell if they intend to make a living at writing. And, like any other business, writers need a good product. Better yet, we need an excellent product.

What do we sell?

Words and sentences created into stories people want to read. Fiction writers create a new world for readers to enter, a world filled with characters, places, feelings, and, above all, great stories. I suspect Verdon and Larssonn—first and foremost—learned to write. And they, like all excellent authors, learned to write extremely well. They learned to write with passion.

Literary agent Donald Maass, concludes his book on writing, The Fire In Fiction, with this:

"Having something to say, or something you wish us to experience, is what gives your novel its power. Identify it. Make it loud. Do not be afraid of what’s burning in your heart. When it comes through on the page, you will be a true storyteller."

My author friend, James Scott Bell, in his latest book on writing, The Art of War For Writers, writes this about writers:

"Respect the craft of writing. Be in awe when you sit down at the keyboard or with a pen. Write hard, write with passion, because that is what you do. Don’t waste any time dissing other writers or whining about how tough things are."

So, to John Verdon and Seig Larsson—I say, “My hat is off to you.”

And I say to the rest of us looking to publish—get back to writing.

Authors: I hope to see your novel on the shelf one day. Write well.

Q: How do you pick out new novels to read?