An Interview with James Scott Bell (December, 2012)
James Scott Bellis the best-selling author of over 20 novels and a former adjunct writing professor at Pepperdine University. He is a sought-after conference presenter and has written four prized instructional books on writing, including Write Great Ficton: Plot & Structure, Write Great Fiction: Revision & Self-Editing, The Art of War for Writers,and Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict& Suspense. His latest thriller release is Watch Your Back: a novella & 3 stories.
Bethlehem Writers Group: You are a member of unique group of lawyers who have transitioned into bestselling authors--John Grisham, Scott Turow, Linda Fairstein, Meg Gardiner--to name a few. Is there something in a law degree that is pertinent to writing? Or is writing an escape from the arcane drudgery of the law?
James Scott Bell: Good question! Whenever I teach a workshop I always have a lawyer or two there who wants to get into writing. Part of it may be escape, but the bigger part is that the legal arena is such a great one for conflict. I have many trial scenes, because they are pure combat. It's just a natural thing to use the law as a canvas.
BWG: Can you tell us about your personal transition from a law career to full time writer?JSB: It was gradual. I was practicing law, running a small legal publishing business, and learning to write screenplays. Then I turned to fiction, started to get published, kept on learning the craft. As more books were published I started teaching what I had learned, and that led to more writing for Writer's Digest magazine and then books on writing which have caught on. As the writing took off I lessened the legal work until I was supporting my family by writing.
BWG: How did you then "morph" from a best-selling suspense writer to a nearly full time writing instructor?
JSB: Actually, it's my writing instruction that is part time. Most of every day, I spend writing fiction. With the new avenue of digital self-publishing, I am never without a project in front of me. I do love to teach. It's something I just happen to be good at, and enjoy, so I do my seminars and attend conferences when I can.
BWG: Do you find writing writers' manuals to be as satisfying as writing suspense novels?
JSB: Yes, but in a different way. With the writing instruction, I love hearing from people who say they've helped them become published, or get an agent, or get to their next level. I get those emails all the time, and for a teacher there's nothing better.
With my thrillers, if a reader says, "I couldn't put it down," then I know I've done my job. That's what I'm going for with each book or story. It's a high bar, but I think writers should set standards for themselves and keep trying to surpass them.
BWG: One of the writing tenets that you emphasize in your lectures and books is that the writer MUST "open with turbulence," i.e., Page One must begin with a disturbance that foretells serious troubles ahead. Do you find this tenet to be violated by a vast majority of beginning writers?JSB: Yes. I see many, many manuscripts that begin with what I call "Happy people in happy land." The writer thinks if he shows, say, a nice family being nice, when the trouble happens the readers will really care. That's wrong. The readers don't care about happy people. They care about people who are facing a change or challenge. The
disturbance does not have to be "big," just something that causes a bit of disequilibrium at the beginning. Your story doesn't being when you lay out the wood. It begins when you strike the match.
Another error is starting with a character alone, thinking, feeling. That's not enough, either. We need to SEE a character being confronted with something, some action or some other character, that is, again, a disturbance.
I emphasize this because we live in an ADD age now, and we have to generate reader interest from the start.
BWG: What other egregious mistakes do you find beginning writers make over and over?
JSB: Point of View confusion is a big one. Learning how to keep a "tight" POV is essential. I see writers who write in First Person POV, but don't have sufficient voice for the character. And in Third Person, not enough intimacy with the character, not truly getting "in their head."
Dialogue is a big problem for many writers. One of the most valuable aspects of my seminars is the nearly two hours we spend on dialogue skills. That's the fastest way to improve any manuscript.
BWG: Another tenet that I enjoyed learning and reading about is "trust the boys in the basement," which I find to be applicable to all creative activity. Could you please expand on this?
JSB: I love that metaphor, which comes from Stephen King. I like to write when I'm not writing. Meaning, getting the boys to work while I'm doing other things. I create a writing notebook for each project and jot things down when I'm away from the computer. Think up scenes, questions to be answered, do research and so on. When I wake up, I try to get to some writing right away, getting down what has bubbled to the mind during the night. Then I look for the good stuff within that.
BWG: A lot of beginning writers are keen to start writing their novel and find the idea of building a meticulous, detailed outline to be burdensome and de-motivating. In contrast, you counsel working with a mini-plan. Can you summarize such mini-plan?
JSB: In Plot & StructureI talk about the LOCK system, which was what I came up with as I was learning to write. As I said, I trained as a screenwriter, using the index card system. Over the years I've developed a structure that involves what I call "signpost scenes." I can use those as sort of a template, with full creativity involved in going from scene to scene. It's another thing we spend a lot of time on in my seminars.
BWG: A long time ago, when I was a serious runner, my coach demanded his charges write down their annual running goals. I discovered this same rule in your books: A writer should establish an annual writing goal and write it down. Is this a method to keep them motivated and on track?
JSB: Absolutely. The first and best advice I ever got was to do a quota of words. That has enabled me to average two books a year for 17 years or so. I advise writers to figure out what they can comfortably do each week. Then up that by 10% and make that the goal.
BWG: In your lectures and books you mention a wide range of writers to illustrate your points. Can you give us a short list of contemporary writers that you think all beginning writers should absorb or be exposed to?
JSB: Michael Connelly. Harlan Coben. Robert Crais. Sarah Pekkanen.
BWG: Following your extensive experience teaching writing, what is your opinion on the age old argument that you cannot teach someone to write, but individuals can learn to write?
JSB: That doesn't make sense to me. If a writer learns from an instructor or an editor how to get better, how is that not "teaching"? I've taught many writers who've gone on to publication, and they thank me for what they learned. Maybe they could have learned the same things over time all by themselves, by trial and error. But then again, maybe not. At the very least a good teacher can save a writer time, perhaps even years. Assuming, of course, that the writer wants to learn.
Interview by BWG member Jerome W. McFadden