But then I thought: why not go straight to the source? Just ask a \u201cNew York Times No. 1 bestseller\u201d writer how it\u2019s done. So, as I have recounted here before<\/a>, I knocked on Lee Child\u2019s door in Manhattan. For the benefit of the lucky Child-virgins who have yet to read the first sentence of his first novel (\u201cI was arrested in Eno\u2019s Diner\u201d), Child, born in Coventry, is the author of the globally huge Jack Reacher series, featuring an XXL ex-army MP drifter vigilante.<\/p>\n It is a golden rule among members of the Magic Circle that, when asked: \u201cHow did you do that?\u201d, magicians must do no more than smile mysteriously. Child helpfully twitched aside the curtain and revealed all. Mainly because he wanted to know himself how he did it. He wasn\u2019t quite sure. He only took up writing because he got sacked from Granada TV<\/a>. Now he has completed 20 novels with another one on the way. And has a Renoir and an Andy Warhol on the wall. Windows looking out over Central Park. Grammar school boy done well.<\/p>\n He swears by large amounts of coffee (up to 30 cups, black, per day) and cigarettes (one pack of Camels, maybe two). Supplemented by an occasional pipe (filled with marijuana). \u201cYour main problem is going to be involuntary inhalation,\u201d he said, as I settled down to watch him write, looking over his shoulder, perched on a psychoanalyst\u2019s couch a couple of yards behind him.<\/p>\n Which was about one yard away from total insanity for both of us.<\/p>\n Especially given that I stuck around for about the next nine months as he wrote Make Me: from the first word (\u201cMoving\u201d) through to the last (\u201cneedle\u201d), with occasional breathers. A bizarre experiment, I guess, a \u201chowdunnit\u201d, although Child did say he would like to do it all again, possibly on the 50th book.<\/p>\n Maybe I shouldn\u2019t be giving this away for free, but, beyond all the caffeine and nicotine, I think there actually is a magic formula. For a long while I thought it could be summed up in two words: sublime confidence. \u201cThis is not the first draft\u201d, Child said, right at the outset, striking a Reacher-like note. \u201cIt\u2019s the only draft!\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t plan, don\u2019t map it all out in advance, be spontaneous, instinctive. Enjoy the vast emptiness of the blank page. It will fill. Child compares starting a new book to falling off a cliff. You just have to have faith that there will be a soft landing. Child calls this methodology his patented \u201cclueless\u201d approach.<\/p>\n To be fair, not all successful writers work like this. Ian Rankin<\/a>, for one (in his case I relied on conventional channels of communication rather than breaking into his house and staring at him intently for long periods) goes through three or four drafts before he is happy \u2013 and makes several pages of notes too.<\/p>\n Ian Rankin<\/p><\/div>\n And yet, with his Rebus series set in Edinburgh, Rankin has produced as many bestsellers as Child. Rebus also demonstrates that your hero does not necessarily have to be 6\u20195\u201d with biceps the size of Popeye\u2019s. And can be past retiring age too, as per the most recent Even Dogs in the Wild<\/a>.<\/p>\n Child has a few key pointers for the would-be author: \u201cWrite the fast stuff slow and the slow stuff fast.\u201d And: \u201cAsk a question you can\u2019t answer.\u201d Rankin also advises: \u201cNo digressions, no lengthy and flowery descriptions.\u201d He has a style, and recurrent \u201ctropes\u201d, but no \u201csystem\u201d. And Child is similarly sceptical about Elmore Leonard\u2019s \u201c10 rules of writing<\/a>\u201d. \u201c\u2018Never use an adverb\u2019? Never is an adverb!\u201d And what about Leonard\u2019s scorn for starting with the weather? \u201cWhat if it really is a dark and stormy night? What am I supposed to do, lie?\u201d<\/p>\n Child never disses other writers. OK, almost never (there is one he wants to challenge to unarmed combat). But he is dismissive of a certain writerly attitude, a self-conscious mentality which he summarises as follows: \u201cHey, Ma, look \u2013 I\u2019m writing!\u201d And here we come close to the secret, the magic potion that if you could bottle it would be worth a fortune in book sales. Do the opposite. If you want to be a writer, the secret is: don\u2019t<\/em> be a writer. Try and forget you are writing (difficult, I know).<\/p>\n This is why both Child and Rankin speak with such reverence for the narrative \u201cvoice\u201d. And why both privilege dialogue. The successful writer is a throwback to a vast, lost, oral tradition, pre-Homer. Another thing, fast-forwarding, they share in common: the default alter ego is rock star. It\u2019s all about the vibe. Everything has to sound good when you read it aloud.<\/p>\n But if you seriously want to be a writer, think like a reader. Child explained this to me the other day in relation to his novel, Gone Tomorrow<\/a>, set in New York, which is now often used to teach creative writing. \u201cI introduce this beautiful mysterious woman. I started out thinking: I want my hero to go to bed with her. And then I thought: hold on, isn\u2019t the reader going to be asking: \u2018What if she is \u2026 bad?\u2019\u201d A small but crucial tweak: one letter \u2013 from bed to bad.<\/p>\n \u201cSo!\u201c you might well conclude, \u201cisn\u2019t this bloke like one of those con men who offer to show you how to make a fortune (for a modest outlay) and you think: \u2018Well, why don\u2019t you do it then?’\u201d Fair comment.<\/p>\n Which is why I am starting a novel right now about an upstart fan who tricks his way into a successful writer\u2019s apartment and steals all his best ideas. I don\u2019t know why, it just came to me in a flash of inspiration. Maybe that, in a word, is the core of all great art: theft.<\/p>\n By Andy Martin, Lecturer, Department of French, University of Cambridge<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on TheConverstation and can be found here<\/a><\/p>\n Is Bitcoin still worth it?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nCigarettes and coffee<\/h3>\n
Look Ma, I\u2019m a writer<\/h3>\n
![\"Ian](\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Ian-Rankin-e1459514586346.jpg\")
<\/a>Art is theft<\/h3>\n
More from The Conversation<\/h3>\n