Writing Lessons from Dan Brown

Okay, so this Thanksgiving the name Dan Brown was fluttering around everywhere. I was reading Deception Point, and we watched the movie Angels and Demons. Which of course brought up the topic of the Da Vinci Code, but that’s a soap box for another day.

All this talk about Dan Brown, and how engaged I was in his book got me thinking.

Dan Brown’s words may not be eloquent or even sometimes grammatically correct. But the man is a best seller, so he has to be doing something right. As a writer what can I learn from reading Dan Brown’s books?

Be Careful with Coincidence.
When I read a book, even a fantasy or sci-fi, I want the world on the page to be as realistic as possible. It’s hard to believe that a situation is real if the main characters are constantly on the verge of death and then miraculously being saved from the brink.

Yes, the threat of death to the main characters keeps the drama up, but to be constantly rescued at ‘the perfect’ time gets annoying. Thus causing the reader to detach from the world you’ve created for them. And if they detach too often the book can easily be passed aside, unfinished, and not recommended to their buddy. The fate of many books, rest in peace.

Granted I’ve heard it told, when you feel your plot getting stuck kill off a character, but life support for your characters is limited to the length of the book, so be careful.


Start with an idea that resonates with Mass America
While you may not subscribe to Area 51 Daily News or Conspiracy Theory Journal, conspiracies are addicting brain candy. For me its fun to think about and challenge the norm even for just a moment. And that’s what Dan Brown’s books feed off of, the little corner in the back of our brains that likes to ask what if.

Now I haven’t read all of Dan Brown’s books, but the ones I have focus in on institutions the majority of the reading public relate to. Deception Point focused in on NASA. Don’t you remember wanting to be an astronaut as a kid, even just for a moment. That institution feeds dreamers. So when the back cover copy has the words: NASA, discovery, and deception, you’d take the book to the check-out counter.

Even with the Robert Langdon Series (Angels and Demons, Da Vinci Code) Dan Brown focused in on some secret society with some big cornerstones; The Pope and the Authenticity of Christ. So let’s see there are over one billion Catholics and over 2.5 billion Christians in the world, attacking that institution will get everyone who is and isn’t a believer salivating over the pages.

Don’t roll your eyes and say, ‘I don’t write conspiracy thrillers, so what you’re saying is useless’. Just take a moment and think about the things that resonate with the majority of the readers out there. Maybe it’s just the underlying theme, or a character’s back story. But the goal is for the book to quickly connect with the reader. Without a connection a book will just sit on the shelf.

Pacing
One thing Dan Brown is good at doing in his books is keeping the pages turning, and this is because he keeps his books going at a fast pace. Deception Point, Angels and Demons, and the Da Vinci Code all happen with in a 24-36 hour time frame. That’s almost a minute or two within a chapter. Each scene is action packed and at the end you’re hanging off a cliff about to die, and the next chapter starts in a totally different scene unrelated to the previous. So of course you have to keep reading just to find out what will happen to the heroine still straining to hold on to the sharp rocks.

You won’t find sagging middles or fluff chapters either. Each scene is moving the action forward, even if there are paragraphs of telling me information that can be summed up or assumed. Action and reaction.

While this may not be the formula for a prairie romance, the goal is to continually escalate emotion toward the climax. I seriously doubt many of you are having a deep conversation about the meaning of life on the way up a roller-coaster. No your emotions are growing tense, your face and arms tighten with drama and excitement. A book needs to do the same for your reader, or it will sit on the coffee table bookmark still on chapter seven.

Point of View (POV)
This guy jumps into everyone’s head.

The taxi driver, the government aid, the airplane pilot anyone that can tell you something only partially relevant to the story. In a story that isn’t as fast paced as Mr. Brown’s this can be a real problem for your readers. It’s often called head hopping, and the concern in doing this is the disconnection with the main character.

While the taxi driver might be able to tell you the look on the anxious hero’s face, there is greater power in hearing it from the hero himself through dialogue and action. Rather than one random person’s perspective who will be gone or dead by the next paragraph.

Staying in the hero, heroine’s, or antagonist’s POV keeps the reader in the immediate action that should be carrying them forward. So use POV carefully, and beware of Head hopping, Mr. Brown.

So whether or not you enjoy Dan Brown’s books or read any of them at all, there are lessons to be learned from this bestseller. He may do things that would make most writers cringe, but he still brings in big numbers. Enjoy brain candy every once and a while and it might encourage you forward in your own writing.

Happy Writing!

Best Selling, Worst Sentences

Everyone knows the name Dan Brown. His novels have stirred the kettle here and there, but have remained best-sellers. Here's to show that not all best-sellers are great writers.

The British newspaper, The Telegraph, put together a list of Brown's twenty worst sentences.
http://tinyurl.com/r6tye2

It's funny, sad, and a challenge to work toward writing better than the infamous Mr. Brown.

But also gives this gramatically challenged writer a minor sense of hope, and an editor to avoid ;)

Enjoy!

To Create or Not to Create...

...That is the question. If you were take a pole of people who want to write a book, a good majority would say they have a book in them they'd like to write someday.

But most of the time those books never make it past the idea or restaurant napkin stage. Why is that?

Well, simply because writing takes time, effort, research, and more time. And who has time to sit backside in chair to punch out 90,000 plus words. (Stephen King, James Patterson, John Grisham excluded) Not many of us can devote the time energy blood and sweat a novel requires, because (let's be serious here) unless you are King, Patterson, or Grisham you're probably not going to be paid very well. It's one of those sacrifices for your art.

So what will force you to sit down day after day, pouring over minutia to make an attempt to join the ranks of literary greats? (you decide who makes the list-King or Grisham may not make it)

One of the blogs I read Between the Lines, had a focus on motivation this week. Which got me thinking on why I can't 'shake this habit' of writing. The blogger Rachel Zurakowski gave a list of motivations ranging from revenge, proving worth, to entertain, or strengthen or challenge a readers world view.

I find myself often on a sliding scale if my motivations are selfish, leaning toward revenge or trying to impress someone my writing is stale. Which makes it even harder to get my backside in the chair and my fingers at the keys. But if my motivations lean toward challenging, encouraging and helping the reader I am almost disappointed to have to pull myself away from the PC and face life. Much to my husbands chagrin.

So I encourage you to test your motivations from time to time; check yourself against your own sliding scale and get your eyes off this blog and onto the excitement of the blank page.

Happy Writing!

A Bloggers Purpose

Okay, so last night I was at my critique group (Diann Mills-rocks!) for the first time in (I hate to admit it) nine months or so. I was going through my spiel on someones piece and once I was done one of the ladies asked, "do you teach".

Scary idea, me teaching. There is a reason this blog is called the Absent Minded Writer. Besides the fact that I burnt hard boiled eggs yesterday, but that's another story.

But as I got to thinking about it, I was reminded how I love critiquing or just talking about the craft of writing. I love talking about it, learning about it, and from time to time writing about it.

So here she(or he) is...a blog to talk about writing.

Sure there are a lot of them out there, but hopefully here you can be encouraged, challenged, and understood. Because writing often doesn't pay well, and life requires things big and small from us. So in those momentary pit stops in life where you get to write, and can't, come join me in the craziness of a writer's passion