John Grisham's advice for aspiring authors

[someoneyouknow]

On my way home after a morning of photography, I listened to John Grisham's interview on NPR where he talked about his new book, Camino Island. For those who don't know, this book has nothing to do with lawyers or the courtroom until very late in the book where, Grisham admits, he had to put an attorney to clean things up. It's a departure from his 29 other books about the legal profession.

Tweets and emails were read by the host which Grisham then answered. The last question involved the advice Grisham would give to those who are aspiring to be authors.

Write a page a day. Every day. No excuses. If you're not producing one page a day, nothing will ever happen.​

The entire interview (17 minutes):

http://the1a.org/shows/2017-06-28/john-grishams-new-novel-camino-island

 

[sr71plt]

Yes, I've heard this from him ad nauseam. (He lives a couple of miles from me.) He often gives greater detail that shows he's highly organized and regimented in his writing (and has full maid and butler service).

Personally, I'd bust if I only got to write one page a day.

 

[someoneyouknow]

Yes, I've heard this from him ad nauseam. (He lives a couple of miles from me.) He often gives greater detail that shows he's highly organized and regimented in his writing (and has full maid and butler service).

Personally, I'd bust if I only got to write one page a day.

Right now I'm lucky if I can get a paragraph out.

That said, having other people do some of your work sure helps in getting that page out.

 

[sr71plt]

That said, having other people do some of your work sure helps in getting that page out.

Yep, I do practically nothing but writing and publishing. I probably do less otherwise than Grisham does. Of course he endorses a whole hell of a lot more checks than I do (although I've endorsed one from him and I don't think he's ever endorsed from from me).

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[sr71plt]

If I felt the obligation to be that regimented, the writing wouldn't be fun for me anymore and I'd probably stop doing it and go on to something else. I don't feel the compulsion to have to write every day, depending on what else is going on in my life. What goes with that, though, is that I usually do feel the urge to write most days, and I try to go with the flow too.

John Grisham does speak of having a highly regimented writing schedule. At the same time he speaks of the burden of having to churn out legal thrillers on his publisher's schedule and he says he's getting tired of writing legal thrillers. Sounds too much like a job commitment to me.

When the writing stops being a creative outlet for me, I'll make another go of trying to learn to love golf.

 

[holliday1960]

.....

 

[sr71plt]

The thing is, Grisham and a lot of others like him, started writing when they were a lot younger than they are now. Yes, it became a career. When you're pulling in that kind of bucks, you're more than happy to make it a dedicated career.

It doesn't hurt to have friends in high places to help push your career along either. (which Grisham did and no doubt still does.) I admit I have read some of his books, of course liked them, but I got lazy and just waited for the movies to come out. I'd love to hear his version of the days he was writing when it wasn't his 'career'. When you come from backwoods USA you tend to drum up a lot of support from locals who cheer you on to 'make good'. The fact he chose the legal profession to write about certainly gained him some valuable friends in that respect as well.

What I love about Grisham is the fact all his stories are so different. No two follow a certain path except they do have a law theme. God knows, he had a lot of fodder to work with there. Some people are just born to write...Grisham and Stephen King are two of them...like Samuel Clemmons.

But the point is that Grisham has moaned and groaned about being trapped in a rut of expectation and unhappy for more than half a decade now. He wants to be writing literary novels, and his literary novels aren't doing that well.

And what friends in high places did he have to launch his writing career? He was a lawyer in a sleepy little town. He barely managed to get an agent and a publisher that only printed the minimum number of books (with him personally subscribing for a fifth of them--1,000 copies) on his first novel. His career took off by selling one for the movies, and that wasn't dependent on friends in high places.

 

[holliday1960]

.....

 

[sr71plt]

Grisham had supporters in high places. I doubt he ever talks about that because if he did...he wouldn't have those supporters very long. Because he worked in the legal field, some of his early work was based on the advice and guidance of those who lived through some interesting legal times in the US. He wouldnt have sold his first movie deal without them, because there wouldnt have been a novel in the first place. I never asked if they had anything to do with the movie deals, but it wouldnt surprise me in the least. He sometimes would send copies of the movies to his 'friends' before they ever hit the big screen out of gratitude for their support. (We aren't talking vhs mass produced films either. Rather old form of reel-to-reel before they went on vhs for public consumption.) One hand washes another in the south.

I asked who he had in high places? Who? He does a talk that claims otherwise. Who are you saying were influential friends in getting him published? He was a small-town lawyer in Southaven, Mississippi, and was elected to the Mississippi legislature in 1983, reelected in 1987, and resigned in 1900 (two years before his second novel--not his first novel, The Firm, was his first big sale--as a movie property). How did that make his start in publishing due to high-level support? What high-level supporters in publishing?

This isn't anything like Stephen King (who people like to cite as a breakthrough author), whose wife worked for a major publisher.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

What matters is getting it right.Okay and sublime are different..

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Examples of sublime and okay, palyed by father and son, music composed by grandfather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxnKwNJkLDI

 

[NOIRTRASH]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWg8n233mXA

same music played by son

 

[NOIRTRASH]

A famous Jan Zwart carol. He wrote many od them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lJr99EZztU

 

[sr71plt]

What, you haven't had your share of disrupting threads to make them all about you today, James?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

What, you haven't had your share of disrupting threads to make them all about you today, James?

You flatter me. This is not the place to disrupt or nuthin of any consequence. Itts a cave where most share a brain they pass round like in MacBeth and Laurel looks for nocotin stained fingers.

 

[sr71plt]

Yep, James is losing his fight with dementia.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Yep, James is losing his fight with dementia.

look up Geronimo some time. Our army and the Mexicans usta parade wagons filled with gold and silver bene4ath his nose to tempt him but he had his own schedule.

 

[sr71plt]

And that's how JBJ ruins another AH thread.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

And that's how JBJ ruins another AH thread.

Naaaah most AH threads are ANYONE SEEN MIKE HUNT?

 

[holliday1960]

.....

 

[sr71plt]

Okay...I'm up...I'm completely awake now. Whoa! Wth? You cannot be serious here. I made a passing comment regarding an author/politician's career. The comment doesnt warrant this level of debate nor should it prompt battle-lines being drawn. I stand by that statement. Will I elaborate and quote 'who' by name on a porn site? Certainly not. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely up for a debate on any subject of importance, but this just proves how bored people are getting on the AH board. I'm going back to bed now.

Well, no. You made an assertion that is completely 180 degrees off from what I've seen as Grisham's publishing history from living in the same town he does and encountering him--and what he has to say about his publishing journey--frequently. And while sticking to the assertion, you still haven't backed it up. So, I say it's a false one and does disservice to what Grisham had to do to get to where he is in publishing--and to how it affects the journey of the rest of us who want to be published.

 

[litfan10]

I'm soooo glad I use the ignore feature.

Anyways....
When I was first really pushing my professional writing career I had the following on a note tacked next to my desk as inspiration:

John Grisham's bio in his first book: Full time lawyer.
John Grisham's bio in his third book: part time lawyer
John Grisham's bio in his fifth book: coaches little league.

I don't have that note any more but I think I have the book numbers fairly accurate give or take a book.

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[sr71plt]

They let him coach the little league baseball because he built them the ball park.