John Grisham on Writing
By Jerry D. Simmons | October 25th, 2006 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
The most successful author in terms of books sold in the past fifteen years, by anyone’s measurement is John Grisham. He is probably the best storyteller among all the bestselling authors in print today. Last week I heard him interviewed by Charlie Rose. The discussion was about his most recent book, which is non-fiction and a complete departure from his novels. Eventually the conversation focused on the subject of writing and Mr. Grisham had some interesting things to say.
He had always been a writer but never tackled it seriously until he reached a point in his career as an attorney where he felt it was time to try something else. He had never taken writing classes, attended seminars or workshops, and never been schooled in the methods of writing. However, he was an avid reader and had read most of the bestselling suspense and mystery writers. From those books he managed to grasp the writing style and methods of those current and better authors on the market. So his first serious attempt was his book A Time To Kill that was published to limited commercial success. After that book, which he described as a failure, Mr. Grisham decided to give writing one more serious attempt. That result was The Firm, and of course the rest is publishing history.
Anyone who has penned a word realizes that writing is not that simple or easy. Perhaps for someone with natural abilities but not for the majority. However one of the most important things that he had to say was that “serious writers must write at least a page a day.” He described fans he enounters who proclaim to him they are going to write a novel. When he asks how long they have been writing? The answer is typically, well I haven’t–yet–but I plan to write a novel. Mr. Grisham’s analogy to that statement was, “If someone told me they planned to be a concert pianist in a few years but hadn’t started practicing–yet–what do you think the chances would be?” It’s the same for someone who plans to be a writer but have never written a word and can’t seem to find time each day to write. Writing doesn’t work that way, you have to write to learn how to write, that was the point, and a very good one from a famous author that I just had to share with you.
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