Location: Ian Fleming's Essays

Discussion: How to Write a Thriller

Keyword tags: None (edit keyword tags)

Watch

Anonymous  (Get credit for your thread)
cantwell

cantwell		 How to Write a Thriller
Aug 4 2007, 2:14 AM EDT
This is a fabulous little essay on writing which is 4
computer pages long. I have my copy somewhere,
but does anyone have a fresh site for the entire essay?
It is exquisite writing, naturally, and relects insights on
how the great writer can take the ordinary and make it
extraodinary. It is a definite glimmer into the workings
of Ian Fleming as he was crafting his Bond novels. This little essay is worth many writing books to all of you writers out there. Cantwell 2  out of 2 found this valuable. Do you?    
mkfreeberg
mkfreeberg		 RE: How to Write a Thriller
Jul 2 2008, 11:58 PM EDT
I see two possibilities here:

1. I could never do this. Not in a hundred lifetimes.
2. There has got to be another way to do this.

The idea of using the word "terrible" six times on one page, and just leaving it to the editor to sort out and plowing on forward, sickens me on some level. Maybe he was a neater thinker than I am. I can make HUGE messes if I don't edit my own work, and by that I mean, nobody else will be able to figure out what I was trying to say. Do you find this valuable?