Readers Place

Swimsuit by James Patterson is being published this month, June 2009. James Patterson shares his answers to your questions with you:

As the world’s number one bestselling author, can you reveal the secrets of your success?

That would be telling! I will say however that it is all about opening with a grabber and keeping the reader hooked. Make sure you have a great story idea and write a good outline first.

What inspires you when thinking about the plots for your books? Are they based on real life cases you’ve read or heard about?

What inspires me is when they occur to me and I go, wow, now that’s a neat idea for a story. I don’t know how to describe the process, but I have to see the whole story in my head. Crime details and the rest fall into place later, after I’ve figured out the main twists and turns.

How do you write?

Unfortunately I am a dinosaur; I write with a pencil, I do not use a computer. I write, I erase, I write some more. It’s kind of silly but it has worked for me and you know that old saying ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.’

What is your favourite place to enjoy a good book?

Anywhere! I love to read and try to do it as often as possible. I read with my son Jack at home, when I’m travelling on business, when we’re on holiday – anywhere I can.

You write books for children as well as for adults. If there was one piece of advice you could give parents trying to encourage their children to read, what would it be, and why?

Simple, give kids great books they will love. All kids like movies, but if you started them off watching Ingmar Bergman they’d hate movies. It’s the same with books. Give a kid a great book, something exciting, fun, action packed that has them hooked from the first page and they will be a reader for life. When we go on holiday my wife Sue and my son Jack have what we call reading parties. We talk about what we are reading, why we like it, good bits, funny bits, sad bits; it’s fun.

What did you read a as a young adult and did these works impact on your own writing?

Actually as kid I didn’t read much at all. It wasn’t until I graduated from high school and took a job in a mental asylum that I started reading. I used to work the nightshift and to pass the time I started reading. Unlike when I was a kid, Jack (my son) and I spend time together reading and talking about book, as well as movies, music and games of course. Jack is perhaps my fiercest critic and I was delighted when after showing him The Dangerous Day of Daniel X he said – you know Dad, you’ve finally got it right!

Do you get inspiration from other writers that you admire?

I draw inspiration from every book I’ve ever enjoyed. Books are what convinced me to write in the first place. It’s pretty wide-ranging in terms of authors—from Frederick Forsyth to James Joyce—but, sure, they’ve all inspired me immeasurably.