Ask the Author: Dale M. Nelson
Answered Questions (4)
Dale M. Nelson
Its all I've ever known. I started writing stories at about eight and I've never stopped. I'm compulsively creative. If I've got ten minutes, I want to be at my keyboard typing. Before I discovered Evernote, the house would be littered with scraps of paper (envelopes were my favorite) with ideas, snippets of dialogue, outlines, character sketches. It'd drive my wive crazy.
I just love telling stories. It makes me feel so fulfilled when someone tells me they had fun with one of my books. I'll never forget the feeling I had the first time I read "The Maltese Falcon", "Snow Crash", "L.A. Confidential" or "The Things They Carried". I want someone to feel that way with one of my stories and get inspired to write their own.
I just love telling stories. It makes me feel so fulfilled when someone tells me they had fun with one of my books. I'll never forget the feeling I had the first time I read "The Maltese Falcon", "Snow Crash", "L.A. Confidential" or "The Things They Carried". I want someone to feel that way with one of my stories and get inspired to write their own.
Dale M. Nelson
Write and read. Read every day, in many different genres. I write crime, but I read a lot of science fiction, fantasy, memoir, true crime, history, pulp, in addition to crime novels. Good writing is good writing and there is a lot you can learn by reading outside of your genre.
Try to write every day and see where it takes you. Keep honing your craft. Write because you NEED to write. Don't worry about publication, focus on the words. You'll know when you're ready for the next step.
Try to write every day and see where it takes you. Keep honing your craft. Write because you NEED to write. Don't worry about publication, focus on the words. You'll know when you're ready for the next step.
Dale M. Nelson
I don't really suffer from it, to be honest, but there are certainly times when I'm less creative. I tend to write linearly, but I've learned that if I'm stalling out, I just skip the part that's slowing me down and come back to it. I've also learned that if something isn't exiting to write, it probably isn't exciting to read. I also know when to put a project down. I actually had to set the sequel to "The Bad Shepherd" down because I could tell it wasn't shaping into the story I wanted it to be. I kept stalling out.
Ultimately, the answer (for me at least) is to keep things moving in the story and write things that the reader wouldn't expect. Boredom is nature's way of telling you its time for a plot twist!
Ultimately, the answer (for me at least) is to keep things moving in the story and write things that the reader wouldn't expect. Boredom is nature's way of telling you its time for a plot twist!
Dale M. Nelson
I've always loved heist stories. There's something very visceral in it for me--an anti-hero struggling against society, authority figures or villains far worse than himself. But, I wanted "A Legitimate Businessman" to be different than, say, Westlake's "Parker" books. I lived in Europe for a few years when I was in the Air Force and absolutely fell in love with it. The idea for this book was born there and refined on a train ride between Florence and Rome.
Setting the book in Europe gives it a different feel, more stylish, more sophisticated, I think.
It was also important to me that my main character, while a criminal (which he--and I--make no apologies for) has a kind of code. There needed to be a logic to his criminality as well as something to fight for. I wasn't interested in writing about a sociopath or someone who steals for the fun of it--other writers have done this better than I could (again, Westlake). Those factors also had inherent stakes in the book. If he gets caught, he has something very tangible that he will lose, which I think makes the story much more exciting for the reader.
Setting the book in Europe gives it a different feel, more stylish, more sophisticated, I think.
It was also important to me that my main character, while a criminal (which he--and I--make no apologies for) has a kind of code. There needed to be a logic to his criminality as well as something to fight for. I wasn't interested in writing about a sociopath or someone who steals for the fun of it--other writers have done this better than I could (again, Westlake). Those factors also had inherent stakes in the book. If he gets caught, he has something very tangible that he will lose, which I think makes the story much more exciting for the reader.
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