Ask the Author: Rich Leder
Answered Questions (4)
Rich Leder
Mount Olympus, magic, bourbon? I don't know. LET THERE BE LINDA blindsided me. I'm hanging on for dear life.
Rich Leder
I'm almost done with a dark comedy called LET THERE BE LINDA. It's the story of two estranged brothers living in the San Fernando Valley who bring their dead mother back to life to clean up the holy mess they've made of things. As you might imagine, it's a very bad idea to give life to the dead. Especially, it turns out, your mother.
I'm having so much fun with this book, I can't stand it. I think these are my craziest characters yet. Monty Python meets Quentin Tarantino.
I'm having so much fun with this book, I can't stand it. I think these are my craziest characters yet. Monty Python meets Quentin Tarantino.
Rich Leder
A popular adage is "write what you know." I'm sorry but no, don't write what you know; write what you love.
You can know anything. If I give you three day on Google, you can be an expert in any topic at all.
Write what you love.
If you love mysteries, write one. If you love romance, write that. Thrillers, westerns, cookbooks, kids…it doesn't matter. If you love it and put your passion on the page, then someone else will feel that love and give it back to you.
I love to laugh and to make other people laugh, so I write funny books. And I love mysteries too. So I write a funny mystery series.
Write what you love, that's my advice.
You can know anything. If I give you three day on Google, you can be an expert in any topic at all.
Write what you love.
If you love mysteries, write one. If you love romance, write that. Thrillers, westerns, cookbooks, kids…it doesn't matter. If you love it and put your passion on the page, then someone else will feel that love and give it back to you.
I love to laugh and to make other people laugh, so I write funny books. And I love mysteries too. So I write a funny mystery series.
Write what you love, that's my advice.
Rich Leder
At its core, writer's block is a function of not knowing what to write. And not knowing what to write is a function of not preparing a detailed outline first. I call it a beat sheet. You can call it anything you want--but do it before you write the book and you'll know what to write at every given moment.
I started doing beat sheets in Hollywood, when I was a screenwriter. I did 56 of them. And now I've done one for each of my four novels.
A road map, is all it is, so I know where I'm going and why. Like all journeys, the map can and does change once I'm underway. But having a detailed beat sheet gives me the confidence that I will finish what I started, that, if I do nothing but following my outline beat by beat, I can start at the beginning, aware of what to write next and why, and keep going until I reach the end.
Doing it this allows me to focus on how I'm going to write that scene, that chapter, that moment without worrying about what it is I'm supposed to write. I know what I'm supposed to write, now what's the coolest-funniest-most romantic-scariest-whatever way for me to write it.
In my decades as a professional writer, this had been my cure for writer's block. Yes, cure.
I started doing beat sheets in Hollywood, when I was a screenwriter. I did 56 of them. And now I've done one for each of my four novels.
A road map, is all it is, so I know where I'm going and why. Like all journeys, the map can and does change once I'm underway. But having a detailed beat sheet gives me the confidence that I will finish what I started, that, if I do nothing but following my outline beat by beat, I can start at the beginning, aware of what to write next and why, and keep going until I reach the end.
Doing it this allows me to focus on how I'm going to write that scene, that chapter, that moment without worrying about what it is I'm supposed to write. I know what I'm supposed to write, now what's the coolest-funniest-most romantic-scariest-whatever way for me to write it.
In my decades as a professional writer, this had been my cure for writer's block. Yes, cure.
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