What I loved about the Blinds was its relentless momentum, the sense that, even as you broke with the narrative to give backstory and exposition, this train was gonna keep barreling forward. As a first-time novelist, what can I do to create and maintain such fierce momentum and keep my work from floating adrift?

Hey: Thanks for the question and the kind words.

A great piece of advice given to me early on is that questions are the engine of the story. So I find it useful to always be asking myself, What are the questions the reader is going to absolutely want to have answered right now? Every great story — not just crime fiction — is driven by questions: Will they find the white whale? Will Lily in House of Mirth survive her social ruin? Will Scobie in The Heart of the Matter — one of my absolute favorites — succumb to corruption or will he stay forthright?

In a murder mystery, there's usually an overarching question — whodunnit?, for example — but then there's room for many smaller, in some ways more urgent questions along the way, in each scene, each chapter, each exchange: How is this character going to get out of this situation? Will this secret be revealed in this scene and if not, how will it be concealed?

Also, when I started my first novel, I wrote three words at the top of the very first page of my notebook: "Faster, faster, faster." I found my own tendency as a writer was to stop, digress, linger — and I really wanted to combat that, or at least constantly be aware of it.

So I think if you're a) always conscious of questions in the story and b) always working to trim away elements that impede your forward momentum, you'll be in very good shape. Best of luck with your writing!

This is fantastic advice! Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. I’ve got a lot to think about.