I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial.
Interpretation
Life experiences can inspire creativity in unexpected ways.
In this quote, John Grisham reflects on how his background as a lawyer provided him with unique insights and experiences that ultimately led him to become a writer. He emphasizes that his initial foray into storytelling was not a lifelong aspiration but rather a product of his professional encounters, highlighting how our careers and experiences can shape our creative endeavors.
In practice
During a writing workshop, I shared how John Grisham's quote inspired me to draw from my professional background.
Nobody wants to read about the honest lawyer down the street who does real estate loans and wills. If you want to sell books, you have to write about the interesting lawyers - the guys who steal all the money and take off. That's the fun stuff.
Death row is a nightmare to serial killers and ax murderers. For an innocent man, it's a life of mental torture that the human spirit is not equipped to survive.
An outline is crucial. It saves so much time. When you write suspense, you have to know where you're going because you have to drop little hints along the way. With the outline, I always know where the story is going. So before I ever write, I prepare an outline of 40 or 50 pages.
Writing's still the most difficult job I've ever had - but it's worth it.
Ten years from now I plan to be sitting here, looking out over my land. I hope I'll be writing books, but if not, I'll be on my pond fishing with my kids. I feel like the luckiest guy I know.
I used to walk in a bookstore and see all these books on the walls. And I would say, 'Who wants to hear from me? What do I have to add to all of this?'
A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.
As a novelist, where do you go to tap into memories, and impressions, and sensations? It's usually, in my experience, your early life, before you started thinking of yourself as a writer, because somehow those experiences are unadulterated.
Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.
I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.
I try to write something that would interest anybody and keep them turning the page. You must have a plot and good storyline.
The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.
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