Thriller writer passes on wisdom to Virginia club

Writing thrillers is a business, just the same as making toothpaste, an award-winning author told a crowd at a Virginia Writers Club event Saturday.

Writers should bear in mind that mint-flavored toothpaste is vastly more successful than liver-flavored toothpaste, Jeffery Deaver said while speaking at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

“Why should we as authors provide people books that they don’t like?” he asked.

Deaver is the best-selling author of books including The Bone Collector, which later became a major motion picture. He is also the author of the latest James Bond book, an honor bestowed by the estate of the original author, Ian Fleming. An earlier writer to wear that hat, John Gardner, lived in Charlottesville.

“Jeff Deaver really personifies the modern thriller writer,” said Earlysville author Andy Straka, who attended the symposium. “He really is one of the premier plot artists writing today and it really was very illuminating to hear him go through the process he utilizes in plotting his novels.

Austin Camacho of Springfield and vice president of the club praised the talk.

“I think it’s a rare thing that a writer can be so inspiring and funny.”

The author said that he produces a minimum of one book each year and outlined his regimented outlining and writing process. Deaver described his typical book as multi-plotted, take place over a short time frame and involve twist endings.

Outlining makes up the majority of the process, he said, with documents that can stretch to more than 100 pages. Outlines, he explained, are less painful to throw away than chapters, if the idea turns out not to warrant a book.

“Just because you have a word processor and an idea doesn’t mean the book needs to see the light of day,” he quipped.

He prefaced his description with a statement that his method works for him, but isn’t the only way to do things.

Longtime fan Melinda Crocker of Fredericksburg described the methodology as “very structured … but in a good way.”

After the talk, he did say that his method is an excellent plan for people who want to earn their living by writing fiction.

“If you want to be a working writer, my theory is how you need to go.”

Asked whether his readers knowing that a twist ending is his signature negated the surprise, he replied, “[My fans] all know that [there will be a twist]. They anticipate it. … My job is to make sure they don’t get it [before it’s revealed].”

Deaver suggested aspiring, unpublished writers focus on writing the genre they enjoy reading. Just because Harry Potter and Twilight are doing well doesn’t mean they should write about wizards and vampires, he said. They should consider taking a book they admire and outlining it. And they should realize that some people enjoy reading but not writing.

“Be honest with yourself,” he said.