Interview with Steven James, Bestselling Award Winning Author

 

   

Do you draw from personal experience when you create your characters or scenes? I think that every character has aspects of our personality within them, and occasionally I will use moments from real life in my stories, but I try to focus more on what is honest to the story and authentic to the characters than tapping into my own experiences. I heard someone refer to it as “plagiarizing reality” and I never forgot that.

Tell us a little about your writing process. I understand you don’t outline or plot anything out, but let the story unfold as you write it. How does that work? As I write, I’m always asking myself what the character would naturally do, how I can make things worse, how I can write myself into a corner—and then how to get out of it in a way that readers will not anticipate. I trust the direction of the story and let it reveal itself to me as it unfolds. I also value narrative promises—trying always to fulfill them and make sure that they point in the right direction.

This story, even more than the first book in the series, Broker of Lies, explores the concept of forgiveness and how to deal with those who do the unforgivable. What led you to take the story in that direction? I read a book about forgiveness and started really thinking about what it means to forgive someone. It’s different than excusing the wrong; it’s different from holding a grudge; it’s something much rarer than that.

You’re known for including twists in your stories. How do you come up with them? I look for moments that are unexpected and inevitable—so, they are logical and follow naturally from what precedes them, but also offer surprises to readers. I like every scene to have a touch of this; I also want the story as a whole to have an ending that readers won’t see coming but will appreciate when they get there. That’s the pivot. That’s what I’m looking for.

When you’re teaching other writers the craft of writing, what are some of the aspects of the craft that you focus on—that other instructors tend not to? I really emphasize the contingent nature of fiction (in other words, that everything must follow naturally from what precedes it), understanding and managing the substantive status of the characters in different social contexts, and writing toward a pivot—a moment that is both unexpected and inevitable.

In this story, the villains actually seem to have a good goal, one that could help humanity in the longterm. How hard was it to write the part of the heroes trying to stop them? This dilemma was what led me into the story in the first place. I love to explore difficult questions in my stories and this was one that I just found extremely profound.

What’s the most important part of a story to you? Two things come to mind—the pivots (think twists) and the payoff at the end of the story. Is the story honest about human nature and morality? What aspect of this story is desperate to be told or impossible to ignore? Does the story mean more than it says? Can we overhear an unforeseen truth? Is the action imbued with deeper meaning? Is the takeaway unstated and yet unforgettable? If the story can check off some of those boxes, I’ll be thrilled.

I understand that you recently changed your view of what a story is. Can you talk us through that? Many people think of a story as a progression of events—first act, second act, third act. But stories are much more collisions of desire than they are progressions of events. Because of that, I think that approaching story from that perspective is not as helpful as other approaches. I’ve come to believe that there are four elements in every story (character, setting, struggle, and pursuit), and two additional aspects that all great stories have (pivot and payoff). So . . . great storytellers introduce us to a memorable and irresistible character who faces a pressing and intimate struggle. They give her choices and sacrifices that matter, invite us to see the pursuit unfold in an evocative setting, then lead us to gasp at the pivot and to nod at the unforgettable payoff. That’s what I’m trying to do.

What are you hoping readers will take away from this book? First and foremost, I want them to be entertained from the first page to the last. I want them to enjoy the light touches of humor, to feel white-knuckle suspense at the right times, and to fall in love with the characters. I want them to think about some big, philosophical questions along the way, but this is a thriller, it’s a roller coaster, and I want them to enjoy the ride.

Steven James is the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of nineteen novels that have won more than a dozen national and international awards, including four Christy Awards for suspense and an International Book Award. His thrillers have been praised by Suspense Magazine, Booklist, and the New York Journal of Books and received starred reviews from both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, who called his work “thought-provoking” and “riveting.” When he’s not writing, he teaches other writers at events around the globe.