I shouldn’t be writing this foreword. I don’t believe in how-to books. Not for writing. I’m not sure writing can be taught. I believe novels need to be instinctive. I think writers need to shut their eyes and write exactly what and how they want to. Because that way their books will be organic, living, breathing, vital, full of energy, full of integrity. I think that’s the only route to success. You can’t do it by committee. I think that to want to do something, but to hesitate because Lee Child or someone else does it differently, is the route to certain failure. My how-to book would be all of three words long: ‘Ignore all advice.’
But.
But … writing is also a job. It’s a trade. It’s a profession. Maybe it shouldn’t have rules, but it does have manners. And conventions. And realities. And processes, and different stages within those processes. And tricks. Getting the words on the page isn’t easy. You have to make them your words, and your words alone, but some ways will save you a little time and frustration, and some ways will cost you a lot of both.
And once the words are on the page, it’s a whole new ballgame. There are blind alleys, and ways to avoid them. There are elephant traps, and ways to sidestep them. There’s praise, and ways to parse it. There’s criticism, and ways to respond to it. And ways not to. Once the words are on the page, you step out of the office and into the jungle. You need a guide.
You need David Hewson.
I know David pretty well. We’ve sat side by sardonic side through publication dinners, on conference panels, at committee meetings, and with our elbows propped on bars. We’ve set the world to rights many times over. There are three things you need to know about old Hewson: his bullshit meter is second only to mine. He loves the business to death, but is the least starry-eyed writer you’ll ever meet. And he was a working journalist, and (perhaps therefore) the most professional and down-to-earth guy you’ll ever meet.
You should listen to him. I do, all the time. You should listen long and hard. You should absolutely be prepared to ignore what he says if you’re not convinced, but I think you will be convinced. By most of it, anyway.
LEE CHILD
New York, 2011