J.T. Ellison, New York Times Bestselling Author

View Original

Daily Tao ☯ 5.9.17

And so it begins… Brit #5 is underway! Catherine and I met this morning, tossed around some ideas, and settled on a course of action. I had a yummy lunch with my awesome publicist at Má Pêche, then did a quick phone interview about LIE TO ME, in which we were wildly diverted by the appearance of garden gnomes (I swear, the codeine has not gone to my head!)

And now I'm ensconced in the hotel with a big cup of tea, a cozy sweater, and my fat notebook, pulling together the ideas we cooked up into a more cohesive format for tomorrow morning’s session. Today was ironing out motivation, tomorrow will be plot, plot, plot. Then publisher meetings all afternoon. Super fun!

When I’m starting a book, I go in with a series of questions which are, in essence, a glorified version of who, what, where, when, and why. The why is always the most important, and can be the biggest stumbling block. Villains can quickly become one-dimensional mustache twirlers if you’re not careful with their true motivations. For me, finding the why behind the villain/killer is the key to a successful story. 

And I’m pretty sure we nailed it this morning. I’m excited to see where this takes us!

Hope your day was awesome!