Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs cover image

S7 Ep28: How to Write a Spy Thriller with Stephen England

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

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How to Write a Book That Doesn't Outline

A lot of what I rate is trying to figure out the snowballing consequences of the actions as my characters work through toward the end. There was a scene in Dave Reckoning that I often mentally turn to as an example of this where towards the end, there's a hostage situation in Las Vegas. In the first draft of that scene, I had him basically tell off the president. And then I realized after I stepped back from that scene that that was not Nichols. He acquiesced to the president, hung up the phone and went and did his own thing.

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