John Grisham: Bestselling author on writing, his latest novel 'The Widow'

John Grisham is back, but with a bit of a twist. 

His legal thrillers made him a bestselling author but his latest novel is a bit of a departure, a whodunnit murder mystery titled ‘The Widow’.  

Grisham writes his novels in a slightly unorthodox manner, starting with the end and looping back around. 

“I learned the hard way years ago,” he told Mike Hosking. 

“I wasn’t sure how to end the book, and so you keep writing, and you can’t get to the end, and you boxed yourself in a corner.”  

“I’m not gonna waste time like that, I’m gonna know the ending when I start, and if you know the ending, it’s hard to get lost.”  

Despite starting with the ending, the conclusion to ‘The Window’ is not the one he initially wrote, as his wife wasn’t a fan.  

“It was risky,” Grisham explained. 

“This one just didn’t work, and my wife said, hey buddy, this is not gonna work." 

“I sent it to my publisher and to my editor in New York, and they agreed and when all three of them lined up against me, I can't, I can't argue.” 

So he changed the ending, writing 25,000 more words in the month of January in order to get the novel finished on time. 

“I think it’s important to listen to people you trust,” he said.  

“You’ve gotta have a reader you trust, somebody who loves you and wants to see you succeed, but will be brutally honest with you.” 

Grisham has written over 50 books in his career, all bestsellers, and he says the secret is writing what he likes. 

“I write for myself, because I know what has worked,” he explained. 

“I know the stories I want to tell, and so far, those are the stories people want to read.” 

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