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Ben Mezrich: Accidental Billionaires, The Social Network, and Writing Advice

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As you probably know, The Social Network is opening today in movie theaters. The film is inspired by Ben Mezrich's non-fiction book, The Accidental Billionaires. Ben has previously offered some golden nuggets of writing advice on the WEbook blog as part of our Bestselling Author Q&A series, and it's great to see him having continued success.

The Social Network has been generating a lot of buzz and controversy over the past few weeks, as many members of the tech community have claimed the movie inaccurately portrays both Mark Zuckerberg and the circumstances in which he created Facebook.

Bestselling Author Joe Finder Answered SO Many Questions! Thanks Joe!

PART 3 of the amazing 3 PART interview series with bestselling author Joseph Finder. We have learned so much! Thank you Joe for all of your thoughtful insight about research, outlines and writing in general. If you aren't too busy wrapping presents, hanging mistletoe and/or eating delicious holiday goodness...start from the beginning: Click to read PART 1 and PART 2. Or hop in right here with PART 3:

I'm a pretty young writer, so I have very little experience in this field. I enjoy writing, but I have a lot of trouble putting all my ideas on paper... It's a bit frustrating... XD  So... How do you get a novel going? What steps do you take to put those first words onto paper? Thanks!! –KATY

It sounds simple-minded, but if you're feeling really intimidated, you start with lists.  Character names.  Events.  Places. Over a period of many years, I've learned that I have to work from an outline; not all writers do, but I do. It's not an elaborate outline, and it changes along the way, but it lays out a sequence of events for my characters, lists character names, includes some details I want to incorporate, etc. 

The biggest challenge for any beginning novelist is simply the time it takes, which intimidates most people. But no one sits down and cranks out 90,000 words at once; you do it 1,000 words at a time, or even 500 words at a time. If you can write a page a day, you can finish a book in a year. 

For me, the first words of any new book come from a "What if?" question.  What if a mid-level marketing guy started taking those "business is war" books a little too seriously?  What if a group of criminals took a company's whole leadership structure hostage? How might an ex-Special Forces operative put his devious talents to use in the business world? 

Keep a notebook or one of those small digital recorders close by, and write things down as they occur to you. Not every idea will pay off, but you'll always have a reserve to go back to.

And finally, the most important weapon you can have to combat the fear of the blank computer screen is what I call the crappy draft.  (Well, I use stronger language than that….)  You have to allow yourself to just write something, anything, to write a draft that’s bad in a lot of ways.  Tell yourself this is the crappy draft and don’t worry about it. You’ll fix it later. Otherwise, if you’re too much of a perfectionist, you’ll never get a word down.

Could you tell us a little bit about how your first novel got published? Was it a struggle to find an agent? Did you do a lot of rewrites and revisions? –MATT

I had written a nonfiction book about Dr. Armand Hammer that drew a great deal of attention — mainly from Dr. Hammer, who wanted to make sure that no one ever read it. But what I really wanted to do was to write a novel.  I was intimidated by fiction, though, and it took me years to decide to try it. I gave myself a deadline of three years to write it and find an agent, and I sold the book just weeks before that self-imposed deadline expired. 

Finding an agent was a challenge. It's tough for everyone, and although I knew some people in the business, it was tough for me as well. Especially for fiction it’s hard to find the right agent, because so many of them aren’t willing to actually read past the flaws and figure out how to fix a beginner’s manuscript.  That takes an agent who’s both skilled and motivated. The agent who finally did take me on told me that the first 55 pages of my manuscript needed to go; he was only willing to represent the book because he'd managed to make it past the book's long, needlessly expository opening section. I looked at the manuscript again, and realized he was right

Follow Joe on Twitter or check out his website. 

Joseph Finder is a bestselling thriller author and hailed as the “CEO of Suspense,” has published nine novels including the bestselling High Crimes which was turned into a film starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. He has recently sold two more bestselling novels to Hollywood and his latest thriller, Vanished, landed on The New York Times bestseller list. Vanished, published in August 2009, is the first book in a continuing series featuring corporate security specialist Nick Heller.

PART 2 Joe Finder Answers Your Questions!

This is PART 2 of a 3 PART Q&A series with bestselling author Joe Finder. Questions by WEbookers and answers by Joe. Want to start with PART 1? Or just dive in right here and read about Joe's thoughts on outlines, research and Twitter. Thanks again Joe!

I've heard a variety of opinions from popular authors regarding outlines. Some writers swear by them, while others say they don't like constricting their narrative with a pre-set plan. You strike me as an outline guy, but I wanted to ask anyway: What are your thoughts on outlines? And have they changed at all over time? –BRIAN

Yeah, I’m an outline guy.  You’re right.  But I came to this realization the hard way.  I’ve tried it a bunch of other ways – no outline at all, a skeletal outline, an immensely detailed outline. . . It took me a while to work out my system.  But here’s the important thing: you do what works for you.  That’s the cool thing about writing: you make your own rules. I know and admire authors who don't outline at all — Lee Child and Harlan Coben, for instance — but I’ve learned it's not the way I write.  I experimented with writing Power Play without an outline, and it took me twice as long as it should have, because I didn't give myself a map. 

That said, I know some authors who write outlines that are almost novella-length; Jeffery Deaver, I think, starts with an outline that might be close to 100 pages long. Robert Ludlum used to write outlines that were easily 150 pages. That's not me, either. That saps the writing process of all the fun of discovery and spontaneity. So I compromise: I lay out a sequence of events — the "beats" of the novel — and I'll make lists of character names and descriptions and even scenes and scraps of dialogue that I want to incorporate.  It's not especially detailed, and it does change along the way when new and better ideas present themselves, but it gives me the feeling that I'm working with a net.

Here’s how I think of it, since I’m a techie guy: it’s the difference between driving with a GPS and driving with directions you’ve downloaded from Google Maps.  If you drive from Boston MA to Syracuse NY using a GPS, it’ll drive you crazy, having that voice tell you “in three tenths of a mile right turn on I-90…”  You can’t listen to music, you can’t be in your own head, you’re always aware of that control-freak voice telling you what to do. No fun. But if you drive without any directions at all, you’ll end up in Tulsa. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Tulsa.) So I print out my directions on Google Maps; that way I have the directions, I know the route, and it allows me to take the more scenic route at times.

Hi Joe, I'm a very young writer (still at school) and was just wondering how you would go about researching your books? If you were to write a book set in a country that you dont live in, how would you go about finding out more about their culture, accents, etc? –MEL

Visiting in person is always the best way, but the Internet is a pretty decent second best.  YouTube lets you hear accents and even languages from all over the world, and Google Earth gives you not only satellite views but sometimes street-level views of neighborhoods all over the planet.  Search for blogs from the region you're writing about, and look for biographies and memoirs of people from there; memoirs, in particular, often give details of everyday life that history books omit. 

Hi Joe! Great question from Mel, let me do a follow-up -- how would you then integrate that information in a way that was smooth and believable, and check to make sure it was represented accurately? –LITTLEFLUFFYCAT

Nothing is more jarring than a book that shoves in all kinds of details in order to show off the author's research. One way to test yourself, if you're not sure whether you've got too much information or not enough, is to rewrite a sequence as if it were set in your own neighborhood. What would you need to tell a stranger about your own neighborhood in order to establish that sense of place? Street names, landmarks, characteristic noises or smells — but just enough, not too much. In Boston, for example, a giant Citgo sign looms over Kenmore Square, and you can see it for almost a mile in any direction. It's not far from my own office, and when I see it, it tells me I'm home. Look for signifiers like that, but don't distract your reader with unnecessary details. Here’s my rule: research should be like the tip of an iceberg – no more than 10% should show.

I'd like to ask you to describe both positive & negative experiences that you may have had using these social media. You are very engaged with your fans, especially on twitter, and I'm wondering if at times it can be overwhelming or even "frightening?" –MERLECHLOE

I love new technology, and I love all the new means of communication we have now – e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, etc. – but at the same time I hate them, because they split your attention, divert your focus.  The immediate gratification you get from e-mail can ruin your concentration. I find Twitter to be an especially amazing and powerful way to connect with my readers in a way that I’ve never done before: it’s immediate, intimate, informal – and, yes, totally overwhelming at times. I've met literally thousands of new friends and readers through Twitter, and I love interacting with them. But it can take over. I can tell myself I'm taking a quick break from writing just to check in with my readers, and before I know it, half the day is gone.  There's always one more message to respond to, one more question to answer, one more great piece of information to follow up on. It's a little like research, in that way. I've had to ration myself, especially lately, while I'm finishing the next book, and at times I even have to go cold turkey. I still haven’t figured out how to balance Twitter with my writing life.

Keep reading...check out PART 3!

Joe writes about how he gets a book started and how he got his first book published! Follow Joe on Twitter @joefinder or visit his website.

New York Times Bestselling Author Joe Finder Answers Your Questions - PART 1

For the last few weeks, bestselling author Joseph Finder (@JoeFinder) has been reading your questions. He answered so many (and wrote such thoughtful responses) that we are going to split the Q&A into several posts, one this weekend (now), one on Monday and the last one on Tuesday. It's a three part-thrilla-palooza! And there is quite a bit to look forward to...

Take it away Joe....!

Hi Joe! I am a new fan. I just finished several of your novels, including Vanished. They are all fantastic! I would like to know who your favorite novelists are? –LISA
Thanks! I'm like most writers I know, in that I became a writer because I love to read so much. The first books that really captured my imagination — and gave me the idea that I could be a writer — were the Mushroom Planet books by Eleanor Cameron (The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet, etc.). I wrote Mrs. Cameron a letter, and she wrote me back; it was a revelation to me, as until then I don't think I realized that books came from regular people who just sat around and made them up. Then I fell in love with Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, and so it began . . .

The novelists I love most as an adult are the ones who combine the power of storytelling with characters you can't forget, and many of these are "literary" novelists: Saul Bellow, especially Humboldt's Gift; Philip Roth; Robertson Davies, whose Deptford Trilogy is magical; E.L Doctorow, especially the pageant of Ragtime; John Fowles, in The Magus; and Sue Miller, who happens to be a friend but is also an amazing writer.

How did you get your inspiration from all your books? –ANONYMOUS
Inspiration is everywhere. I'm serious. Watch the news, drive the carpool, shop for groceries, and play the "What if" game. What if the person in the car in front of you were plotting to kill his boss?  What if that nanny on the playground is secretly adding herself to all her employer's financial accounts? What if a deranged shoe store employee decided to take her revenge by dusting zombie powder inside that foot-measurer contraption, and planned to marshal a zombie army to take over the mall? More realistically, look for sources of stress and conflict in the world around you. Every conflict is a story: somebody wants something, somebody else wants something different, and the path to resolution is your plot.

Hello Joe, I was wondering if you have any tips on writing a synopsis? Is there a formula to follow? Thanks! –J.E.WEBBER
Think of it as like the jacket copy on a novel: it grabs you, tells you what kind of novel it is, who the basic characters are, what the premise is, what kind of other books it’s like. A reader in a bookstore picks up a novel because of its cover, but then she or he reads to jacket copy to see what it’s about, and in 400 words or so she gets it. That’s all you need, but it’s highly compressed. If you’re doing a longer synopsis for an agent, it helps to think of it as a newspaper article that reports the events of your novel. Name your characters, establish their environment, lay out their goals and describe the journey they take to get there. Synopses should follow the narrative sequence of your book (that is, if your book is structured in flashbacks, the synopsis should reflect that), but in general, shorter is better. 

What writing faux pas do you commonly find yourself falling victim to (and subsequently having to go back and fix) in your writing process? –RICH
You’d think that after having written 10 novels I’d have the process down perfectly, but I don’t. Someday, but not yet. I often give a talk at writer’s conferences that I used to call The Six Biggest Mistakes That Even Bestselling Writers Make, and then it grew into the Ten Biggest Mistakes, then the Thirteen Biggest Mistakes….. None of us is perfect, no matter how successful. None of us gets the book right in the first draft.  Often, in my own first drafts, I find it takes me way too long to get the party started – I call this throat-clearing.  Then I’ll re-read it and find myself mentally drumming my fingers – get to it, already!  That’s a big one. Some mistakes I find I seem to just have to make as a way of finding myself into the story.  For me, it’s just part of the process.

Hi Joe! I'd like to ask about your most embarrassing moment; I'm sure there are many! :> -MERLECHLOE
Ugh, do we have to talk about this?  No, really, I've never done ANYTHING that embarrassed me.  We won't talk about the time I broke my fly zipper the morning before interviewing a major corporation's CEO, and he found me dealing with it in the men's room on the executive floor immediately before the interview (before we had even been introduced), my pants puddled on the floor on top of my shoes.  No, we'll just skip right over this question . . .

...keep reading...jump into PART 2

Joseph Finder is a bestselling thriller author and hailed as the “CEO of Suspense,” has published nine novels including the bestselling High Crimes which was turned into a film starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. He has recently sold two more bestselling novels to Hollywood and his latest thriller, Vanished, landed on The New York Times bestseller list. Vanished, published in August 2009, is the first book in a continuing series featuring corporate security specialist Nick Heller.

New York Times Bestselling author Joseph Finder is taking your questions…

In October, Ben Mezrich answered your questions on writing, inspiration and rejection, Joseph Finder is up next.

Joe, a bestselling thriller author and hailed as the “CEO of Suspense,” has published nine novels including the bestselling High Crimes which was turned into a film starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. He has recently sold two more bestselling novels to Hollywood and his latest thriller, Vanished, landed on The New York Times bestseller list. Vanished, published in August 2009, is the first book in a continuing series featuring corporate security specialist Nick Heller.

Joe was born in Chicago, but spent his childhood living around the world, including Afghanistan and the Philippines. At Yale, he majored in Russian studies and sang in the school’s legendary a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs. He completed his master’s degree at Harvard and was recruited by the CIA, but decided to write fiction instead.

For the next week (or so), you get to ask Joe questions in the comments area below. Ask anything! Ask about his process and his writing routine, his favorite song or his most embarrassing moment. For more question inspiration, check out Joe’s website and/or follow him on twitter.

Be creative. Joe is now listening…

Bestselling Author Ben Mezrich Answers Your Questions…

For the last two weeks, bestselling author Ben Mezrich has been reading your questions. He answered so many (thanks Ben!) that we are going to split his responses into two posts, one this week (now) and one next week. Find out what book Ben recommends, where (and when) he writes, and what "turns him on" (when it comes to what he likes to write about!). Take it away Ben...

I lack inspiration sitting at a computer I much prefer to write old style pen and paper in the corner of a coffee shop gives me a chance to people watch! How and where do you write? --SOMEBODY BEAR

I write in my writing cave, usually late at night but sometimes early in the morning. When I’m deep into a book I’ll write all night, starting at around 11 pm through 9 or 10 in the morning. I get into a deep state of trance, almost, and can write for days on end. I kind of fall apart physically.

I was wondering how you know that you're a good writer? I guess I'm asking how I can get my self esteem up to keep writing and not give up on any specific idea? --SARAH

Yes, you have to have a lot of confidence in yourself when you’re starting out, because everyone around you will be skeptical, and you’ll also feel like you’re being judged when you finally submit things to publishers. You have to believe that this is what you do, this is all that want to do, and this is something you can do better than anyone else.

Is there room for uncompromised natural writing styles - say for instance that which is rich in detail and digression - perhaps even pushing a few ‘prison yard’ boundaries? Or these days, would you say minimalist instant gratification? --SPMOUNT

Whoah, that’s a pretty intense question. There is always room for pushing boundaries- but there’s also something to be said for instant gratification! I will say that as a first time writer, breaking in by pushing boundaries is much more difficult than breaking in with something people are comfortable with.

Are there some things that you could point to in your rejected projects that I should avoid? Would you say it was the topic, dialogue, plot, writing style, etc.? --ERNEST DEMPSEY

Yes, unless it’s memoir, try and avoid the first person, it kind of screams “first novel”. There are some great books on writing -- I’d pick up Albert Zuckerman’s book on writing thrillers. Every book, at its heart, has to follow the rules of thrillers, the three act system, etc.

Are you still a "hypochondriac?" Photos of you and the Bugman tell me that perhaps, times have changed.--MERLE GORNICK

 Hah, I am a hypochondriac but it’s under control. I still wash my hands 15 times a day and avoid plenty of things I think will get me sick. But nowadays, with swine flu, everyone is OCD and it’s cool. 

It looks like you spent your early writing years concentrating on fiction, but later made a comfortable home in the non-fiction genre. What caused you to make the switch? And after “Bringing Down the House,” what was it about writing non-fiction that has kept you going for four more books? Do you still write/ plan on publishing more fiction in the future? --MATT

I love these true, wild stories that I write now, about young people doing wild things and making fortunes. I switched because I ran into these MIT kids in a bar and they invited me along for the ride. Now I feel like this is my voice, what I want to write. I’ll probably do fiction here and there, but the true stories turn me on.

I heard somewhere that you first met some members of the MIT blackjack team in a Boston bar, which led to your book, “Bringing Down the House.” Is that true? If so, how did your interaction with them make you decide it would be worthwhile to write a book about them? --ANNE

Yes, true. I met them at Crossroads, an MIT dive bar on the river. These were geeky, math science guys with way too much money, all of it in hundred dollar bills. I had to follow them to Vegas. The rest, as they say, is history!!!

The second set of answers is live! Keep reading...

Ben Mezrich (@BenMezrich) is the author of eleven books, including six novels and five non-fiction titles. His bestsellers include Bringing Down the House, a true story about a group of M.I.T. students who swindled a series of Vegas casinos out of millions by counting cards (the movie version was called “21”) and most recently The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal.
 

Bestselling Author Ben Mezrich is Now Listening…

Ben Mezrich is the author of eleven books, including six novels and five non-fiction titles. He’s been writing — not always successfully — since he left college and allegedly still keeps all 192 of the rejections he received pinned on the wall in his writing den. But Ben kept at it and success came. He sold a few novels then finally hit it VERY big with Bringing Down the House, a true story about a group of M.I.T. students who swindled a series of Vegas casinos out of millions by counting cards (the movie version was called “21”). The book sold over two million copies in twelve languages. Most recently, Ben published The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, which spent 12 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List.
 
Now, here’s where you come in. For the next week (or so), you get to ask Ben questions in the comments area below. About what? Well, anything, but Ben is a working writer who struggled to make it at first — like so many others — so maybe start there. In any case, Ben will pick the questions he finds the most compelling and answer them, Q&A style. If the questions are really good (or quirky or straight bizarre), maybe they’ll even be two parts to the Q&A. It all depends on you, the asker. Want to know a little more about Ben, to fine-tune your questions? He wrote a piece for the Boston Globe a while back that details how he got his start in writing.

So ask away. Ben is now listening...

--John

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