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New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author, J.F.Penn describes her creative process, how she gets ideas, does research and uses synchronicity to write her books. 
http://www.JFPenn

J.F.Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling thriller author. She writes the ARKANE action-adventure series described as ‘Dan Brown meets Lara Croft,’ as well as the London Psychic crime thrillers, for fans of Jessica Jones. Her books have sold over 400,000 copies in 72 countries and 5 languages.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

    How I get many of my initial ideas from traveling. How Destroyer of Worlds was sparked by a statue of Shiva Nataraja in Delhi, and One Day in Budapest by a visit to the city and the mass grave there as well as the far right political situation.

    How I use research to delve further into places and cultural history and then synchronicity happens, in that I find ‘coincidences’ in the real world that lead into story. The importance of following your curiosity. How Stone of Fire was influenced by the burning ghats in Varanasi and Carl Jung’s Red Book.

    ARKANE Books x 7

    The ARKANE action adventure series

    Taking notes from multiple sources – books, videos, DVDs and how that leads into piles of notes that I follow down research rabbit holes.

    How some ideas bleed into several books in various incarnations. For example, the Maori aspects of Deviance sparked some of Risen Gods, and tattoos are an important part of Deviance as well as other books. How I love big themes – good vs evil, faith vs unbelief – plus the supernatural world, these keep recurring in every book

    How I plot. I know the first few scenes and main characters. I know the ending and some of the key settings for the London psychic seriesbook, some of the big scenes. Then I use The Story Grid to do a one page ‘Foolscap’ overview of the plot. (See this interview with Shawn Coyne for more detail.) Then I usually write 20,000 words before replotting, so I am a hybrid plotter/pantser.

    As I research, I start a book page on Pinterest. You can find all my boards per book at Pinterest.com/JFPenn. It’s really helpful for book cover design ideas as well as a visual experience of the book, plus marketing along the way.

    Trust emergence as you write.
    How I knew I wanted to be a writer. If you want to decide what to do with your life, consider what you want your life to look like, and what would your days look like. I wanted to spend my time learning, traveling and creating new things in the world, as well as helping people.

You can find my fiction site at www.JFPenn.com and my books in ebook, print and audiobook format on most online stores.


Find out more

My Creative Writing Process by Bestselling Thriller Author J.F.Penn

I’m a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, podcaster and creative entrepreneur. I write thrillers and dark fantasy as J.F.Penn as well as non-fiction for writers under Joanna Penn.

My thriller site: http://www.JFPenn.com 
My site for writers and The Creative Penn podcast: http://www.TheCreativePenn.com
Books and Travel Podcast and Blog: https://www.booksandtravel.page

My Creative Writing Process by Bestselling Thriller Author J.F.Penn

JFPenn

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