How to write a bestseller — by hit thriller writer Harlan Coben

The American thriller writer has published 35 books and sold 80 million copies in 46 languages since his debut, Play Dead, almost 30 years ago. Nine of his page-turners have been turned into Netflix series, with the latest, Fool Me Once, starring Joanna Lumley, Michelle Keegan and Richard Armitage.

So if you’re thinking of finally writing that thriller in 2024, who better to offer advice than the 62-year-old from New Jersey.

Work out what you want to write. When I was 15 my father gave me a copy of Marathon Man by William Goldman. You could have put a gun to my head and I wouldn’t have put it down. My first novel wasn’t very good — pretentious, pompous and self-absorbed. I realised that I should write books that I love to read — books like Goldman’s. Books that you can’t leave your hotel room until you know how it turns out.

Give yourself permission to suck. A lot of first novels are bad. I wrote three that will never see the light of day. That’s part of the apprenticeship. Just get the words down. Turn off the voice that says: “This sucks.” No one’s going to see it. You can always delete it — it’s an experiment.

Boredom helps. Ian Fleming and Agatha Christie used to book into bland hotel rooms so they would have nothing else to do but write.

An idea is not a novel — it is a seed. Ideas come from your personal life and from what you read or what’s on the news. My book Hold Tight came from dinner with friends who told how they’d put spyware on their kid’s computer. The Stranger was based on an article about a website that sold fake pregnancy bellies and sonograms. Sometimes I take an image or a sentence and challenge myself to make a story out of it. My opening line in No Second Chance is: “When the first bullet hit my chest, I thought of my daughter.” The story came from there.

• Harlan Coben: ‘A little tragedy doesn’t hurt a writer’

Save all your ideas. I have books of them. The good ones I put in a file and go through before writing a book. Sometimes the ideas I finally choose are 30 years old. Mix and match four or five of them to get a full story.

Always ask yourself: “Can I live with this idea for a year? Is it interesting enough?” If not, it’s probably not for you.

If I say, “I’ve read a great book,” you won’t ask, “Who’s the main character?” People want to know what it’s about.

Every great novel — Dickens, Dumas, Jane Austen — you loved the characters, but it’s the story that initially grabs you.

Some writers start with a sentence and have no idea where it’s going. Others know every character’s biography. I’m in between. I know the beginning and the end before I start. I recommend you know where you’re going. You’re a lot freer to twist and turn if you know your destination.

Always ask “What if …?” What if you put spyware on your kid’s computer, discover something and then your kid disappears? What if you saw your dead husband cuddling your child on your nannycam?

• Michelle Keegan: ‘I gravitate towards strong female characters’

Most people write on their laptop, but for plotting I put pen to paper. I write scenes, draw arrows, cross things out. I can still read the stuff I’ve crossed out — if I’d deleted it on the computer it would have been gone for ever. Once the plot’s sketched out I put it on the computer and I have a first draft.

Good characters are created and defined by what they go through. Batman’s parents were killed in front of him. That’s plot creating character.

Base your characters on people you meet. Fool Me Once is about a female combat pilot after I’d met one of the first female military pilots to fly in the Middle East and thought she’d make a great character. Make a mosaic from other people you know — this person’s hair, the way that person speaks. Then put them in a situation and see how they react.

Villains must be as real as any other character. Remember that they don’t see themselves as villains. The perfect villain is one where you say: “I could see myself doing that.”

Always write as if you are on the verge of losing your reader to TV, phones, internet, movies, everything. You have to make every page and word as compelling as possible — or they’ll do something else. Cut out all the parts you’d normally skip. Start every scene as late as possible and end it as early as possible. Keep raising questions in the reader’s mind, answer them quickly, but let that answer lead to more questions. Pacing is trial and error. You learn to feel it, because every book is different. My latest, I Will Find You, starts: “I am serving the fifth year of a life sentence for murdering my own child. Spoiler alert: I didn’t do it.” You are off and running.

Know the ending before you write the first word even if you don’t know how you’ll get there. I like to have as many revelations at the end as possible — solve the mystery, identify the bad guy, have the reunion … add the twist. Allow the reader to guess one. It’s the hardest part — and what brings people to your next book.
Harlan Coben was talking to Stephen Armstrong. Harlan Coben’s BBC Maestro course Writing Thrillers is available now. Fool Me Once is on Netflix

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