Dissecting the Lee Child novel, ‘Make Me’ to try and see exactly how the author does his craft.
A documentation about writing the ultimate heist novel. Get the full series here: charleskunken.com/hollywoodheistbacklot
"You're wrong," he typed, cracking his first Bubly of the day. "It's just like an Excel sheet. It's words but it still all has to go in the right place for it to make sense."
It was getting late on Thursday, the night before the newsletter was due. Five Excel spreadsheets were open, a bunch of work emails, and the manuscript. The instant message alert was blinking.
"That's a stretch," his friend wrote back. "Spreadsheets give you something tangible - like answers to equations. What do stories give you?"
He typed back. "Emotional resonance." He felt silly even writing it. What do they give you? They take forever. Blink, blink.
"Whatever floats your boat man," friend said. "So, how do you know where to put the words?"
"I'm not sure, instinct?" He rewrote the next line three times. "I'm reading a book by Lee Child, the Jack Reacher guy, you know those Tom Cruise movies?"
"I thought Reacher was 6-5? They used Tom Cruise?"
"Don't ask...my point is, Lee has written almost 30 Reacher novels. They eat 'em like hot cakes. Sold millions. One dude, a magazine writer, wrote a book about Lee Child writing a book. He sat in a room with him for a year and just watched"
"That's absolutely insane."
"It was a bestseller."
It took a moment for friend to respond. "That's actually pretty genius."
Bubly guy cracked his drink. "So yea, I had this crazy idea to dissect a Jack Reacher book and figure out what the hell makes 'em so good. Like, literally where he puts the words."
"Please don't tell me a spreadsheet is involved."
"Not this time, but I am indexing it." He took a sip, then wiped the dew on his shirt. "I'm trying to figure out when and how he describes places, people, and facial gestures. I can't write that kind of stuff without sounding like I'm just describing random sh!t."
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
"Exactly," he said. "For some reason that doesn't work anymore."
"Method?"
"Well, I started half-way through but I'm marking the edges of every page where he does it - describes a place, a person, or a facial gesture. Like this..."
"The bottom row is for places, the middle row is for people, and the top row is for any body movement."
"That's something a serial killer would do."
"It's like a Fodors right?"
"No."
"At first I figured it would be a reference manual, but now I'm seeing its also making like a mini-barcode. The spaces on the bottom row show when they're in a new setting, the middle spaces are when new characters come in, and the top row is how frequently he feels like describing body gestures." He scratched his belly button and took a sip of Bub.
"Don't you have to go rake leaves or something?"
"I just want to stop writing things like 'he was angry' every time someone gets mad. I need better prose." He was psychotic.
"What'd your writing coach say?"
"Don't use '-ly' adverbs, like 'he walked slowly'. Say 'he crept.' It's more active."
"I pray for you my friend."
They said their goodbyes and he shut his laptop, then marched over-confidently up the stairs.
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com
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