The Jordan Harbinger Show
1100: James Patterson | Building the Architecture of Addictive Fiction
Tue, 07 Jan 2025
From advertising exec to America's storyteller-in-chief: prolific author James Patterson shares his blueprint for turning creative chaos into literary gold. What We Discuss with James Patterson: Highly prolific author James Patterson maintains success through daily consistency — writing 350-365 days per year, getting up at 5:30 a.m., and viewing his work as "playing" rather than working. This dedication has led to over 400 million books sold. James' creative process involves extensive outlining (60-80 pages) but staying flexible within that structure. He keeps multiple projects (around 30) going simultaneously and moves between them if he gets stuck on one. James' breakthrough moment came when he realized he was "on the wrong side of the highway" — stuck in advertising traffic heading to a job he didn't want, while watching others freely driving in the opposite direction. This led him to leave his successful advertising career to write full-time. James' writing philosophy focuses on respecting the reader's time by following Leonard Elmore's advice to "leave out the parts people skip" and ensuring each chapter compels readers to turn the page. He emphasizes storytelling over showing off literary prowess. Anyone can improve their writing and creativity by breaking tasks into manageable pieces: if you're stuck, skip to another section and come back later; don't get too attached to any particular piece of writing; and remember that first drafts don't need to be perfect — you can always revise and refine your work as you go along. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1100 And if you're still game to support us, please leave a review here — even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally! This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course! Subscribe to our once-a-week Wee Bit Wiser newsletter today and start filling your Wednesdays with wisdom! Do you even Reddit, bro? Join us at r/JordanHarbinger!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
How did James Patterson transition from advertising to writing?
Yeah, there's a big stack with the clever title ideas on it. And there are literally hundreds and hundreds of ideas that I have for books. When I'm going to do a new story, sometimes I'll just go through that and see if there's anything that kind of turns me on. I don't know that I'll pull this off, but I probably won't so I can mention it.
I'm thinking of this story now where this detective's wife gets murdered and he thinks she's come back as a hummingbird. And I don't know. I'll see whether I can pull that sucker off.
That's the whole whole idea.
Yeah, and she's going to help him somehow solve her murder as a hummingbird.
Anything you write seems to do well, so you don't need the peanut gallery over here.
I wouldn't do it unless I thought they could pull it off. Of course, yeah. And I don't know that I can. I'm betting against myself here since I'm laying that one out there.
If somebody steals it, we'll sue them. Nobody listens to this podcast. You have nothing to worry about. Oh, perfect. Okay, all right. So the ideas that are in the box, those are also your ideas. You watch TV and movies and go, oh, there's a funny thing. Or are you sitting in a room full of chiropractors giving a keynote and you're like, what if the FBI kicked the door down and arrested everyone?
That's a good opening scene.
All of the above. Really? Anything that's sort of odd and you go like, this didn't do it, but I happen to live most of the year in Florida. And I'm literally one mile north of Mar-a-Lago. So on election day, my wife filmed the whole thing. 32 SUVs come by and he's going to vote. He being President Trump. The ambulance or the medical supply thing and 30 motorcycles.
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