How to Write Strikingly Well (Lee Child Interview)

Main ideas and lessons

• Create a “sense of place” first—especially using climate/temperature

  • Lee Child argues that setting (particularly hard vs. soft; hot vs. cold) strongly shapes what kinds of stories feel plausible and inevitable.
  • Instead of doing “book-specific research,” he builds from long-term impressions gathered across many visits to places.

• Choose a geography that supports the story’s myth/logic

  • Child wanted the “mysterious stranger / noble loner” concept to feel plausible.
  • He believes this requires a “gigantic geography” (frontier-like distances) so outsiders can move unseen—something he thinks is harder to achieve in tightly knit Britain.
  • As a result, he gravitates toward America as the narrative environment.

• Use an “outsider’s eye”

  • Because his wife is from New York, Child feels he understands the country well enough to write it.
  • He treats outsider vision as an advantage: it helps him avoid cultural mistakes while also seeing familiar things “fresh.”

• Writing is a job—approach it commercially and strategically

  • Writing isn’t pure inspiration; it’s work, particularly because it must pay bills.
  • It’s transactional: if nobody reads it, it doesn’t “exist.”
  • Success means satisfying multiple reader layers—both dedicated “center” readers and a broader “outer ring.”

• Don’t over-plan; improvise while relying on an internal “bank”

  • He rejects outlines and extensive plotting because:
    • planning too much tells him the story early and makes him bored
    • he wants to improvise and discover the story while writing
  • Still, he draws on massive experience:
    • he has internalized structure through reading tens of thousands of books
    • he describes this as an internal database/filing system—like an “invisible outline”

• Schedule and discipline matter

  • He follows a disciplined publishing rhythm:
    • start writing on September 1
    • aim to deliver by March/April
  • Ideas come and go in a yearly pattern:
    • after finishing a book, ideas fade
    • then late August/early September a first line arrives and he’s back at it

• Series writing works because readers want familiarity + new context

  • A recurring character creates “pre-approval”: readers trust the comfort of an old friend, alongside a new plot and setting.
  • He argues series are “super appealing” from a reader’s point of view.

• Propulsion: drive readers forward with rhythm and structure

  • Child stresses momentum in sentence rhythm—sentences should “tip forward” and keep moving.
  • He compares this to:
    • a pop song’s subtly increasing tempo
    • a carnival ride that’s hard to get off once you’re inside
  • He also emphasizes chapter endings:
    • ending chapters (or chapter segments) with a question keeps readers hungry for answers
    • he attributes this partly to how TV hooks audiences—especially after remote control, when viewers could switch channels instantly

• Plotting is easier than people assume (because humans chase answers)

  • He argues the “hard part” is often exaggerated:
    • if you imply a question, people will stay to learn the answer
  • He points to TV’s “after the break” model and “trivia” as evidence of human hardwiring toward resolution.

• Dialogue and realism are illusions—but must feel natural

  • Real conversation is messy: incoherent, stop-start, full of gaps and placeholders.
  • Written dialogue must be structured to seem natural even though it isn’t a 1:1 match to life.
  • Key techniques:
    • rhythm places emphasis on the “important word”
    • avoid heavy italics “peppering”; instead, engineer sentence rhythm so emphasis lands naturally
    • listen closely to how people talk (including TV/movies)
  • Example idea: someone repeatedly emphasizing “money” during distress—repetition becomes emotionally powerful through rhythm.

• Beginnings and endings: start in the middle of action, end when the story is over

  • Don’t begin with backstory (“not when the earth cooled”).
  • Start in media res—with intriguing action happening now.
  • End decisively when the story is complete, using instinct (“gut level”).
  • He criticizes leaving loose ends unexplained: readers often expect the author to deliver closure.

• Character design: you can’t design for hatred or love

  • He says you can have villains you hate, but a main character shouldn’t be engineered to be hated.
  • Likewise, don’t over-design a character to be liked—the result can get worse.
  • Best approach: honest, authentic portrayal, then hope readers connect.
  • Reacher as an example: he expected many wouldn’t like Reacher, yet he personally liked him—implying others likely would too.

• Violence in fiction is an illusion; realism differs

  • Movie-style violence is unlike real life:
    • real violence causes lingering sickness/dizziness
    • real fights often look “lame” rather than stylized
  • Yet readers like violence as fantasy release:
    • in real life, people value civilization’s protections and due process
    • in fiction, readers enjoy the consolation of “getting away with” retaliation

• What supports believability: draw from lived experience and reference

  • Child references his background (industrial city, emotionally inarticulate culture, conflict escalating into fights) to understand conflict mechanics.
  • He also suggests he absorbed “moves” from violent stories and life to make things feel real.

• Identity details like clothing function as shorthand

  • Clothing signals character quickly—like a “symbolic” visual database.
  • Readers may subconsciously pick up physical cues that imply personality/history (e.g., noticing teeth).

• Writing cannot be fully taught

  • He would avoid formal teaching of writing:
    • shortcuts (agents, publishing pitfalls) are teachable
    • but “how to write” in the deep sense isn’t reliably teachable
  • Some people may learn, but becoming a great novelist requires innate “pathways,” comparable to musical ability.

• Cultural ecosystems matter (Ireland vs. UK; Scotland/England)

  • Child offers cultural reasons good storytelling emerges from these places:
    • Ireland: pubs give everyone chances to be heard; storytelling is socially encouraged, embedding confidence into culture
    • Scotland/England: resentment and power dynamics foster different social/cultural outcomes
  • He frames storytelling skill as something people develop when they’re repeatedly given a platform.

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Methodology / instructional points (detailed)

Building a “sense of place” (practical approach)

• Decide the core temperature/mood polarity

  • Choose a governing contrast such as:
    • hard vs. soft
    • hot vs. cold
    • heat vs. cool

• Select a location you already know from repeated exposure

  • Use places you’ve visited over time.

• Avoid book-by-book research

  • Don’t research specifically “for each book.”
  • Rely on cumulative impressions from many visits.

• Let the setting constrain plausibility

  • Use geography to make certain actions:
    • “inevitable” (believable actions)
    • “implausible” (actions that don’t fit the world’s physics)

• Use outsider perspective

  • Write with freshness:
    • you may notice what locals stop seeing
    • you reduce risk of cultural flattening by observing differences directly

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Planning vs. improvisation (how he writes)

• Do not outline plots

  • No index-card “next 8 plots” / chapter plot lists.

• Avoid pre-learning the whole story

  • If you plan enough, you “tell yourself the story” and become bored.

• Start with location-defined conditions

  • Begin with what the setting implies, then discover what happens.

• Improvise while relying on internal structure

  • Even without outward planning, he internally uses:
    • accumulated plot forms
    • cliffhanger patterns
    • character archetypes
  • This comes from extensive reading.

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Crafting reader momentum (“propulsion”)

• Engineer sentence-level rhythm

  • Make sentences repeatedly move forward—“tripping forward, forward, forward.”
  • Rhythm is the mechanism that creates pace/momentum.

• Think “pop-song tempo”

  • Subtly increase speed/drive so the ending feels inevitable.

• Use chapter endings that function like questions

  • End chapters so readers want the answer.

• Remember humans respond to unresolved questions

  • Imply a question early and keep it open until payoff.

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Writing dialogue that feels natural (without copying reality)

• Do not replicate real conversation exactly

  • Real dialogue is messy and discontinuous.

• Create an illusion of naturalness via rhythm

  • Emphasize the right words by controlling cadence and stress.

• Prefer rhythm/structure over heavy italics

  • Italics can “pepper” the page; instead, land emphasis through sentence flow.

• Listen to real people and good scripted media

  • Train sensitivity by:
    • observing human speech
    • watching movies and TV dialogue

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Beginnings and endings (story architecture)

• Begin in media res

  • Start with action happening now.
  • Avoid front-loading backstory/exposition.

• End when the story is over

  • Use instinct (“gut level”).

• Do not leave major loose ends if it frustrates readers

  • Experiments with unresolved outcomes led to reader dissatisfaction.
  • Readers generally want closure from the author.

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Building characters for reader acceptance

• Do not design a character to be hated or liked

  • Over-designing leads to worse results.

• Aim for authentic portrayal

  • Make the character honest; reader response becomes more plausible.

• Test via personal liking

  • If you like the character, a broader audience likely will too (though the exact magnitude is unknown).

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Speakers / sources featured (identified)

• Lee Child (author behind the Jack Reacher series; primary interviewee)
• Interviewer / host (unnamed in subtitles; asks questions and provides comments)
• Alistair Mlan (Scottish thriller writer Child read)
• Barbara Vine (pen name for Ruth Rendell, mentioned as an influence)
• Ian Rankin (British crime writer Child read)
• John D. McDonald (influence; Travis McGee series)
• Stephen King (mentioned and compared regarding unpredictability of new books)
• David Mamet / Mamet (David Mamet) (mentioned as a screenwriter; subtitles likely intend David Mamet)
• Jason Freed (founder of Basecamp; mentioned via promotion)
• Basecamp (project management tool; referenced as a productivity recommendation)
• Rupert Murdoch (mentioned regarding British TV industry politics)
• Clint Eastwood and Frank Sinatra (discussed in a casting trivia example)
• Jean Hackman and Lee Marvin (subtitles likely intend Gene Hackman and Lee Marvin)
• Hannibal Lecter and Breaking Bad (examples)
• The Beatles (example for subtle tempo changes)
• Martin Scorsese (mentioned as consuming movies nightly)
• Ralph Lauren (mentioned)
• Fort Worth Evening Telegraph (mentioned as a source of a writing/dialogue-related prize)