The Jordan Harbinger Show
1100: James Patterson | Building the Architecture of Addictive Fiction
07 Jan 2025
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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