by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

In 2007, a couple of writing buddies and I had a blog called Novel Journey. We were aspiring newbies, soaking up all we could learn to get published. I got bold and following the instructions on his website, I hand wrote a letter to Dean Koontz, asking to interview him. To my delight, he agreed. (I still have his hand written note on my bulletin board in my office).

Now, sixteen years later, some of that advice still stands as the best I’ve ever read. I pulled some excerpts from that interview, along with what I gleaned.

NJ: You are known as perhaps the hardest working novelist of our time. To what do you attibute your work ethic?

DK: “Two things. First, I am enchanted by the English language, by its beauty and flexibility, also by the power of storytelling to expand the mind and lift the heart. … Second, I believe that talent is a gift and that it comes with the sacred obligation to polish and grow it.”

Me: The first statement goes along with something I learned many years ago. It’s become my mantra: “People let down their guard when they think they’re being entertained. Then, when they least expect it, our words can reach out, touch hearts, and change lives.”

His second statement stayed with me: the wise multi-published author to conferences to sit under the teaching of their peers. Even if that person has less books published, they often have a “golden nugget” to drop in your toolbox to elevate your writing.

NJ: You had an agent in your early years tell you that you’d never be a best-selling writer. Did that discourage you or make you more determined to succeed? (This answer was 3 long paragraphs, but this is the golden nugget I pulled from it.)

DK: “The positive aspect of self-doubt—if you can channel it into useful activity instead of being paralyzed by it—”

Me: From that small part of his answer, I learned to turn self-doubt, a bad review, or a harsh comment from a contest judge into action and thicken my rhino skin with it. That way, I can negate the negative and turn it to positive, which is what God does!

Another nugget from this same question stood out to me.

DK: “… I was often advised, by different people, that my work would never gain a big audience because my vocabulary was too large, because my stories were often too complex, … Mostly, those people were underestimating the intelligence of the average reader—…”

Me: Early in my writing, a critique partner littered my chapters with GWS (goes without saying) or RUE (resist the urge to explain). In other words: trust your reader to get it. And Dean confirmed that.

It’s something I often see in new writers. They show something, then are afraid the reader won’t get it, so they follow up and tell it.

Lastly, we asked Dean how success had changed him. His answer remains close to my writing desk.

DK: “The better the books have sold, the more private I’ve become. … I do one in twenty interviews I’m asked to do. … The longer I work at this, the more certain I’ve become that talent is a grace and each new story a gift, and that it isn’t the writer that matters but the story that was given to him.”

Me: His last answer reminds me of something Karen Ball once said. “God whispers to our hearts. Our hearts whisper back in stories.”

When I hear someone like Dean Koontz or James Scott Bell say we never stop learning, I pay attention. I hope you do too.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever heard or read?

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.