Book after Book

Hi Sarah ! First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the publication of The Weekend Away !  Did you have the plot entirely figured out when you started writing the book or did it take an unexpected turn as the characters grew on the page? A: When I first started writing I was very much a fly by the seat of my pants writer. I didn’t really plan but would let the story unfold as I wrote. But since moving to Hollywood and working as a screenwriter I’ve changed how I write. With scripts you have to plan meticulously. It’s much more structured – you’re hitting commercial breaks on a network show, or in features you need to adhere to three acts and hit certain marks at certain points – and so that way of writing seeped into my novels. I also found with thrillers you do need to plot much more carefully before beginning in order to set up the red herrings. Usually then I’ll spend a couple of weeks writing up a synopsis of a dozen pages or so and then I’ll start writing....