How to write your own best selling novel...

...in a manner of speaking. Slate has a fascinating article on a filed witness statement to the London courts by none other than The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown. It seems that within the pages of the witness statement he has spelled out, in detail, what it takes for him to write a novel (from Slate): Another author might have sneered when asked to lay bare his methodology. Brown, on the other hand, appears eager to reveal every one of the secrets of the pulp novelist: "All my novels are set in 24 hours"; "All of my novels use the concept of a simple hero pulled out of his familiar world"; "I intend to make Robert Langdon my primary character for years to come." My favorite secret is Brown's notion of the "thriller as academic lecture." The trick is to make your characters experts—in Brown's world, they are symbologists, cryptographers, and so forth. Then you pair them with an expert of a different discipline, making it convenient for the experts to essay to one another at some length, in the process spilling all the research you have done for your novel. I am not much of a writer. I get a few ideas every now and then that I put into a notebook, but I never do anything with them. However, if I ever do decide to write a best-seller *wink*, then I will know exactly how to do it. I must confess though, that I have not read The Da Vinci Code. Although,I do have plans to see the movie. More than likely I will read the book after I have seen the movie. I think it just makes movies more entertaining to watch if you don't know what is going to happen, at least the first time watching them. AND you always hear those people coming out of movies saying, "Oh, the book was so much better - they cut everything out of the movie." I would just prefer to watch the movie first and then read the book to find out what they cut out.