Literary Birthday – 26 May – Peter Swanson

Happy Birthday, Peter Swanson, born on 26 May 1968.

Peter Swanson Quotes

1. I take about nine months to write a first draft, writing between 500 and 1000 words every day, always in the morning. Occasionally I take a short break but I try not to. I think writing a little bit of your story every day is crucial in keeping it alive. (BookwormsFantasy)
2. I was forty-four years old when I got my first publishing deal, so, YES, I’ve received endless rejections. The way I got through them is by reminding myself that I was a writer because I love to write. I decided I would always keep writing, no matter how many rejections piled up. (BookwormsFantasy)
3. If I’m a genre writer, one of the things that I’m promising in a thriller novel is thrills. It’s going to have some suspense, so plot is important. But you could have the greatest plot in the world, and if the characters are dull as ditch water, you know it’s not working. (MysteryCenter)
4. I try very hard to avoid the classic clichés of the genre. I like to write about unlikeable characters, heroes that don’t always save the day, villains that evoke some sympathy, and, hopefully, my books don’t go in predictable directions. (BookwormsFantasy)
5. I start by thinking of ideas, something that would make a good story. Usually a story device that you can surprise the readers with in starting one way and shifting to something else. (MysteryCenter)
6. I think my favorite part of the process is being well into a first draft, far enough you know it’s working. At that point, you really are spending half your time in that world, with those characters. (CrimeReads)
7. I have a premise, something to start it off with. I don’t outline, but I usually have a sense of where I want the end to go. (MysteryCenter)
8. It’s driven by thinking about the antagonist in the story, the villain. I think it’s important to know what they’re up to, and who’s doing what, because they’re really driving the story. (MysteryCenter)
9. For me, my ideas come out of daydreams. I’m not someone who reads a newspaper article and says, ‘I’m gonna officialize that’. It just doesn’t happen that way. It’s usually just idle daydreams where something starts threading together. (MysteryCenter)
10. I don’t outline. I generally open a document and write the first chapter. I’m making a ton of decisions along the way. Where does it start? What’s the location, the time frame? Who’s going to tell the story? That one is really important. (CrimeReads)
11. I think for that beginning writer, you need to finish whatever it is you’re working on.. So read a lot, write a lot. And the stuff that you do write, get to the end of it. Don’t keep polishing it, finish it. That might not be the book that gets published. It might be your fourth book, like mine. It could be your tenth. It could be your first. But nothing will get published if you don’t eventually write the end.  (MysteryCenter)
12. Write even when you don’t feel like it, and even when the words are bad. That’s the only thing to do. And that’s how you discover if your ideas work. (BookwormsFantasy)
13. While I’m writing, I picture a certain type of reader. Maybe it’s some little old lady halfway around the world, curled up with my book, completely lost in this thing I’ve created. The act of reading a book that’s absorbing is still the most effective way to get away from yourself. (CrimeReads)

Peter Swanson is an American author of psychological thrillers. He writes dark novels that explore obsession, deception, murder, and morally ambiguous characters. Rather than relying only on fast-paced action, Swanson builds suspense through paranoia, mistrust, and emotional unease. He is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of 11 novels, including The Kind Worth Killing and Her Every Fear. His most recent book is Kill Your Darlings. His books have been translated into over 30 languages. His stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Atlantic Monthly, Measure, The Guardian, The Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine. He names Agatha Christie, John D. MacDonald, Stephen King, Ruth Rendell, and Graham Greene as the authors who have most influenced him.

Source for photograph: Author’s Website Photo by Jason Grow

by Amanda Patterson

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