Bestselling Author ~ James Scott Bell

James Scott Bell studied philosophy, creative writing, and film, acted in Off Broadway theater in New York, and received his law degree with honors from the University of Southern California. He's also a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. A former trail lawyer, he's a winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in inspirational fiction, and is a three-time finalist for that award.

He is a contributing editor to Writers Digest magazine. His book Plot & Structure (Writers Digest Books) is one of the most popular books on the market for novelists and screenwriters. He serves on the board and faculty of Act One, the Hollywood screenwriting program, and is an adjunct professor of writing at Pepperdine University in Malibu. He was recently hired to adapt a bestselling Christian novel for feature film production. In addition, he works as a script doctor, specializing in faith-themed scripts. Jim lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Cindy.

Tell us about your newest novel to hit the shelves, Try Dying.

It's a straight on suspense thriller, about a high flying lawyer who is forced to go down to the mean streets to solve a murder. How does he survive? And will he find them before they do away with him?

Center Street, part of the Hachette Book Group, which USED to be the Time Warner Book Group (pause for breath) is the publisher.

NJ: Leave a comment for Jim and be entered in the drawing for a copy of Try Dying.

Is this a series or a stand alone?

It's a series. The next title is Try Darkness and will be out in July. In addition to Ty Buchanan, the Lead character, I have Father Bob, a fallen priest, and Sister Mary Veritas, a basketball playing nun, who help Ty in a time of need. Characters to come include a former Cal State philosophy professor who went insane and now runs a coffee bar, and various others that my imagination is now playing with.

What's different about this book?

This is not strictly in the inspirational genre. This is a book I wrote for the general market, and here's why. I got mad. I think there's a trend in secular thrillers that is too dark and gratuitous. I wanted to go the other way. I wanted to write in the tradition of 1940s and 1950s film noir and crime fiction. These managed to be suspenseful without gagging you. Why can't we still do that? We can.

How did you get the idea for a series character?

Like most good ideas, this one came up randomly and refused to leave. I read a bizarre account one day about a guy in L.A. who shot his wife, then drove to a freeway overpass, stopped, got out of his car and shot himself. His body fell 100 feet onto the freeway below, hitting a car and killing the driver.

That story haunted me. I kept thinking about it. Then I decided to start a book with it, and ask, What if the driver wasn't killed by the body, but somebody at the scene finished her off? Why would somebody do that?

Who would the driver be? The fiancé of a lawyer, who then became my Lead character. Who then became the series character.

How do you go about getting ideas?

They're everywhere, everyday. Your question shouldn't be where do I get ideas? It should be, how do I possibly pick from all the ideas that are out there?

The imagination is a muscle, and the more you exercise it, the better it'll respond. Here's an exercise. Take the front page of any newspaper, and for each story on the front page create a novel idea. It can be just one line and it doesn't have to be brilliant. Just get into the habit of trying. Soon you'll find yourself doing this with billboards, TV commercials, junk mail. It just keeps on going.

In my book on writing, Plot & Structure, I have a whole chapter on this, and how to nurture the more promising ideas.

Since you brought it up…

Shameless, isn't it?

Well, it has proved quite helpful to many. Why did you write Plot & Structure?

For that very reason. I wanted to help. I wanted to give writers what I didn't get when I was starting. I wanted to save them years on the learning curve. Apparently, it's succeeded. I get such wonderful comments about it.

Where do you like to write?

My local Starbucks. I wrote a blog entry about this once, so if I may, I'll post a little of it here:

There's something about having a little bit of human activity going on around me that stimulates my writing. I don't know why that is. I don't know why I shouldn't be like Proust, rolling in agony on the floor of his quiet quarters, trying to bleed the perfect word out of himself. He would have gone mad (if he already wasn't) at Starbucks.

Balzac, on the other hand, would have been right at home here. He wrote over 100 books on the equivalent of industrial strength speed – 40 or more cups of thick, dark coffee a day. "Coffee is a great power in my life," he once wrote. "I have observed its effects on an epic scale." He would have his servants wake him up at midnight, get to his writing table and write until exhausted. Then he'd start with the coffee and keep going.

Me, I like to have one cup of drip at Starbucks, after my morning home cup of Sumatra or Verona or Komodo Dragon.

I actually do have a "real" office, but don't usually go in until my morning writing quota is done. I suppose I could stay writing at Starbucks all day, but then I am reminded it was caffeine poisoning that killed Balzac at 51. I'm off to get a refill now. Decaf.

What is a question we haven't asked you that you'd like to answer?

What is the capital of North Dakota?

Okay. What is the capital of North Dakota?

N.

Thanks whole bunches.

It's been a pleasure.