There are lots more here... the site also has lots of tips on how to increase productivity etc.
I have a new character in my thriller - his first name is Erasmus.
There is something about that name ..... I love it and all of the connotations that come with it. And to me, it is spot on for a detective.
The best known Erasmus, was Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1466 – 1536, a Dutch humanist and theologian, whose portrait was painted by both Holbein, as below, and Durer, but there was also Erasmus Darwin and other luminaries. 
Sourced Quotes from Erasmus of Rotterdam-
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
Un-sourced Quotes
Got to love that.
*she has to frame those stories into a format and tell them the best way she can
*she has studied the market and recognised the framework of crime fiction tropes which seem to be common to the bestselling work by popular authors - but they may not be in the style she writes in.
*she want to be a contracted, working, professional author. She also wants to express her personal voice.
*she knows that literary agents and publishers run a business to make money and to do that they need to sell consumers something they need and want/ or will want.
Came across these words of wisdom from Ian Fleming written in 1962.
And still spot on. I especially like his advice not to look back on the work from day to day unless you want to horrify yourself.
The amazing thing? These books were typed on a type-writer!
I think it was Earnest Hemingway who used to type using only half the page because he knew he would hate it all and cut most of his work later and rewrite. And then there was the hard work of page nos and formatting.
How soon we forget what it was like before cut and paste and Microsoft Word! And what about Spellcheck? Manual typing made you work harder.
Enjoy. the extract. Go here for the full piece : http://pjparrish.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-write-thriller.html
HOW TO WRITE A THRILLER By Ian Fleming [ selected extracts]
People often ask me, “How do you manage to think of that? What an extraordinary (or sometimes extraordinarily dirty) mind you must have.”
I certainly have got vivid powers of imagination, but I don’t think there is anything very odd about that.
We are all fed fairy stories and adventure stories and ghost stories for the first 20 years of our lives, and the only difference between me and perhaps you is that my imagination earns me money. But, to revert to my first book, Casino Royale, there are strong incidents in the book which are all based on fact. I extracted themf rom my wartime memories of the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, dolled them up, attached a hero, a villain and a heroine, and there was the book....
We thus come to the final and supreme hurdle in the writing of a thriller.
You must know thrilling things before you can write about them.
Imagination alone isn’t enough, but stories you hear from friends or read in the papers can be built up by a fertile imagination and a certain amount of research and documentation into incidents that will also ring true in fiction.
Having assimilated all this encouraging advice, your heart will nevertheless quail at the physical effort involved in writing even a thriller.
I warmly sympathise with you. I too, am lazy. My heart sinks when I contemplate the two or three hundred virgin sheets of foolscap I have to besmirch with more or less well chosen words in order to produce a 60,000 word book.
One of the essentials is to create a vacuum in my life which can only be satisfactorily filled by some form of creative work - whether it be writing, painting, sculpting, composing or just building a boat - I was about to get married - a prospect which filled me with terror and mental fidget.
To give my hands something to do, and as an antibody to my qualms about the marriage state after 43 years as a bachelor, I decided one day to damned well sit down and write a book.
The therapy was successful. And while I still do a certain amount of writing in the midst of my London Life, it is on my annual visits to Jamaica that all my books have been written.
But, failing a hideaway such as I possess, I can recommend hotel bedrooms as far removed from your usual “life” as possible. Your anonymity in these drab surroundings and your lack of friends and distractions will create a vacuum which should force you into a writing mood and, if your pocket is shallow, into a mood which will also make you write fast and with application.
I do it all on thetypewriter, using six fingers. The act of typing is far less exhausting than the act of writing, and you end up with a more or less clean manuscript The next essential is to keep strictly to a routine.
I write for about three hours in the morning - from about 9:30 till 12:30 and I do another hour’s work between six and seven in the evening. At the end of this I reward myself by numbering the pages and putting them away in a spring-back folder. The whole of this four hours of daily work is devoted to writing narrative.
I never correct anything and I never go back to what I have written, except to the foot of the last page to see where I have got to.
If you once look back, you are lost.
How could you have written this drivel?
How could you have used “terrible” six times on one page? And so forth.
If you interrupt the writing of fast narrative with too much introspection and self-criticism, you will be lucky if you write 500 words a day and you will be disgusted with them into the bargain.
By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day and you aren’t disgusted with them until the book is finished, which will be in about six weeks.
I don’t even pause from writing to choose the right word or to verify spelling or a fact. All this can be done when your book is finished.
When my book is completed I spend about a week going through it and correcting the most glaring errors and rewriting passages. I then have it properly typed with chapter headings and all the rest of the trimmings. I then go through it again, have the worst pages retyped and send it off to my publisher....
Then the book is published and you start getting letters from people saying that Vent Vert is made by Balmain and not by Dior, that the Orient Express has vacuum and not hydraulic brakes, and that you have mousseline sauce and not Bearnaise with asparagus.
Such mistakes are really nobody’s fault except the author’s, and they make him blush furiously when he sees them in print. But the majority of the public does not mind them or, worse, does not even notice them, and it is a dig at the author’s vanity to realise how quickly the reader’s eye skips across the words which it has taken him so many months to try to arrange in the right sequence.
But what, after all these labours, are the rewards of writing and, in my case, of writing thrillers?
First of all, they are financial. You don’t make a great deal of money from royalties and translation rights and so forth and, unless you are very industrious and successful, you could only just about live on these profits, but if you sell the serial rights and the film rights, you do very well. Above all, being a successful writer is a good life. You don’t have to work at it all the time and you carry your office around in your head. And you are far more aware of the world aroundyou.
Writing makes you more alive to your surroundings and, since the main ingredient of living, though you might not think so to look at most human beings, is to be alive, this is quite a worthwhile by-product of writing.
Totally scary. I admit it. Better for the story and for the reader, but oh boy, does it hurt. THIS IS GOOD STUFF I AM CUTTING OUT HERE!!
Yes, I have kept it in another file, but now, all I have to do is weave all of the plot and character details from the cut chapters into the remaining text. Seamlessly.
Sigh.
Shoulders back, head high. Beaker of tea at the ready.
I am going in. And I may be some time.
No YouTube this morning. Listening to Harpsichord music on BBC Radio 3.
Belonging. The odd woman out. Finding your tribe.
Let’s say that, er, I have a FRIEND – who LOVES to read contemporary romance – AND contemporary commercial crime and thrillers.
She likes a mixed healthy diet and comes back to one, then the other, hungry for more.
Then let’s say that … my, er, FRIEND… has made up stories and people in her head and then written about them on paper.
And, if this FRIEND had to find a place on a shelf in a bookshop, some of these stories might be called Romance.
And some of these stories would DEFINITELY be called CRIME/thrillers/detective – starts with dead gruesomeness and gore etc. although they MIGHT include an element of romantic relationship for the female protagonist detective as subplot.
Then this FRIEND feels that she needs to meet some other folks of a similar predilection. Preferably before her imaginary friends start talking back.
Which tribe does she choose to spend her time with?
Romance Fiction Tribe? OR Mystery Fiction Tribe? 
Each tribe has its benefits. And colourful costumes, national dress and endearing habits. Even their own unique language and special sayings! They meet up in social events and have conferences etc.
Each tribe wants her to come and stay with them and eat their food and drink their wine and sing their songs and dance their special dances.
Each tribe has its own online and real live communities where my FRIEND has met great people who have become her friends.
CAN SHE BE IN TWO TRIBES?
She has heard of nomads who spend their summer with one tribe, then move south to spend the winter with the other tribe.
To avoid confusion they use different names so the passport always stays the same.
One name for the Romance Tribe.
One name for the Mystery Tribe.
While keeping their real name for their true-self tribe.
Then, for extra madness, this madwoman actually wants to become a WORKING, CONTRACTED AUTHOR!!!
Two career plans? Two publishers?
Two brand name platforms to create? Two blogs? Two websites?
What literary agent in their right mind would take on this woman?
Is this the path to madness?
Could be.
Maybe she should go where her true heart dictates and where the ‘girls in the basement’ take her, and not be ruled by other people’s expectations.
Billie Mernit is the author of 'Writing the Romantic Comedy' and reads movie scripts for his day job. I always learn something from his blog *- and todays missive is no exception.
'Cinematic storytelling -- the term that's come to define this particular approach to screenwriting -- involves a kind of three-step process (though these steps are often enacted simultaneously):
1) you conceive your story in filmic terms,
2) you see the movie in your head, and
3) you write the story in a language that vividly communicates that movie's sounds and images.'
I wonder how many writers use this very visual and sensory approach to pre-screening the scenes of the fiction before writing them down?
Romance - certainly.
Suspense - almost certainly. In my case, yes. It is a key part of my work.
Perhaps this is the fundamental appeal of genre fiction as opposed to MOST literary fiction - the reader is invited into a fully realised world.
Part of creating the 'fictive dream' is surely to provide a fully engrossing and vicarious experience?
Interesting. I have learnt a lot from screenwriting techniques over the years - and am still learning. Thank goodness.
Where do you write?
Girl or Bloke? You guess.
Julie Myerson's cat has her own bed to distract from the monitor and keyboard. Not sure about the glass table though.
What's playing on my YouTube right now? Frank Sinatra. Once Upon a Time. [Just in case you thought romance was only at the end of our fingertips.] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IkeW-jUfiJU
