Why you shouldn’t wait for inspiration to strike with Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben (0:00)

One of my very first book signings I did at the Livingston Mall, sitting in a corner of a room, I think they had only ordered three copies, and I'm sitting there and I'm playing with my pen, and no one's coming up to me. And finally, someone comes up and they ask where the new Stephen King book is. The second person comes up to me and he says, where's the bathroom? And then at the very, very end, an old man comes over to me and he says, is that your book on the shelf? And I'm like, yeah. And he says, you have a published novel. That's my dream. You're so lucky. And then he just walks away. Didn't buy a book, but he walks away. And it's like, wow, it's a different way of thinking about it.

Yeah, it's just lucky to have written a book. I try to appreciate every moment.

Adam Grant (0:42)

Hey everyone, it's Adam Grant. Welcome back to ReThinking, my podcast with Ted on the science of what makes us tick. I'm an organizational psychologist and I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking.

Harlan Coben is a best-selling mystery and thriller novelist. His career took off in 1995 with a popular Myron Boletar series about a former basketball star turned detective. Harlan's written 12 Myron thrillers and 23 other novels for a total of 35

Harlan Coben (1:16)

Almost one a year, so I started when I was like seven. That's what I'm telling people.

Adam Grant (1:20)

You're telling yourself that.

Many of his books have been made into hit Netflix series. I Will Find You recently became one of their most viewed shows ever. He's also co-written a book with Reese Witherspoon called Gone Before Goodbye. His most recent book, though, is non-fiction. Plot Twist is a writing guide packaged inside a memoir. We'll talk about the creative process, but I've been devouring Harlan's books since I was a teenager. So I wanted to start our conversation there.

I don't think I thought much about it when I was a kid, but I think one of the reasons that your writing really resonated with me was I love the plot twist, but I also just, I really identified with the characters, and I think probably after Super Heroes, it was the next set of parasocial relationships that I developed. I felt like I knew Myron and Wynn especially, and people have parasocial relationships with celebrities, but it seems like a lot of us have them with fictional characters too. Do you get this a lot? Do you find that a lot of readers are attached to your characters?

Harlan Coben (2:23)

Yes. I mean, it's a self-involved question to answer, yes, but especially Myron and Wynn, the characters you're mentioning, because I've written 37-ish books, and 12 of them feature Myron Bolatar in the Myron Bolatar Myron and Wynn series. I think the first one came out in 1995, and the most recent came out a year or two ago.

When you have that long-term relationship, it's different than a standalone.

Adam Grant (2:48)

What is it about Myron and Wynn in particular? I don't think it's just the number of times you've written about them, because I felt connected to them the first time I read them, which it must have been when I was 14

What is it about those characters that makes them more appealing than your average regular person?

Harlan Coben (3:04)

You know, I don't know. I think part of it is they can always say the line you wish you had said. They can be a little funnier than you are, they could be a little warmer. I always say that writers don't necessarily like to admit this, but when I created Myron, he was kind of me, but with wish fulfillment. Like, you know, we both played basketball in college, he was a lot better. He's faster, he's funnier, he's stronger, he's, I think, a better friend probably. It's not like a conscious effort saying, oh, he's going to be this and that. That's, I think, the mistake a lot of people make when they create character, is that they say, okay, he's going to have a drinking problem, and now I got to show his drinking problem.

The way really to develop character is by putting them in these circumstances and how they react, which I think for a lot of people is a lot of fun, I think is why they become endearing to you.

Adam Grant (3:51)

It's so interesting because when you say wish fulfillment, I think maybe not. It's wish almost fulfilled.

I think about Myron.