Dan Brown’s Secrets and the Amazing Stick Women

Don’t mind the title, please. There are two headlines that I wanted to post about today, so I figured I’d throw up a weird title to grab attention. Hope it worked.

Dan Brown Gives His Secrets Away

Here’s the most interesting of the two headlines I wanted to share today. During the lawsuit against Dan Brown (which has now been thrown out), he shared some of his well-kept secrets on how he writes bestsellers. The headline discusses some of his trade secrets, which I have to say, are pretty interesting, but also formulaic. That is, Dan Brown follows a set of guidelines whenever he writes his books, which is something I’ve heard countless times before. Why deviate from something when you know it’ll work well?

Although the secrets aren’t necessarily mind bending, they are part of a nice master-plot. Some of these include:

• All of his novels are set within 24 hour periods
• Must contain some kind of shadowy force (like the NSA, Opus Dei, etc)
• A big idea with some kind of moral grey area
• A treasure of some kind (like the Holy Grail, Anti-matter, etc)
• and simple heroes

That’s about it. It sounds so simple, as to make you wonder if these are token secrets, rather than the juicy stuff, which I’m sure he still harbors.

J.K. Rowling Blasts Thin Anorexia-like Celebrities

I included this one in here, because I could never fathom why some women feel the necessity to model themselves after Twiggy. Note that I’m not talking about anorexia (the disease) itself, but those who choose to be this way, out of their misperceptions. And yes, I understand that some men are also at fault for perpetuating this problem.

I think this is a fad (like so many others) that will soon be out of favor. History tends to repeat itself, and so women will go from wanting to be wafer thin, to wanting to look healthy again. I look forward to the day, because nothing turns me off worse than walking sticks.

Anyway, it looks like there are some celebrities that don’t agree with this fashion trend either. J.K Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series) has publicly blasted these celebrities as being very poor role models for the younger crowd.  Amen! Finally, there’s proof some celebrities actually have a mind of their own, and a little bit of commonsense to boot.

That's it. End of rant.

Comments

[David Kim]

Interesting stuff. I loved the Da Vinci Code. But, somehow I think that his secrets are unique to him. It might not work for other writers. Good job blogging.

[Bryan D. Catherman]

I didn't realize all his stories played out within a 24-hour period. Interesting.