Heroes and Villains: A Guest Post by Carter Wilson
Secrets, lies and crimes come to light in Carter Wilson’s latest. With breakneck twists and a complex protagonist we can’t help but root for, this one will leave you breathless. Read on for an exclusive essay from Wilson on writing Our Monthly Pick, Tell Me What You Did.
Paperback
$13.49
$17.99
Tell Me What You Did: A Novel
Tell Me What You Did: A Novel
In Stock Online
Paperback
$13.49
$17.99
She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…
She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…
Twenty years ago, it was my brand-new agent who told me I had written a thriller. Cool! I thought. Followed by, what’s a thriller?
I had no business writing a book. I had no training. No English degree. Knew nothing about books other than I enjoyed reading them. All I knew is I had a story to tell, and that story was apparently a thriller. Now, ten published books later, I have a better idea what a thriller is, at least as well as anyone does. But the details are still murky, the definition opaque at best (non-existent at worst). So when I set out to write a new book, I don’t think I’m going to write another thriller. I think about the mood of the story. The conflict. The stakes, both real and imagined. I think about what I would do in the situations my characters find themselves in, then add in about fifty percent more courage and twenty percent more fear.
The mood of my 10th thriller, Tell Me What You Did, is angry. I didn’t know the story when I started writing (my brain is incapable of outlining), but I knew this was going to be an unforgiving, in-your-face kind of book. Short chapters, propulsive narrative. I knew it was going to feature a female protagonist. Knew there was going to be a dog. Figured there would be some violence, perhaps of the vengeful variety. I promised myself the dog would make it through okay.
My buddy Blake told me about a podcast he’d listened to where folks could call a voicemail line and anonymously leave an apology to whomever in the world they had wronged. I was immediately intrigued, but my imagination took the premise a step further. What if it wasn’t an apology, I thought, but a confession? That was the moment I had the loosest of ideas for what my angry book was going to be about. I never did listen to that podcast.
When I crafted my protagonist, Poe Webb, I knew she was just right. Smart and foolish, broken and strong. She’s as morally gray as they come, and that’s what I love most about her. I love characters who are certain they’re doing the right thing, whether or not society at large would agree with that assessment. Heroic heroes and villainous villains are boring as hell. Instead, heroes and villains should have way more in common than not, and that thin line separating the two is what makes a story interesting.
My primary hope is that Tell Me What You Did will make you ask the same questions of yourself that Poe is forced to ask. My secondary hope is that you get a little surprised by your answers.
Happy reading.
