John Grisham Interview

Maybe you caught the interview with Charlie Rose in PBS? Grisham stated he gets a germ of an idea for a novel. These ideas came from his legal career. He admitted he would probably not be able to write without his life experience as a lawyer.

Grisham has no formal training in writing, never went to a writing school, but learned by reading books of the sort he wanted to write . He always was an avid reader, but to teach himself the trade, he narrowed his focus. He spent a summer immersed in courtroom novels, trying to figure out what made them tick. He says he works hard to keep his prose lean, aiming to use as few words as possible and avoiding unnecessary tangents.