Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

As noted on the cover of the book, Highsmith is the author of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Strangers on a Train," both of which have been made into movies. That is not the main idea of this book though. She does mention that it requires a different kind of thinking, but she did not write the screenplays. She just mentions that some of her books were made into movies in England, American, France, and Germany.

If you are picking up this book to learn how to write suspense fiction, this should not be the book. There are no things to remember and no rules. Merely, she is telling you about how she has written books. If you are very familiar with her works (not just the more famous ones), then you may be able to make this work for you. Otherwise, the book is more about her. Writers should know that you should go through a few drafts at least.

I thought this was an interesting book, and I read all of it, but I didn't get any useful pointers about writing from it. I would recommend it to readers who just enjoy reading about writers, but it certainly isn't any kind of guide to plotting and writing.

This book is an excellent essay on the craft of writing, far beyond any label or genre you might want it to focus on. Honest and intelligent, Patricia Highsmith writes without flamboyance of any kind about all the steps going along the creative process. And in doing this, she really helps the writer-reader take consciousness of his craft, giving him realistic advice and motivation.

"Plotting and Writing..." is not a "how to" book. It doesn't give you any formula nor pretends to have found the golden way of creating a story. But it is a true infusion of shared experience from a very talented writer and a bright person.

And most important: Mrs. Highsmith's book teaches there's not such a thing as "Suspense Literature" or whatever. As Duke Ellington said about music, there are only two kinds of literature: the good one and the bad one. Patricia Highsmith deals with the good one.

Patricia Highsmith doesn't sell out, despite writing in the suspense genre. The reason, as one gathers from this book, is that she sees suspense as a necessary ingredient of all fiction; the suspense genre simply focuses on the most extreme kinds of dread and excitement.

I found the book just about right as to depth vs. chattiness. It's true there's only so much one can teach about the writing process. Everything an aspiring writer encounters in his own practice is covered: plotting, first drafts, second drafts, revision. Highsmith's telescoped prose is a lesson in itself and worth the price of the book. We need as many encouraging monographs like this, written by masters who take the time to address the rest of us, as we can get.

I enjoyed a few of Highsmith's novels and short stories, and was impressed enough to become curious about how the author came up with her detailed insights into the psychology of the likable criminal. Common sense told me it was observation - but I still wanted to find out from the horse's mouth so to speak.

While I found it interesting to read about Highsmith looking back at the circumstances under which she wrote, I felt that Highsmith herself was not whole-heartedly interested, or confident about writing about her particular process of writing. It was mildly irritating that she apologised several times (usually at the beginning of a chapter) for having the audacity to presume to write about how to write. Fair enough: it is wise not to assume you speak for everyone or be totally pompous about it (like Sol Stein, ugh) but still, by the time a reader picks up a book like this, they really WANT to know how that particular author writes. I also felt that there was a fair amount of distance between the time she analysed her process, and the time she actually wrote her stories, so the book lacks the intricacy that one gets from reading a more immediate record.

However, there were some useful and interesting bits, especially Highsmith's opinions on thickening the plot, and the use of coincidence. It would help very much to have read her work widely as she quotes from some of them and uses the Glass Cell as a case study.