Dear Bernard Thank you, firstly, for your novels, which have inspired me to continually improve my writing style to such a degree that I am now, for the first time in my life, producing publishable material (I have been passionate about writing since childhood, but have only managed to focus my efforts in recent years). Also I wanted to ask you how you manage to reduce such complex plots down to such a degree that they can be grasped in a moment. The thrust of the story is always easy enough to present, but the way you manage to hold forward the needle point of the protagonist's motivations so clearly throughout always amazes me. I have long been a fan of the clear and seemingly effortless writing style that holds so much more preparation and research than is apparent. I feel it allows the reader far greater access to the essence of the story being told, but it is a style that has taken a great deal of effort for me to find in myself and I would be grateful if you had any advice on how to maintain such simple focus on the work in hand. I truly believe this is the key to successful writing, but whatever opinions you may have would be well received. Also I note and respect your wishes to avoid contact with any potential author's material and I would not presume. There appear to be so many like me now, flooding the publishing industry with their worthwhile efforts, that it almost seems a waste of paper to keep submitting material (I have submitted a small forest's worth as of this email). With this in mind if you have any advice on how to get a publisher's attention that would probably please me more than anything. Regards, Niall Singers.
I don't know how I manage it!! But thank you. I do think that motivation is just about the most important part of a plot, and I spend a lot of time sorting it out, and then trying to disguise the way it's communicated to the reader - so perhaps that's it??