The background of his novels is global world wars, when not just the lives of heroes are on the map, but the fate of all mankind. Clancy's fictional world looks so real that while reading, the palms involuntarily become covered with cold sweat.
It is no coincidence that Clancy, in addition to books, also wrote scripts for computer games. In 1997, the first game he invented, Tom Clancy’s Politika, was released, and in 1998 the first part of the Rainbow Six series was released.
In short, Tom Clancy knew a lot about bestsellers. And although he did not leave a memoir with tips for posterity, but his admirers, after studying the interviews and lectures of the master, revealed 5 secrets that will help you write as exciting as Clancy.
"I consider myself a storyteller, not a writer," Tom Clancy said. What's the difference? The writer tries to impress critics, surprise them with an original metaphor and a beautiful verbal turn, while the narrator invents stories to distract people from their daily routine.
Clancy's name became widely known not from the filing of literary critics, but after then-President Ronald Reagan called his first novel, The Hunt for Red October, "the perfect story."
"Many people think that when you write a text, something mystical happens, maybe the Muse kisses you behind the ear. But writing is hard work," Clancy once said. You can learn to write in the same way as you can learn to play golf. Stroke after stroke until the ball is in the hole.
What is the difference between fiction and reality? Tom Clancy was commissioned during the Vietnam War due to vision problems. But, nevertheless, over the years of his service, he saw and visited aircraft, submarines, tanks and other equipment, which he wrote about in his novels. "I tried to write as realistically as I could. But sometimes I came up with things that eventually became reality – it's creepy." So, Clancy's novella "Debt of Honor" (1994) ends with the Boeing 747 crashing into the Capitol. After 7 years, the fiction "came to life".
Clancy believed that a writer should not limit himself –"If you think about something, it will happen." Give free rein to your imagination and do not limit yourself to anything.
"There is nothing more important than a dream. The world around you can change. Your life can change. But don't let yourself change your dream. Don't let your daily commitments erase it. Neither your spouse nor your children should stand in your way, because the dream is inside you" – this is perhaps the wisest advice from Tom Clancy.
If you dream of writing a bestseller, do it!
