Gregory Gottfried - On Plotting a Novel

Novels are difficult to write and even more difficult to write well. Gregory Gottfried, undaunted by the task, has already begun working on his first novel, a thriller similar to some of the works of a few of his favorite authors, including Lee Child and Vince Flynn. Gottfried has found, as he has gone through the many drafts of his work, looking for ways to improve his writing and storytelling throughout, that sometimes the best thing he could do is set everything up in order and move pieces around as he sees fit.
                                    

Gregory Gottfried also has to consider information about the characters he is portraying and their various attempts to get past the many obstacles and tests that Gottfried has set up for them. The key to generating suspense is letting the tension grow naturally and slowly. Gregory Gottfried has caught himself many times trying to rush the action to its conclusion, which Gottfried is usually very excited about. But readers don’t want to see the action coming. They want to guess and think about what might happen and make predictions based on what they know about the characters and what the author has shown them so far. Gottfried has slowly begun to master the art of keeping his readers enthralled by suspense and tension in his prose over time.

Gregory Gottfried began writing in middle school and high school. He started with movie scripts and screenplays, often writing his own episodes of his favorite television programs and rewriting the scripts of several of his favorite movies. He eventually decided to write novels sometime after high school.

Gregory Gottfried - Experiences Turning into Writing

Gregory Gottfried has been fascinated by writing since he was a teenager in high school. He began writing his own screenplays for a few of his favorite television shows. Over time he began obtaining copies of the scripts of some of his favorite movies and rewriting the scripts to see if he could make them better. He also began to help his friends who wanted to improve their writing. His experience editing and rewriting prepared him for the next step in his writing career after he graduated from Clarkstown High School North. He attended Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, New York, where he worked at the school and studied film and scriptwriting.

 Today, Gregory Gottfried works as a front desk clerk at the Sheraton Tarrytown in Tarrytown, New York. Through his work, he meets people from all over the world, each with their own perspective on the area and their own lives leading to the moment when they open the doors of the Sheraton and talk with Gottfried. He uses his experience and skill working with customers to learn about their lives as much as possible and inform his own writing. Gottfried isn’t planning on writing a literary novel about a hotel attendant, however, he wants to wow his audience and create a suspenseful, thrilling story that will take them by the arm and lead them through the story at a breakneck pace.

Pacing has always been a point of emphasis for Gregory Gottfried and his writing. Some of his favorite authors, such as Vince Flynn and Lee Child, are known for their abilities to pull readers in from the first chapter and never let go. Gottfried wants his writing to be as or even more compelling than these authors. His favorite aspect of reading thrillers and suspense novels is the feeling that he gets when he knows he’s close to a key point in the plot or a surprise. The best plot points he can guess at but never completely predict. Gottfried believes this is a delicate balance that he has to strike in his own fiction. He knows it will take many hours of work and revision, but he has never been afraid of the blank page or his own writing; nor has he been afraid of working hard.

As Gregory Gottfried gains experience speaking and interacting with people of all kinds from all over the planet, he gains new perspectives on life and different philosophies that he can incorporate into his writing. It’s easy for people to say that they are gathering experience for writing a story, but Gottfried actually takes his customer service experience seriously as fuel for his stories. Gottfried also understands the importance of reading his favorite authors religiously and studying how they build plots and suspense.
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