How did you become a writer?
Caroline and Charles: Quite by accident. Caroline had always wanted to be a writer, but Charles was more interested in a career in business. But we both loved mysteries and history. When we happened to come across a true historical mystery, we jokingly talked about writing one of our own. That turned into a serious possibility when Charles was traveling as a troubleshooter for his firm, not the most popular person in town! He missed his wife and family, had long evenings with time on his hands, and he finally called up Caroline and said, “Let’s try that book.” We were just going to try it. Once we got the hang of collaboration, it turned out to be a project both of us enjoyed, and as a result we finished that book—then sold it to St. Martin’s. It was A TEST OF WILL, the first Ian Rutledge.
Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).
Caroline and Charles: Both of us owe our interest in books to librarians who encouraged us to check out any title that intrigued us, to parents who read to us and taught us early on how exciting books could be, and to all those mystery writers, past and present, who wrote wonderful stories that we couldn’t put down. We were both fortunate in having books all over the house while we were growing up—and this is how we came to have a love of history, geography, travel—all sorts of books that later became resources for our own work. It’s funny, it never occurred to us to write together—it was such an accident of time and place and the right event sparking the idea. But we were both well prepared to try because we loved books so much. That’s what made collaboration possible.
When and where do you write?
Caroline: For me, it’s anywhere, any time, on paper, on the computer, or in my head. Whenever the mood and the ideas come. I much prefer working on my computer during the day and evening, but when the mood strikes, you don’t argue with it. I’ve made notes on napkins and the backs of envelopes, whatever comes to hand. The important thing is to catch the excitement while it’s fresh.
Charles: With my business background, I work best in early morning, at my computer. But I carry a notebook everywhere I go, and write down whatever I want to remember for later. It could be a word or a whole scene. As Caroline says, it’s the fresh excitement you don’t want to lose. Neither of us count number of words per day. It could be thousands—hundreds—or none. We do talk on the phone, send messages and samples back and forth, and discuss and argue, until we are both happy with what we have.
What are you working on now?
Caroline and Charles: We’ve just turned in the Ian Rutledge for next year, we’re promoting this year’s title for the Rutledge series, A DIVIDED LOYALTY, and we are racing a deadline for the new Bess Crawford, which will probably come out in 2021 also. We would love to do another short story, but so far have been too busy.
Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?
Caroline and Charles: Neither of us believe in writer’s block. It’s actually where you went astray in the ms, and lost direction. It can happen to anyone. You have to go back to where it was all going well, find out what you did wrong, and fix it, so that you can go forward again. It could be misreading a character, it could be a weakness in the plot, it could be just the fact that you were tired one night and forced yourself to go on—and it didn’t work. It could be the dreaded middle of a ms, where there’s the greatest need to avoid a slump—and you’ve run out of ideas. You know the start, you may even know the end, but the middle is weak. That usually means you’ve got to rethink your plot, so that the story grows stronger and more exciting in the middle. There are ways to fix the problem—but you have to find and understand it first. If you think of it as a “block” instead of going astray, it’s going to be a lot harder to fix. At least that’s our experience!
What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Caroline: I think for me it’s something someone said years ago about what makes a good story. “Listen to your characters!” I’ve come to understand what that means—your characters can teach you so much if you let them. If you can open up their world, you learn things that make your book even better. Their secrets, their fears, their reasons for doing certain things. On the other hand, if you don’t listen, and make them do what you as the author tell them to do, you lose that insight, and often the characters are flat, ordinary, instead of living breathing people your readers can relate to.
Charles: I think the best piece of advice I was given was, “READ.” And it’s true. The more you read, the more you come to see how other writers have handled things like character and plot and pace. How to plant clues, how to keep readers turning the page. You’ll come across good writing—and bad. But you can learn from both. And not just mysteries, mind you. When you read a wide variety of authors and books—fiction of all kinds, biography, non-fiction—it broadens your horizons. That translates to richer, more interesting stories because you have so much more to draw on as you are writing.
What’s your advice to new writers?
Caroline and Charles: Besides passing on the advice above, there’s one thing that’s important to keep in mind. Be as objective about your own writing as you can. Everyone of us needs that little editor in our heads who pokes us and says, “That won’t work.” Or “That’s more than the reader needs to know—this is a mystery, not a travel guide.” Or ‘There you go again, riding your hobby horse!” That editor will keep you on the right path. Ignore him/her at your own peril! We tend to love our own words sometimes, and get carried away. That little editor needs to be encouraged, to get better and better at his or her job. And as he/she does, you will find you are writing better and better because you’ve learned to step aside and consider what’s best for the story.
Charles Todd, the mother-son writing team of Caroline and Charles Todd, are the 2017 Mary Higgins Clark award winner and author of the New York Times Bestselling Inspector Ian Rutledge Series (A Divided Loyalty, Morrow, Feb. 4, 2020,) and the Bess Crawford Series (A Cruel Deception, Morrow, Oct. 22, 2019), as well as two stand-alone titles and numerous short stories in many magazines and anthologies. They have been Guests of Honor at Malice and are an Agatha, Macavity and Barry award winner. Caroline and Charles live on the East Coast of the United States. www.charlestodd.com
