Pencil, paper and books are the gunpowder of the mind
Postman and Riesman
Like all creative activities, writing is a matter of feeling, composition and design. In art you use shapes, perspectives and colours. In music you refine melodies, instrumentation, arrangements, sound and dramaturgy. And in exactly the same way ou play with words, syntax, text flow and, in particular, the emotinal impact of text.
Vocabulary and sentence structure derive their effect to a large degree from visual composition , therefore appeal to people more or less. In advertising. copy and especially headlines should be designed with regard to their visual impact. In a novel, I don’t just describe situations – I project images and show a film.
Language design is crucial in the flow of text. So how do I express something in a detailed, informative and entertaining way – and all of that at the same time? How do I create an image in the readers’ minds? Make them see the facts and immediately understand what I want to say to them? Exactly: storytelling, visualising stories.
Vocabulary and syntax often draw their impact from the visual composition and therefore appeal to people either more or less. In advertising, headlines should therefore not only be catchy, but above all visually fitting situation and target group. Their visual impact should be designed in the overall appearance of an advertisement or an interface. In a novel, it’s not just describing situations – it is painting pictures, creating scenes to show a movie.
Language design is crucial in the flow of text. How do I express something in a precise, informative and entertaining way? How do I create an image in readers’ minds? One that immediately lets them visualize things and emotionally understand facts I want to convey?. Exactly: storytelling. Or, not to over-use the buzzword and topic of this page too much: Communicate via textual imagery. Visualising stories.
Movies in your head
When writing a novel, a considerable part of the effort consists of preparatory work to support the final writing. Research, treatments, character profiles, settings. And then, like doing a movie, the storyboard. All of this comes together to form a chronology of content, emotions and a complete story schedule.
Once the preliminary work is done, writing is basically the verbal realization of the film running in my head. As in the kitchen, after all the chopping cooking is by far the best part of the whole thing.
Incidentally, advertising and communication strategies are prepared in a quite similar way with the creative process usually an enjoyable thing. The relationship between communicator and recipient is as important in the end as it is at the beginning of any communication. The best and actually only way is to communicate in an appealing way providing relevant content. All this in form, language, image and sound, which togetherform a composition: The big story. The overall picture to which a recipient not only reacts rationally, but identifies with emotionally. The R in anything marketing stands for relation, the relationship to your counterpart. Nothing is more decisive in art, communication and social interaction.
The Kiran Mendelsohn crime novels
Mainly because of my undergraduate studies in theatre, film and television, I approached my novels from a more cinematic angle. Through research, treatments, production plans and storyboards. Just like you plan, prepare and stage a play or a film.
I was my own briefing: my literary taste in crime and fiction, my ideal image of protagonists and antagonists. Good stories and characters with depth, real situations and behaviours. All this in a language that projects images, triggers the mind together with emotions and thus entertains intelligently. That’s how Kiran Mendelsohn came into being.
A Buddhist-inspired and battle-hardened profiler with his own story – no bigger crisis in life, despicable habits or social incompetence. A team of investigators with rough edges – no constant bickering and hostility. And then, of course and again: realistic stories. Fictional enough for suspense, but using our reality as backdrop. And positively no Hollywoodesque bloodbath shootouts in the Bavarian countrysides or serial killers in a North-Seas viallge of 10 poeple. And certainly no psychological thrillers. Our current reality is psychotic enough these days.
All three novels about BKA profiler Kiran Mendelsohn have been published. Not bestsellers, of course, but a decent success for a no-name author like me. Novel No. 4 is in the works, and the whole series is currently being translated into English.
A German industry tycoon is executed in cold blood during his morning walk.
The trail leads Kiran Mendelsohn into the minefield of politics. From there sraight to Russian organized crime, far back into the German past – and directly to his nemesis.
An American exchange student is found dead in a small Westphalian town.
Profiler Kiran Mendelsohn investigates with the FBI and stumbles upon a brutal series of murders that began in the US and is now continuing in Germany.
In London, a perfectly healthy German engineer suffers a brutal heart attack.
Working with the British NSA, Kiran Mendelsohn and his people uncover an unprecedented series of murders. The international team comes up against a professional, ruthless and deadly organisation
