Comments on: Dan Brown: How Does He Do It?

By: Lessons Learnt From Dan Brown: The Lost Symbol by Joanna Penn | The Creative Penn

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:22:02 +0000

[...] have written some lessons learnt from Dan before, so what else can we learn from the launch of ‘The Lost [...]

By: Jack McClane

Jack McClane — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:22:10 +0000

I don’t care if there are factual errors in it. It is a story and sold as fiction, not non-fiction. His job is to entertain us, not educate us and I think he does that terrifically. If I want to learn about the Freemasons or The Illuminati then I will research them using non-fiction books available at all libraries or via the web.

I started The Lost Symbol last night and am thoroughly enjoying it.

By: David Hill

David Hill — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:48:09 +0000

As far as I can tell, if a writer’s going to talk incessantly about his extensive knowledge and research on a topic, leaning on how speculative his speculative fiction is, he should consider being more realistic than not. Making up facts about the Louvre distracts from the “nonfictional fiction” of his prose.

By: Joanna

Joanna — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:48:20 +0000

Hey Livia,
It is still a fiction novel – so aren’t factual errors allowed?
or should it based on truth?

Thanks, Joanna

By: Livia

Livia — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:05:38 +0000

Uh, are you sure Dan Brown does his research? From what I’ve heard, The Da Vinci Code has quite a few factual errors.

By: Jack McClane

Jack McClane — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:32:52 +0000

Joanna

Great little piece on Dan Brown. I love the story telling of the Langdon series and I have been waiting patiently for the 3rd installment. I have read The DaVinci Code twice and Angels and Demons 4 times. I also love both movies. Angels and Demons is by far my favourite book of his. His other 2 non Langdon books were ok but I am glad he has stuck to the formula for The Lost Symbol. It has been pre-ordered since July!

Can’t wait.

Nice blog by the way. Thanks for your tips.

Jack

By: David Hill

David Hill — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:16:58 +0000

The reason you’ve never heard of another character in fiction who was a Symbologist is because there’s no such thing. Semiotics is probably the word Dan Brown was looking for, but his research seems to have failed him.

By: Ariel

Ariel — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:52:27 +0000

Paul Anderson,

I have issues with you including Harry Potter as an example of a badly written piece of work.

On a side note, it did help A LOT when the publisher gave out 10,000 free copies of the Da Vinci Code before it became a runaway bestseller. This should stress the importance of marketing. Marketing is far more important when you want to sell a book.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:56:10 +0000

Hi Jeremy, Thanks for that! I am seriously busy right now! I have a few goals for the year and one is to have a top writing blog! (I am currently no 6 in Australia – of course, I want to be no. 1!)
I also have this Author 2.0 course which espouses all these things, so I have to practice what I preach! http://author2zero.com/

Thanks, Joanna

By: jeremy widdup

jeremy widdup — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:51:18 +0000

Forget Dan Brown – How Does Joanna Penn do it – You are everywhere at all times writting, Blogging, Video productions, Podcasting – I am exhaused following your activities – Top marks – I woukld love to see a blog that shows your daily schedule…Seriously!

Kind Thaoughts

Jeremy