Kate White: On Building In Brainstorming Time

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of eight standalone psychological thrillers, including Have You Seen Me? (2020) and The Fiancée (June 2021), as well as eight Bailey Weggins mysteries, including Such a Perfect Wife, which was nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award. Kate, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, is also the author of several popular career books for women, including I Shouldn't Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the Career You Deserve and Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead, as well as the editor of the Anthony and Agatha Award-nominated The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In this post, Kate discusses the process of writing her new psychological thriller, The Second Husband, how she sets aside intentional time to brainstorm her story details, and more!

Name: Kate White
Literary agent: Kathy Schneider at the Jane Rotrozen Agency
Book title: The Second Husband
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release date: June 28
Genre/category: Psychological Thriller
Previous titles: Seven previous stand-alone thrillers, including The Fiancée, Have You Seen Me? and The Secrets You Keep, and eight Bailey Weggins mysteries, including Such a Perfect Wife.
Elevator pitch for the book: The Second Husband is a gripping, unpredictable psychological thriller about a woman whose seemingly perfect second marriage is rocked when the police begin reinvestigating the brutal murder of her first husband—and start eyeing her as possible suspect.

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It’s kind of a funny story actually. A number of years ago I was walking with my husband and carrying a large umbrella because rain had been predicted for later. Without even really thinking, I suddenly started twirling the umbrella like a baton, including a move called “around the world,” where you twirl it around your waist. My husband’s jaw dropped. “Wait,” he blurted out, “when did you learn to do that?”

I explained that I’d taken baton lessons as a girl, something I’d never thought to mention before. I could tell it threw him off slightly, the fact that we’d been married for years but he’d never known this crazy detail about me. That moment stayed with me, and I played with it in my head over time, which is how I often develop plot ideas.

Eventually I decided I wanted to write a thriller about a marriage and the idea that no matter how much you might love someone, you don’t really know everything about the person, and that there might even be secrets your partner is keeping. The couple in The Second Husband, Emma and Tom, both have secrets they’ve withheld from each other, secrets that eventually come calling and threaten to destroy the new life they’ve built together.

In the case of The Second Husband, it took roughly 27 months to go from idea to publication, which is typical for me. Since I write a book a year (and they’re always published about 12 months after I turn them in), I usually start a new book as soon as I submit the current one.

Here’s the hitch, though. I can write a book in a year, but I need at least three months to work on the idea beforehand, so that means I’m usually thinking of a new idea as I’m finishing up a book, which makes my brain ready to blow a fuse at times. What I find helpful during this period is to really compartmentalize and use a specific time of the day to be thinking of the new idea. I often do that in the shower rather than at my desk.

I loosely plot my books, always knowing the ending in advance. I’ve written 17 thrillers and mysteries and so far I’ve never changed the ending I planned on from the beginning, though a lot of the middle takes shape as I write. I use a spiral notebook to work out about four chapters at a time.

Not so much in the publishing process per se, because I’ve worked with my fabulous publishing team at Harper for years and we know each other well, but there were some good learning moments on the marketing front. I’m always trying to stay on top of best practices in terms of publicity and digital marketing, and a few months ago the digital marketing director gave me an update on what was working best in the industry.

For instance, as far as Instagram goes, she said reels are key these days if you want to gain and engage followers. It’s really helpful to stay up to date on the marketing front, and I think most publishers would be happy to share such info if you ask for it.

My main character in The Second Husband, Emma Hawke, is a generational researcher and trend spotter, and I did a fair amount of research on people who do this for a living. One of the details I found interesting, and I used it in the novel, is the so-called “rule of three.”

If something happens once, it’s probably just chance; if twice, it means it’s a coincidence or curiosity; and if three times, it very likely could be a trend. I realized that’s something that could apply to so much in life, even relationships. Always good to note when something happens three times in close succession!!

I hope they’ll be compelled by the harrowing dilemma Emma Hawke faces in her new marriage and want to stay with her as she tries to unravel the mystery and figure out the truth. And I would love to know that the twists in the book take readers by surprise but seem utterly believable.

Besides “write every day,” which the great John Grisham advised in an interview a few years ago, and I totally agree with (it really helps you stay in the groove so that it’s easier to return to the computer each morning), I always advise aspiring authors to aim not just for a certain number of hours in the desk chair each day but also a certain number of words on the page.

If you don’t have a number as a goal, you can end up reworking the same sentences over and over again and not adding pages at a good rate. Yes, somedays those words won’t be great, but if you build in time for editing, you can improve them.

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