William Bernhardt

“Writing is structure,” William Goldman said, but too often aspiring writers plunge into their work without grasping this fundamental principle. Story structure is one of the most important concepts for a writer to understand—and ironically, one of the least frequently taught. In this book, New York Times-bestselling author William Bernhardt explains the elements that make stories work, using examples spanning from Gilgamesh to The Hunger Games. In each chapter, he introduces essential concepts in a direct and easily comprehended manner. Most importantly, Bernhardt demonstrates how you can apply these ideas to improve your own writing. William Bernhardt is the author of more than thirty books, including the blockbuster Ben Kincaid series of legal thrillers. Bernhardt is also one of the most sought-after writing instructors in the nation. His programs have educated many authors now published by major houses. He is the only person to have received the Southern Writers Gold Medal Award, the Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author Award (U Penn), and the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award (OSU), which is given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work that has profoundly influenced the way in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." The Red Sneaker Writing Center is dedicated to helping writers achieve their literary goals. What is a red sneaker writer? A committed writer seeking useful instruction and guidance rather than obfuscation and attitude. Red sneakers get the job done, and so do red sneaker writers, by paying close attention to their art and craft, committing to hard work, and never quitting. Are you a red sneaker writer? If so, this book is for you.

The Key to Successful Fiction

Story Structure

A Novel of Suspense (Ben Kincaid)

Primary Justice

The trouble all begins when Ben Kincaid meets Margery. Kincaid is a lawyer on a book tour, at a poorly attended signing in Washington state, and she is the bookseller’s cat. When he learns that the perfectly healthy cat is to be euthanized, Kincaid breaks into the bookstore, planning a rescue. Instead, he lands himself in jail, where he learns of a non-feline who’s facing the death penalty as well. George Zakin is the head of a radical environmentalist organization called Green Rage. Six years earlier, Kincaid got him acquitted on charges of breaking and entering, and now Zakin needs his help again. He has been accused of planting a bomb that killed a lumberjack, and Kincaid will do whatever he can to save the environmentalist’s neck-if he can get himself out of jail first.

Dark Justice

With his winning smile, acting experience, and history as one of the best quarterbacks Oklahoma University has ever seen, Wally Barrett had no trouble becoming Tulsa’s first black mayor. But this perfect politician has a dark side, too. One afternoon at an ice cream parlor, a dozen people watch as he nearly hits his wife during an argument about their children. That same night, a neighbor calls the police after hearing screams from inside the mayor’s house. The patrolman discovers the first lady and her children murdered, and the mayor nowhere to be found. Barrett is captured after a high-speed chase, insensible and covered in blood. The only person willing to defend him is Ben Kincaid, a struggling defense lawyer with a history of winning impossible cases. But when the national media descends on Tulsa, Kincaid will have to do something he’s never done before, and oversee an increasingly wild three-ring circus.

Naked Justice

It is one of the most gruesome murders Oklahoma has ever seen. A horribly mutilated man is found chained to a statue in the middle of downtown Tulsa, secured so tightly that it takes the police hours to get him down. As the city’s workforce stares, the police realize something terrible: The victim is one of their own. They arrest the dead cop’s girlfriend, a nineteen-year-old stripper whose camera-ready appearance quickly turns the trial into a media circus. And when idealistic young defense attorney Ben Kincaid gets the dancer off on a technicality, the city erupts. Unable to try their suspect a second time, the Tulsa police build a case against Kincaid, arresting him after they stumble across the murder weapon in his office. Every instrument in the state’s justice system is turned against him, but Kincaid isn’t worried. He’s faced worse odds before.

Murder One

Oklahoma lawyer Ben Kincaid, assigned to defend a black man accused of a ten-year-old murder, finds a link to a missing boy and a child molester.

Cruel justice

Deadly Justice

A struggling Tulsa lawyer accepts a six-figure job—but the price may far outweigh the pay: “Bernhardt just gets better and better” (The Daily Oklahoman). Since he fled the dehumanizing tedium of corporate law, Ben Kincaid has scratched out a living on the rough side of Tulsa, working cases strictly related to the three Ds: divorce, deeds, and dog bites. So when the state’s largest corporation, the Apollo Consortium, offers him six figures to join them as in-house counsel, he can’t turn down the pay raise. But if the Apollo partners think they’ve hired a legal stooge, they’re wrong. Kincaid is a bloodhound, determined to sniff out the truth no matter the cost. As Kincaid tries to fit in at his new offices, a serial killer stalks Tulsa, luring young women into his car before chopping them into bits. But these horrors pale in comparison to the infighting at Apollo. And when he comes out on the wrong side of a turf war, Kincaid finds himself defending a hapless loser against a murder charge. The client’s name: Ben Kincaid.

A lawyer investigates the murder of an aspiring adoptive father: “A climax that will take most readers by surprise” (Chicago Tribune). It’s Ben Kincaid’s first day as an associate at corporate giant Raven, Tucker & Tubb, and he’s ready to start the long climb up the ladder to partnership. But he’s barely cleared the first rung when a body trips him up. Ben’s first task is to arrange an adoption for one of the firm’s biggest clients—a bit of grunt work that becomes interesting when he meets the child in question. Emily suffers from Korsakov’s Syndrome, a rare disorder that prevents her from forming memories, and Jonathan and Bertha Adams want nothing more than to raise her as their own. But Kincaid has just begun getting the paperwork together when he gets a chilling phone call: Jonathan has been found dead, hacked to pieces in an alleyway. Investigating the killing will take Kincaid down a fearsome path, leading him to wish that, like Emily, he had the power to forget.

Ben Kincaid is too honest for corporate law. When his refusal to compromise his ideals gets him tossed out of Tulsa’s largest, most corrupt firm, he hangs out his shingle on the rough side of town. He works for peanuts – and occasionally chickens – but is safe in the knowledge that he is helping people who have nowhere else to turn. His newest client is also one of his oldest friends: Christina McCall, a onetime colleague in the world of corporate law. Christina is beautiful, daringly dressed, and on trial for a murder she didn’t commit. The last thing Christina remembers is the smell of her mother’s perfume. When she comes out of her stupor, her client is dead, the gun is in her hand, and the police are cuffing her wrists. Proving her innocence may be an impossible, but the impossible is becoming Kincaid’s specialty.

Blind Justice

Even the most interesting characters will not engage readers if their journey-the plot-fails. Bernhardt reveals the secrets that will keep readers riveted to the page. He explains the importance of matching character to plot, the key distinction between surprise and coincidence, and how to enrich your story with three levels of conflict.

Charting the Hero's Journey

Perfecting Plot

When the senior senator from his native Oklahoma is accused of murder, crusading attorney Ben Kincaid heads for Washington, D.C., to take the case, but an incriminating videotape forces him to reevaluate his loyalty to an old friend.

A Novel

Capitol Murder

A struggling lawyer. A bitter custody battle. A deadly fire. This case could cost Kenzi her career—and her life. Kenzi Rivera is furious. Passed over for promotion at her own father’s firm, the talented divorce lawyer is tired of fighting chauvinism every single day. When a desperate scientist begs for help getting her daughter back, Kenzi can’t resist… even though this client is involved in Hexitel, a group she calls her religion but others call a cult. Kenzi uncovers evidence of disturbing practices at Hexitel involving large sums of money, servitude, and sex. She also learns her client’s lab has been plagued by death threats and cutthroat competition. After the workplace burns to the ground and her client is charged with murder, the ambitious attorney knows there is much more at stake than a simple custody dispute. Can Kenzi find a path to the truth before she’s trapped in a maze of death? Splitsville is the dramatic first book in the Splitsville Legal Thriller series. If you like gutsy heroines, diverse characters, and page-turning suspense, then you’ll love William Bernhardt’s twisty tale. Buy Splitsville and strike a blow for justice!

Splitsville

In the near future, a few young women manifest extraordinary abilities called "Shine." Each girl's ability is different. Some develop unusual mental abilities. Some become physically powerful. Others have talents that defy description. But the world does not embrace these Shines. It fears them. Aura tried to use her healing powers to help a small child. But when she Shined, something went horribly wrong--and Seattle was destroyed. In the aftermath of this disaster, the government institutionalizes Shines in "rehabilitative treatment centers." Aura is sent to the Transforming Your Light island rehab--but to her it seems more like a prison. The other Shines hate her. The people running the place are out to get her. And she feels certain more is going on here than "group grope" and twelve-step sessions. But when she tumbles onto the horrible secret lurking beneath the rehab--she realizes just how great the danger to her and the other Shines really is. Aura resolves to escape before it's too late. But she can only do that if she organizes the Shines, persuades them to work together, and overcomes the deadly opposition she only barely understands.

Shine

Why do so many people talk about writing a book but never get the job done? Why do so many start books they never finish? And why is the final product often so much less than what editors and agents want? Because writing is a process, and no steps can be omitted without impacting the quality of the work. As bestselling author William Bernhardt explains, editing begins before you start writing and doesn't end until the book is in print (if then). This book guides writers through that process, explaining what's worth doing and when to do it. With his usual straightforward, demystified approach, Bernhardt explains how to produce a book of exceptional quality.

Excellent Editing: The Writing Process

All fiction is character-driven, according to William Bernhardt. How can you use characters to create dynamic fiction that will captivate readers? This book explains the relationship between character and plot, and how the perfect melding of the two produces a mesmerizing story.

Bringing Your Story to Life

Creating Character

Discover heart-racing intrigue in this Thriller Short of romantic suspense. Originally published in LOVE IS MURDER (2013), edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown. In this Thriller Short, bestselling author William Bernhardt shows how hidden love can lead to happiness—or death. Morelli and Baxter are partners on the Tulsa police force. But what no one knows is that they are partners in private, too. Together they are called in to work the murder of Kim Masters, but Masters’s blameless life leads to no suspects. Her lover, Terry Farnum, appears bereft and has no motive. If anything, it’s Farnum, deep in debt to the mob, who should be dead, not Masters. And that’s just one anomaly among many in Masters’s case. Don’t miss any of these Thriller Shorts from Love Is Murder: Diamond Drop by Roxanne St. Claire Cold Moonlight by Carla Neggers Poisoned by Beverly Barton Speechless by Robert Browne Lockdown by Andrea Kane Spider’s Tango by William Simon Night Heat by Laura Griffin B.A.D. Mission by Sherrilyn Kenyon Deadly Fixation by Dianna Love Hot Note by Patricia Rosemoor Last Shot by Jon Land & Jeff Ayers Grave Danger by Heather Graham Without Mercy by Mariah Stewart Even Steven by D.P. Lyle Dying to Score by Cindy Gerard The Number of Man by J.T. Ellison Hard Drive by Bill Floyd After Hours by William Bernhardt Blood In, Blood Out by Brenda Novak Wed to Death by Vicki Hinze The Honeymoon by Julie Kenner Execution Dock by James Macomber In Atlantis by Alexandra Sokoloff Break Even by Pamela Callow Dirty Down Low by Debra Webb Broken Hallelujah by Toni McGee Causey Holding Mercy by Lori Armstrong Vacation Interrupted by Allison Brennan I Heard a Romantic Story by Lee Child

After Hours

An anthology of crime and court stories. One story is on a relationship between an experienced lawyer and one just starting his career, in another the prosecutor falls for the defendant.

Stories by Today's Best Legal Thriller Writers

Legal Briefs

In the ruins of North America, the Laws and Ways of the Sentinel control everyone and everything. The Sentinel's rule is enforced by The Black Sentry, his ominous ever-present police force. Every aspect of the villagers' lives is dictated by the Sentinel's orderly inescapable plan--including the Winnowing, the armed combat each boy is required to undergo on his sixteenth birthday. Daman Adkins is worried about his impending Winnowing, but he's even more troubled by everyone's blind acceptance of the Sentinel's inflexible regime. With the help of Brita, the brilliant girl he admires, and a slave, Xander, he tries to learn more about the fabled Resistance--the only people brave enough to stand up against the Sentinel. When Daman meets a Rebel on the run, he is forced to choose between the dull but predictable life he has known all his life--and the slim chance for a better world.

William Bernhardt

Books

Your next favorite book is out there