Peter Heller: On Discovering the Truth Alongside the Characters

Peter Heller is the bestselling author of The Guide, The River, Celine, The Painter, and The Dog Stars, which has been published in 22 languages. Heller is also the author of four nonfiction books, including Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave, which was awarded the National Outdoor Book Award. He holds an MFA in poetry and fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Denver, Colorado. Follow him on Facebook.

In this interview, Peter discusses figuring things out along the way of writing his new novel, Burn, his advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Peter Heller
Literary agent: David Halpern Literary Management
Book title: Burn
Publisher: Knopf
Release date: August 13, 2024
Genre/category: Fiction
Previous titles: The Dog Stars, The Painter, Celine, The River, The Guide, The Orchard, The Last Ranger
Elevator pitch: Two lifelong friends go moose hunting in Northern Maine. Five days into their trip they are moving camp and they come upon a blown bridge and a burned village, and they soon come to realize that Maine has seceded from the Union while they’ve been gone.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

I always start with a first line that intrigues me, and I have no idea. Where I am, or whose talking, or what’s going on. I follow the music of the language and the imagery into the story. So, these guys were camped on a lake in Maine, above a town that was burned to the ground. It was fall, getting cold. They were running out of food. They had no cell service. And the paved road heading west showed signs of massacre. I wondered—as they did—what the hell was causing all this. Was it aliens? Invading Canadians? I had no idea, truly. It was fun and frightening to travel with them and gradually discover the truth.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

It took about a year and a half. I wrote the book in kind of a white heat, and then it took a bit to go through the editing and publishing process. As for the idea, I didn’t really have one. That’s what was so thrilling for me as the writer: I was uncovering, with my two protagonists, what was going on. I just love that.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

There was some clarification, mostly geographical, in the edits, but it went very smoothly. I’ve been working with Jenny Jackson at Knopf for 12 years now, and I couldn’t ask for a smarter, more supportive, and exacting editor. It’s beyond a dream to have someone so brilliant in one’s corner, and it’s fun.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I was surprised all the way through writing the book. I was gobsmacked when the two best friends came to a charred lake town. When later, they walked into the strangest village on earth. When they got trapped. When they killed. When they discovered a fellow traveler—not one you’d expect. Just about every page surprised the crap out of me.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I pray that the dangers of political schism and fracture, and the growing tendency to see those on the other side not as legitimate human beings, but as enemies—I pray that we can come back to the power of simple kindness. Of listening to each other. So that stories like the one in Burn do not take place in our time, in our wondrous and beautiful union.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Find a number of words you can write with good energy every day. And write them. Every single day. Never write less, and never write much more. Just go a little past your quota until you are in the middle of a scene or idea that excites you and make yourself stop. That way you are not stopping at a double return, at the end of a section, at a transition, at white space. And then you can jump out of bed in the morning. All the energy you have stored by making yourself stick to your quota will be humming inside you. You will generate incredible momentum. Your relationship to your writing will change. Amen.

With a growing catalog of instructional writing videos available instantly, we have writing instruction on everything from improving your craft to getting published and finding an audience. New videos are added every month!