The secret's out folks. I expect you all to be bestsellers and published authors by the end of the year:-

1. Be disciplined.
"My routine begins at around 4 a.m. every morning, when there are no distractions," says Brown, who also breaks every hour for "push-ups, sit-ups and some quick stretches. I find this helps keep the blood (and ideas) flowing."

2. Pick a "big idea" with a gray area.
"The first step is to select a theme that [you] find particularly intriguing … The ideal topic has no clear right and wrong, no definite good and evil, and makes for great debate." In this case, the provocative "Jesus was married" conspiracy theory might have created too much debate.

3. Location, location, location.
Brown initially wanted to stage a Masonic romp in Nova Scotia, but it lacked sufficient drama. Instead, a 1998 personal tour of a concealed passageway beneath the Vatican — "used by early Popes to escape in event of enemy attack" — inspired Brown to opt for Old Europe.

4. Keep chapters snappy.
"I have a short attention span," Brown told a packed courtroom, "and I write short chapters for that reason." (Chapter 27 is only 1½ pages long.)

5. Marry well.
Not only did Blythe Brown secure her husband's first book deal, she also did much of the work behind The Da Vinci Code. "She was reading entire books, highlighting exciting ideas and urging me to read the material myself," admits Brown, who sometimes found the extent of her research "frustrating."

Thanks for that, Traveller, I'll know what to do now.

Just need to acquire the right wife...

Emma

I like the snappy chapters thing - a good idea. And the blood flowing thing - i never get enough exercise. Have to put the elusive wife thing on the backburner. Wish I had someone to research my novels though - that would be great! It'd be like having a human google search.

"Keep chapters snappy". A typo, clearly. The first two letters of snappy are wrong.

Best
Sion