The lovely Lisa Harris talks to us today about building a romantic suspense novel from the ground up. She explains how she organizes her information (she loves Scrivener and Excel!), what she needs to know before she begins, and how she starts writing.

She also talks about setting a word-count goal that works for you, and things you can do if you miss a day or two and need to catch up. She even creates "postcards" about the characters in Canva so she can look at them and be reminded of the main information she needs to remember. Interestingly, Lisa often doesn't know who the villain is until she's well into the book!

If you're going to start a new book soon, you'll pick up some great tips from Lisa on ways to organize what you know and capture what you learn as you write.

You can learn more about Lisa and her books on her website, lisaharriswrites.com/. Check out her latest book, A Secret to Die For, wherever books are sold. And if you sign up for her newsletter on her website, you'll get a free copy of one of her Africa-set books, Blood Ransom.