How Megan Collins Sits Down & Writes
In Megan Collins' latest novel, a family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch—only to find another body already in his grave.
At twenty-six, Dahlia Lighthouse is haunted by her upbringing. Raised in a secluded island mansion deep in the woods and kept isolated by her true crime-obsessed parents, she is unable to move beyond the disappearance of her twin brother, Andy, when they were sixteen.
After several years away and following her father’s death, Dahlia returns to the house, where the family makes a gruesome discovery: buried in their father’s plot is another body—Andy’s, his skull split open with an ax.
Dahlia is quick to blame Andy’s murder on the serial killer who terrorized the island for decades, while the rest of her family reacts to the revelation in unsettling ways. Her brother, Charlie, pours his energy into creating a family memorial museum, highlighting their research into the lives of famous murder victims; her sister, Tate, forges ahead with her popular dioramas portraying crime scenes; and their mother affects a cheerfully domestic facade, becoming unrecognizable as the woman who performed murder reenactments for her children. As Dahlia grapples with her own grief and horror, she realizes that her eccentric family, and the mansion itself, may hold the answers to what happened to her twin.
The Family Plot is perfect for fans of true crime podcasts, such as My Favorite Murder and Crime Junkie.
We chatted with Megan Collins about plotting the perfect (fictional) crime, society’s true crime fascination, and more.
Q: Where do you like to write the most?
I love writing in front of a body of water: ocean, lake, pond, a particularly huge puddle, it doesn’t matter. But since I don’t have one of those readily available at all times, I tend to write in my home office, which at least has a lovely view of the woods in our backyard.
Q: When do you like to write the most?
I do my best writing in the mornings, when my mind is at its freshest.
Q: When it comes to drafting, do you prefer writing on a computer or freehand?
Computer. I edit a lot as I write, tweaking sentences, returning to previous paragraphs, nipping, tucking, embellishing, rearranging, and writing in a notebook isn’t very conducive to that since it would make for a lot of cross-outs and arrows and scribbles.
Q: Are you more of a plotter or pantser?
Plotter all the way. In my everyday life, I’m such a planner, so it makes sense that I’d be like that in my writing life, too. With that said, I deeply admire pantsers because that method always seems so magical and exciting to me.
Q: Stephen King has a great line in On Writing that says “the scariest moment is always right before you start. After that, things can only get better.” That scary pre-start moment often inspires procrastination in writers. Suddenly, you have to clean your entire house, do the laundry and play Candy Crush for an hour before you can actually start writing. Is there anything you need to do before you can actually sit down and work?
I have to answer all my emails before I start for the day, or else whatever is in my inbox hangs over me, distracting me from my writing. Lately, I’ve initiated some pre-writing “cues” for myself, such as lighting a candle, plugging in a string of Christmas lights I have in my office, and entering my word count goal in a spreadsheet. By doing those things, I’m hoping to trick my brain into knowing it’s time to write.
Q: Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what music? Is your choice of music inspired by the project you’re working on?
I actually need it to be completely quiet when I write, but I’m jealous of people who can write to music. It seems fun!
Q: Some writers believe you have to write every single day. Is that true of your process? How often do you write/how long for each session?
I don’t believe you need to write every single day. I think we have times when we need to be creative and times when we need to rest, and the rest is often just as important, and in fact necessary, to the process of creating. With that said, I tend to write every weekday (unless my deadline is swiftly approaching, in which case I’ll work on weekends too). I don’t set out to write a certain number of hours, but I do set a word count goal for myself for the day and try to write until I meet it. Then, if I’m in a good groove, I’ll write beyond that goal too.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give an aspiring author?
Read as much as you can. Other writers are your best teachers, their work your best models, and if you’re looking to get published, it’s important to know how your stories fit into the current market—what books they’re similar to, and what they bring that’s fresh and unique. Try to find a community of writers, as well—whether it’s through a local group in your town, a workshop, or through Twitter’s #WritingCommunity. They will be your biggest cheerleaders and your biggest supporters.
Q: Where do you normally find story inspiration?
I generally never know where or when inspiration will strike. Sometimes it will be something I see on the news; other times it will be a setting I see in real life that then sparks a story. I also read a ton, so I’m constantly being inspired by other books and writers.
Q: This book is dedicated to the Murderinos—the fanbase of My Favorite Murder. How did this community inspire your work?
This book would simply not exist without My Favorite Murder. Hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark have fostered a community in which it’s safe to tell terrifying stories, and learn from them. For so long, I felt like my fascination with murder made me a bit of a freak, but when I discovered this podcast, and found out I wasn’t at all alone in that fascination, I realized that it’s actually pretty human to be drawn to darkness—to need it, in a way, to be able to appreciate the light. In becoming more comfortable with that side of myself, I was able to create the characters in The Family Plot, who take a true crime interest to a disturbing extreme.
Q: As a fan of true crime stories, did you find it easier to map out all the twists and turns that would take place in this book?
I wish I could say yes, but the truth is that plotting is always difficult for me. Every story has new challenges, and this one was no exception. I actually had to end up plotting it twice because after my first draft, it was clear that the second half of the book wasn’t working, which meant that something also wasn’t working in the first half.
Q: The Lighthouse children were homeschooled by their mother, who paid tribute to victims of murder by having them study books, documentaries etc. about grisly real-life cases. Was there any particular true crime podcast episode, documentary, or book that influenced the murder mysteries at the center of The Family Plot?
Instead of being inspired by one particular true crime podcast, documentary, or case, I was more so inspired by society’s fascination with true crime as a whole. I wanted to explore where that obsession comes from; what does true crime offer us, how does it help us, and, on the flip side, how does it potentially hurt us? Each member of the Lighthouse family represents a different possible answer to that question.
Q: Tate Lighthouse crafts realistic dioramas of crime scenes for a massive Instagram following. Where did the idea for the dioramas come from?
Tate’s dioramas were inspired by Frances Glessner Lee’s “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death,” which were used for training homicide investigators in the 1940s. If you’re not familiar with them, I highly recommend looking them up, because they’re so intricate and interesting. In general, I also just love miniatures, so perhaps it was inevitable for me to include miniatures in a book one day.
Q: This story is told from Dalia Lighthouse’s point of view, but it’s clear each of the Lighthouses have a story to tell. Why did you decide to reveal this family’s story through Dalia’s eyes?
Since Dahlia is the twin sister of Andy, the Lighthouse sibling who is found murdered, I knew she would have the biggest investment in finding out what happened to them. I also wanted to limit the perspective to Dahlia because each of her family members is keeping secrets, so I wanted the reader to be kept in the dark about what those secrets are until Dahlia learns them herself.
Grab your copy of The Family Plot from bookshop.org, IndieBound, or Barnes & Noble. Happy reading!
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