Author Scott Turow's best advice: 'Just do it'

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 25, 2008 by Marie Price

Scott Turow may not be as prolific as some of his competitors, but his legal thrillers have more "meat on the bone" than many.

Obvious writing talent aside, that could be because Turow, a former federal prosecutor, can still find his way around a courtroom.

A partner in a national law firm, most of Turow's current practice centers on white-collar criminal defense.

However, his appellate representation in at least one case resulted in freeing a man who had served 12 years for a murder he did not commit, five of those years on death row.

Chicagoan Turow told members of the Metropolitan Library Endowment Trust recently that he has probably been happier working as an attorney than friend and fellow best-seller John Grisham, with whom he raises funds and works for the Innocence Project.

The Innocence Project has resulted in the exoneration of 215 individuals through DNA evidence.

"I actually grew up knowing I wanted to be a writer," said Turow, who was an Amherst English major before tackling Harvard Law School.

His road to publication was not without potholes, however.

Turow said one early effort, which he described as pretentious, was set mainly in New Orleans, where he had never been. Some 20 or so publishers were not impressed.

His second novel attempt involved a challenge from some college friends to write a Spillane-like book in three weeks' time.

While his friends covered his classes, Turow came up with a black superhero named John Henry Steele - the protector. Weird as it would be at any time for a young white guy to write such a tome, Turow's timing could not have been worse. He finished the book in the spring of 1968.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4 of that year.

On the positive(?) side, Turow said, one editor said his cover letter explaining the genesis of that book might make a good beginning of a novel.

Before taking on Harvard Law, Turow won a fellowship to Stanford, where fellow recipients included the likes of Alice Hoffman and Raymond Carver.

He then became a Stanford lecturer at the ripe old age of 23.

Frustrated that his writing career was not taking off, Turow headed to Harvard, sending his agent a letter saying that some bright writer should write a nonfiction account about what it's like going to law school.

Turow said he had no intention of writing the book himself.

However, his agent and publisher Ned Chase (Chevy's father) met over a three-martini lunch, where Chase wailed about the lack of good projects.

Turow's agent whipped out the letter and Chase drafted a contract on the spot.

Informed of the outcome, Turow kept a journal during his freshman year in law school, writing what would become One L the next summer.

Turow's first work of nonfiction, One L is required reading for many a clueless first-year law student.

Even though he "changed the names to protect the guilty," Turow said one of his law professors went so far as to call a news conference to denounce his depiction in the book.

The prof apparently held a grudge, too, transparently making Turow's book the subject of a copyright law question on one of his exams. In the question the writer was referred to as "Ray Ripoff."

Turow's next effort fared even better than One L.

By this time, he was working as a prosecutor, which formed the background for his first legal best-seller.

Presumed Innocent became the object of one of publishing's bidding wars.

"There was a kind of feeding frenzy that ensured," said Turow, who chose to go with the then relatively small publishing house, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, which still publishes his hardcover fiction.

That marked the first of what has become seven top-of-the-list best-sellers and nonfiction works such as 2003's Ultimate Punishment, which presents Turow's views on the death penalty.

By the way, Turow's best advice to would-be novelists is short and to the point, taking a key from Nike: "Just do it."