I just don’t believe it’s ever too late

The multi-million selling author John Marrs

Internationally bestselling author John Marrs has captivated millions with his high-concept thrillers and unforgettable characters. But behind the books is a writer who approaches his craft with curiosity, resilience, and a deep respect for his readers. In this blog, we share his reflections—straight from his own words—about storytelling, persistence, and the realities of the writing life.

Ideas come to me from everywhere.

Sometimes it’s a conversation I overhear, sometimes it’s a ‘what if’ scenario that won’t leave my head. I never know which one will grow into a book until I start pulling at the thread and see if it unravels into something worth writing about.

I’m not a plotter.

I don’t sit there with post-it notes covering the walls. I like to discover the story as I go along, because that’s what keeps me interested. If I already knew every twist and turn before I began, I think I’d get bored and the writing would lose its energy.

Rejection taught me a lot.

When I first started out, I had more than 80 rejections. At the time, it feels like the end of the world, but actually it teaches you resilience. You realise that if you believe in your story, you have to keep pushing, keep going, because nobody else is going to fight for it the way you do.

My readers are everything to me.

What I love most is hearing from readers who say one of my books kept them up all night, or that it made them miss their stop on the train. That’s the greatest compliment—to know that you’ve held someone’s attention so much that real life temporarily faded away for them.

I just don’t believe it’s ever too late.

Don’t wait for the perfect time to write because it doesn’t exist. Write when you’re tired, write when you’re busy, write when you doubt yourself. If you sit down every day and put words on the page, eventually those words will become chapters, and those chapters will become a book.