Meg Macallan, Author

Your writing voice isn't something you find. It's something you build through repetition. Write enough and your natural style emerges. Volume reveals voice.

The obstacle isn't time—it's the belief that it has to be perfect. That first drafts should read like final ones. They don't. They never do.

Pro tip: If your villain's motivation is just 'they're evil,' start over. Evil is boring. Greed with a justification arc? That's a book.

The numbers led to a shell company. The shell company led to a murder. The murder led to chapter 15. Everything connects eventually.

My editor asked if I could 'lighten the tone.' I added a cat. The cat is named Debit. This is as light as it gets.

Financial fraud is just murder with paperwork. Change my mind.

Best part of writing thrillers: Making readers suspect everyone. Worst part: Readers suspect the wrong everyone and get mad at YOU.

Manuscript status: 52,000 words. Body count: 2. Coffee count: Lost track around 11. The ratios feel correct.

The villain just did something so smart I had to pause and respect the move. Then I remembered I wrote her. Crediting myself for this one.

My detective doesn't do chases. She does spreadsheets. And somehow that's more intense than any car chase I could write.

Writer life: Spent 4 hours researching offshore tax havens for a scene that's two paragraphs. This is the job. This is why deadlines slip.

Deleted the romantic subplot. This isn't that kind of book. Lex has trust issues and a half-wolf dog. That's the relationship arc.

You know you're writing financial thrillers when 'aggressive accounting' sounds more sinister than 'loaded gun.'

The cat knocked over my coffee onto chapter 12. Debit has opinions about pacing. They're aggressive.

Plot twist so good I gasped at my own outline. If I'm surprised, the readers don't stand a chance.

Today's search history: embezzlement red flags, shell company structures, how auditors catch fraud. My FBI agent is either worried or taking notes.

Real talk: Writing a smart detective means occasionally being outsmarted by your own character. Lex just proved me wrong about motive.

The difference between good research and concerning research is whether you remember to add 'for my book' to the Google search.

My protagonist just made a deduction I didn't outline. She's three steps ahead of me. This is either genius or I've lost control of my own book.

Coffee status: Cold. Case status: Colder. Motivation status: Surprisingly high. The contradiction is what keeps me going.

That satisfying moment when the forensic trail leads exactly where you suspected 87 pages ago. The readers didn't see it. Perfect.

Writing milestone: My villain is now more financially literate than me. She's also fictional and going to prison. Success is relative.

The detective found the error in cell B47. The accountant found the body in the spreadsheet. Only one of us was surprised.

My detective solved the case. I still don't understand how. She's smarter than me and I wrote her. This feels like a problem.

The detective found her lipstick at the crime scene. She doesn't wear red.

Trust no one. Suspect everyone. Write like someone's reading over your shoulder. Because they are.

She smiled when they read her rights. Red flag or power move? Depends whose chapter you're reading.

Endings are easy. It's making readers doubt everything that came before that's the art.

Writing a chase scene. My heart rate matches my protagonist's. This is method acting for authors.

Spent three hours researching ballistics for a scene that'll be two paragraphs. This is the job.