Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Jens Lapidus is one of Sweden's most successful authors who broke through in 2006 with the hit trilogy Easy Money. The first book was sold to over 30 countries and was later filmed under the direction of Daniel Espinosa. After his debut as a writer, he released two sequels to Easy Money, and several new books such as the short story collection Mama Tried, The VIP Room, and Paradise City. In 2021, Netflix made a reboot of Lapidus Easy Money, where he participated as, among other things, executive producer and screenwriter. In an exclusive interview, Brainz Magazine has talked to Jens Lapidus about his successes, setbacks, life after law, and how to succeed with your writing.
How do you feel when you look back on the last 16 years of your life?
A lot has happened so it is difficult to summarize everything in one sentence. But most things in my life were expected; that I would meet someone to live with, have children with, and I would work as a lawyer. What was unexpected, however, was that the book Easy Money would be such a huge success as it became.
Are you satisfied with how everything turned out?
I am very happy but I am also restless as I always strive for new challenges. This applies both in my parenting but also in my writing. I felt the same way when I worked as a lawyer.
Was law an obvious choice for you as a young person?
When I was young, I wanted to do many different things. I knew I was good at language, articulation in speech, and writing, but I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. So I read several different courses at university. Among other things, History of Ideas, Economics and Media and Communication for a few years. But it never led anywhere. So I went out and traveled to Asia, Indonesia, Nepal, and Israel. But despite that, I still felt like a restless soul. After a few more years, having worked in kindergarten, I felt that I wanted a real education.
Why did you choose to study law??
I have never really dreamed about becoming a lawyer. I didn't know anyone who worked in law so I did not know what it actually meant. But I think it's fun to formulate myself and analyze texts and language, I think ethics, what is right and wrong, is interesting and so I thought that law seemed to suit me. So I decided to start studying law in Stockholm where I lived. It was not until after the last two years in the legal field when I started working at a law firm outside my studies, that I understood what the job as a lawyer really meant. And that was when I realized that it was what I wanted to do.
What was it like going from being a lawyer to an author full time?
It was not as dramatic as it sounds even though it was a big step. I gradually began to reduce my work as a lawyer at the firm that I ran with five others. Writing took up more of my time but also everything around it. Being a writer means so much more than just writing books. You travel abroad, participate in various literature festivals, and participate in radio and TV programs and podcasts.
I took the biggest step when I moved to Mallorca with my family a few months later. I had both moved to a new country and quit working as a lawyer. Suddenly I had oceans of time for writing.
Do you base your book's characters on former clients and colleagues?
Many of my characters are inspired by people I have encountered throughout my professional life but also from other contexts in life. I would say that the characters I create are a collage of real people I have met, fantasies but also parts of myself. Sometimes I have let some fears I have filtered through the characters' thoughts and mouths.
But for me, the most important thing is that the character creates curiosity and liking in the reader so that you want to read more about the person. I think it's just as important whether it's TV, movies or books. Strong characters create strong stories.
I'm not such a crime writer who invests a lot of time in the mystery of the story. Someone has been murdered, who is the killer? Absolutely, that kind of intrigue leads the story forward and I have such ingredients as well. But the characters and their journey are more important to me.
Everything you create seems to turn to gold, but is there any project that you have started but have completely thrown in the trash?
Yes, once in Mallorca. I wrote another story, before Paradise City, that I did write on for a year. I wrote about 150 pages of the book when I finally felt that I was neither moving forward nor getting started on the story. I did not feel that I had any “go”, so there and then I decided to throw away the whole project.
It was a year of work that went in the trash and it was painful. I had lost a lot of time and it felt like a failure as I had put a lot of commitment into it. It's never fun to just throw away something you've been working on for a year, but now I'm glad I did. Once I had stopped and moved on, I could get started with a new project.
When you write, do you do the classic thing where you go to a solitary cottage and write, or does it not matter to you where you are based?
Where I sit when I write does not historically play such a big role, even though I sometimes go to my summer house to focus, I am actually here right now! In Mallorca, I sometimes checked into a hotel one night to get solitude.
For me, the writing process is quite tricky. I'm not a very structured author who sits with chapter planning and bones out every single track in a book. The important thing for me is to crack some interesting characters, their conflicts and their dilemmas.
For me, a large part of writing is about the thought work being born at the same time as I write.
"It's like coming up with a song while sitting and playing the piano. I can not sit and come up with a song or a story in my head just like that. I have to get to know the characters by writing."
And when I have done that for about 30-40 pages, it starts to pick up speed. Then I get to know the story and understand where I am going.
You mentioned that you are sitting in your summer house right now, is it because you are writing a new book?
Yes, I'm kind of done with a book that will be out this fall after the summer!
It will be released in early October and is called Mr One. It is a sequel to the Top Dog trilogy. Mr One is practically done. I am working on the last proofreading and going through small things, from misspellings to whether there are any words I want to replace or a sentence I might want to delete.
What are the three most important qualities needed for successful writing?
First of all, I think you have to realize that it takes time. There is a romanticized image that you should have that inspiration all the time and that it should just “flow”. I can sit down for a whole day and nothing happens, it feels creaky and I get restless. Then all of a sudden, on another day, the inspiration can flow and I write without even noticing the time. One must respect that the "flow" must come naturally and that it can take time. It can take days, even weeks. It is important to be persistent.
The second thing I think is to be vigilant and sensitive to their surroundings. Wherever you are or whatever you do, there are lots of things from reality that you can use when writing. A good writer should be able to describe things. I think that this is one of the main differences between poorly-written and well-written literature, namely that you are able to describe and visualize things.
The third most important characteristic, I think, is that you should have an interest in reading, watching series and movies and absorbing inspiration. About ninety percent of what I write is inspired by reality, but the rest is from movies, TV, and very often from other literature.
How much do you read yourself?
It depends a bit from year to year. But this year, according to my wife, I have a rather pretentious goal. The goal is to read one book a week. So far I have read 29 books. But some years I do not read as much as I do right now. When I had children, I could only read 4-5 books in one year.
I'm not always on fire at this rate, but it's fun!
Can you suggest three books to read this summer?
City on fire by Don Winslow. It was extremely good!
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor. Fernanda is a shooting star from Mexico.
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht. A satire on the upper class in Europe, rather comical but also tragic. Very good!
