Matthew Reilly – Write What You Like to Read
Matthew Reilly is one of Australia’s most successful authors. After self publishing his first book at age nineteen, he has since been published in over twenty countries and sold over 3.5 million books. In this interview he spoke about his writing career and his advice for anyone trying to succeed as a writer.
Darrell - Can you describe a typical day of writing?
Matthew - I usually work from about 9am to 1pm. I find I think best and work best in the morning. I used to write all day, but as with anything, the more you do, the better you get, and so now it doesn’t take as long. That said, I am still just as exhausted mentally after half a day’s writing as I used to be after a full day’s work.
Darrell - I know that when it comes to writing, action is your middle name (and possibly even your first and last name). Do you normally plot out your novels in advance or do you allow the characters to lead the way?
Matthew - I plot out each novel in full before I even start page 1 — I use big sheets of cardboard to map out the whole story. Plot, pace and action are very important to me, and I can only see that when I have the whole story in front of me. I have done this since CONTEST and continue to do it: I still have the cardboard sheet for SCARECROW AND THE ARMY OF THIEVES beside my desk!
That said, action without good characters is meaningless, so once I have laid out my plot, I then “people it” with characters that I believe readers will cheer for or find interesting. Of course, villains play a big role, too, and in the new Scarecrow book, the choice of villain was pivotal.
Darrell - You've had some of your books optioned for movies and you've even had some interest in small film making yourself. Do you think we'll get to see a Matthew Reilly book turned into a feature length movie?
Matthew - I’ve had a few false starts with Hollywood — I optioned ICE STATION to Paramount, but that never got made; and I sold a TV script called LITERARY SUPERSTARS to Sony and ABC that had Darren Star producing and Jenna Elfman starring, and that fell through because of the ’07-’08 Writer’s Strike. But I sold HOVER CAR RACER to Disney a few years back and they’re still keen on it, and SCARECROW is currently under option with a big production company, so there is still hope.
The key thing about Hollywood and my books is this: money. My books are very big in scale and that means it’ll take 100 million bucks to even think about turning one of my novels into a decent movie. Which means getting a top director and big movie star. So in the end, that means waiting and being patient. I hope that one day, a movie of one of my books will be made, but I don’t sit by the phone waiting for it to happen. I just get on with writing the next novel and entertaining my fans.
That said, I still write screenplays in between the books, and that keeps me in touch with people in Hollywood, which can only help.
Darrell - What do you think is the best way a writer can promote themselves and their books?
Matthew - When you’re starting out, do every interview you can, even for the local newspaper — because you never know who reads the local newspaper. A while back, I did an interview with a local paper, and it was read by a national current affairs TV show, who asked for an interview. In Australia, radio is also very powerful.
In the end, do everything. You can’t just leave your book on the shelf to be found by browsers — no matter how shy you are (and many authors are shy) you have to get out there and tell people that your book is in bookstores, waiting to be read and enjoyed!
Darrell - What do you think the future holds for hard copy books now that ebooks are here?
Matthew - I can see a future where hard copy books coexist with ebooks, with each occupying about 50% of the market. The “hard copy book” is an awesome piece of technology: it’s sturdy, it requires no batteries, and you can hurl it around or stuff it in a bag; plus, many people just like ’em (I myself find that I retain more information reading a hard copy than an ebook). Ebooks are the future, for sure, and younger readers who grow up with them will happily read them, but I don’t see them obliterating hard copies entirely.
For authors, I don’t think this matters too much. My skill as a fiction writer is entertaining a reader with words — whether they are on a page or a screen, I don’t think it matters. That said, printers and bookstores will have to adapt to this brave new world.
Darrell - What advice would you have for someone trying to make it as a writer?
Matthew - Write what you would read yourself. Believe me, you can’t fake enthusiasm, and I firmly believe that my readers see my enthusiasm in every page of my work. I love action thrillers. Really love them. This is why you won’t see a “Matthew Reilly Book of Poetry” anytime soon — fans of poetry would spot my inexperience in an instant. But when it comes to action and thrills, I know (and love) every movie and book in the genre. I thrive in it and because of that, I can thus stretch the conventions of the thriller genre and take readers to new limits.
On the practical side, if that first novel doesn’t find a publisher, start writing another one. My first book, CONTEST, was rejected by everyone, so I famously self-published it. In the middle of self-publishing CONTEST, I sat down and started ICE STATION. Now, at that stage, I had nothing. No book deal. Just lots of rejection letters and boxes of self-published books. But I started that second book anyway. And while CONTEST was ultimately discovered, it was ICE STATION that catapulted me around the world as an author of note. Write that second book — you’ll also have learned stuff while writing the first one and it may well be better! I think that happened with me and ICE STATION.
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