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An Interview with Bestselling Novelist Michael Connelly by Jennifer Minar
Bestselling
author of several mystery/thriller novels, including Blood Work, City of Bones,
and The Narrows, Michael
Connelly has enthralled millions of readers
for over a decade.
Originally
a
journalist for several
In
this
interview, Connelly discusses his approach to writing, his latest Harry
Bosch novel, how being an outsider as a teen affected his writing, and
why he waited thirty years to begin writing fiction.
You
didn't start
writing fiction until you were thirty years old. Instead, you worked as
a journalist covering police beats and the courts--and used this
experience as research, knowing that one day you would be ready to
write fiction. How did you decide it was finally time?
It
was
sort of a
natural progression. I just sort of instinctively knew it was time to
try it. It was still another four years before I sent anything out into
the world and another two before anything was published, but I just hit
this point--maybe it was turning 30--where I told myself if I didn't
try soon I never would. I also think that by that point I had
accumulated enough images and experiences as a person and as [a] cop
reporter that I was thinking I had the ingredients and it was time to
try to make a cake. Lastly, the summer I turned 30 was the same summer
I spent a lot of time with a homicide squad. I had full access on three
separate investigations. I knew I would never get a better look at that
world than that, so the only thing left to do was write about it in
fiction.
You've
stated
that the single best piece of writing advice you've ever gotten was to
write every day--and that this advice came to you from writer Harry
Crews during a lecture at the
I've
been
doing
this for a long time now and it is hard to write every day. In the
beginning I did--365 days a year. Now what I try to do, and most times
accomplish, is to write every day once I begin a draft. So I have
periods where I am not writing. These are usually between drafts and
between books. The greater message he [Crews] was sending was, I think,
that you need to always be thinking about your story. The best way to
do that is to write every day. I believe that I am always thinking
about my story, but I don't need to write every single day of my life
to keep it churning in my mind.
You
said
that
during your years of being a journalist, you knew detectives who
couldn't put the job away when they went home. As a novelist today, can
you say that you, in fact, can? Or do your stories oftentimes awaken
inside your mind when you're busy doing other things?
I
really
don't
want them to go away. I think the key thing to writing is to keep it
churning in your mind. This to me is more important than actually
sitting down at the computer. It's the interior activity. So when I do
get away from my writing I start to get uncomfortable. I don't like
going on vacations without taking my work with me.
I
read in
a past
interview that you were a bit of an outsider as a kid. Do you feel that
the emotions you experienced as a result of being an outsider helped
cultivate your interest in becoming a writer?
As a
teenager I
went to four schools in four years and that sort of gave me outsider
status. I think it made me more of an observer than someone who is in
the middle of things. This is a good attribute to have as a writer. At
the time I didn't know that. I didn't think that I should become a
writer. That decision came later and it is only after many years [that
I] can look back and see how my writing skills may have been honed back
then without me realizing it.
Please
describe
your writing environment
I
like
changing
things so my writing environment changes from year to year, book to
book. At the moment I write in a windowless room without a desk. I sit
on a couch and write on a laptop. Last year, I had a room with a nice
water view and a desk that weighed a ton. I had two big Apple screens
on my desk and could spread four pages across them. Usually when I
start a new project I shake things up in some way. Sometimes it's just
changing computers but sometimes it is completely changing the
environment. For me change is good. The only constant is change.
In
the
essay,
"Characterization," that you wrote for "Writing Mysteries: a Handbook
by the Mystery Writers of
I
think
it
probably comes out of my instincts and interests as a reader. As a
reader I like to delve deep down into people and see how they react in
different situations. I have found that I am the same way as a writer.
I am more interested in interior rather than exterior circumstances. I
think it plugs the reader into the world a lot better than plot aspects
do. Of course, this is not to say plot is not important. You run the
risk of slighting one thing when you talk at length about another. Plot
and character are both two big plates that you have to keep spinning
through a book. It's not much of an act if only one plate is spinning.
I
read
that you
lived in L.A. while writing your first eleven novels, and that your
process was to hang out, observe, research, then go back to your office
and write those scenes that would incorporate the things you saw. But
now that you're back in
The
only
constant is change. I figured it was time to shake things up in a big
way and that's what I did. It wasn't without a lot of thought and
trepidation. I knew it would require a different way of writing but I
thought after 11 books I was ready for it. It worked out pretty well in
my opinion. I felt that some things were brand new about the process.
It took the routine out of it.
Did
you
experience much rejection from agents and publishers before your first
book, "The Black Echo" (Little Brown & Co., 1992) was
published? Please describe your experience.
Technically,
I
didn't get a lot of rejection. While I sent out a blanket letter to
more than a dozen agents, I ended up getting the first agent on my
list. It just took him a while to respond and in the meantime I was
rejected by a half dozen or so agents who were further down my list. My
agent then sold my book to the third publisher he gave it to. This
sounds like it was all very quick and easy. Only at the end. As I said
before, it was at least 6 years from the point I decided to try to
write a novel to the point that my agent called and said he had sold
The Black Echo.
Your
new
Harry
Bosch book, "The Closers," will hit bookstores in May, 2005. In this
book, Bosch is assigned to the LAPD's open-unsolved team and is tasked
to investigate a 1988 murder case of a sixteen-year-old girl. What
inspired you to write this book, and how long did it take you to write
it?
It
took
about a
year to write it but I am a binge writer, meaning I start slow and
gather speed. So it took a year but more than half the book was written
in the last three months. I am always inspired by other writers and I
think some of the most important crime novels in recent years involved
going back to solve old cases as a means of showing a cross section of
society and the changes of that society. I wanted to try to do that and
so I wrote about an old murder and used the present investigation to
capture a picture of what a crime like murder can do to a family, a
place, even a killer, over time. Additionally, I had an in. I was close
to a few detectives who work open-unsolved cases with the LAPD and they
were willing to help me try to get their world right in my novel.
In
this
book,
Bosch abandons his life as a private investigator to rejoin the LAPD.
Would it give anything away to ask what motivated him to make this
change?
There
are
two
answers; Harry Bosch's motivation and my motivation. Harry had been off
the job for a couple years and realized he had made a mistake. He
believes he has a mission in life and he realized that losing the
badge--despite all the bureaucracy and politics that comes with
it--inhibited his ability to follow his mission. So he went back. In
regard to me, I found that I was going to be unable to sustain the
series with Harry working as a private eye. While the classic novels
that influenced me the most were private eye novels, I realized after
writing two of them that I would be unable to sustain the realism I
want to have in my books. Maybe it has something to do with coming to
this from journalism, but the reality is private eyes don't solve that
many murders. So I knew that if I kept Harry as a private eye it would
begin to undercut the believability of the character and series if he
was solving murders right and left. So I decided to give him back his
badge.
Do
you
have a
favorite quote?
I
like
what Kurt
Vonnegut Jr. said about the best advice he could give a writer. He said
something along the lines of; "Make sure that on every page everybody
wants something, even if it is only a glass of water." I think what he
was saying is that it's all about character and character is delineated
by wants and needs and how they are filled or lived with unfulfilled.
Besides
writing
every day, what other advice would you like to give aspiring novelists?
I
think
you have
to experience the world to write about it. That's not to say you must
write what you know--I don't believe in rules like that. I am just
talking about experiencing the world. Living in order to write about
living. Your mind should be a blender. Everything you do, see and
experience gets thrown in. Throw in what you learn and what you hear.
Throw in what you read in good books and see in movie theaters. Throw
in what you see on your travels. Throw in the good and bad things in
the world. When the time is right you flick on the blender, mix
everything together and hopefully pour out a smoothie that is all yours.
Read
more
about
Michael Connelly and his work at www.MichaelConnelly.com.
About The Author
Jennifer Minar is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the managing editor of the award-winning writer's web site, www.WritersBreak.com. She can be contacted at mailto:jminar@writersbreak.com.
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