On Writing
On Writing
E-Mail Interview with Victor O'Reilly
Character Development
"The process of creating a character is an interesting one. For me it is not unlike getting to know a real person. Basically I start off with a need which is dictated by the story - which is the equivalent of the first time you meet someone. Then I re-visit that character again and again in my mind and put him or her in a variety of situations until I am fairly sure how they will respond. If the character is an important one (as in getting to know someone who becomes a close friend), this process takes a considerable amount of time. Hugo Fitzduane took years and in that case clearly is strongly influenced by my own interests and attitudes. However, I must stress that I don't ever think of myself as a character. The relationship is much more akin to one of knowing another person really well.
"A character evolves though being re-visited again and again, through the subconscious, through the influence of real people and above all through the story.
"It might seem a good idea to base each fictional character on a real person. However I don't do that for many reasons not the least of which is the fact that using a real person as a role model tends to impose too many restrictions on the one's imagination - and the point of fiction is to use your imagination. So I travel and observe and take a bit here and a bit there and finally grow the character as a person in their own right. It is, as I remarked earlier, like an evolving relationship.
"Essentially a character should end up as a real person - albeit a person that initially only exists in your own mind. My characters are as real to me as my friends though so far I haven't reached the stage of thinking of them as real people. But when I am in situations, I do imagine how my characters might behave. As a consequence, when I sit down to write, I have a great deal already rehearsed in my mind. In fact, I often write scenes in my mind a long time before I actually commit them to paper though when I write in my mind I rarely think of the actual words. Instead I focus on the totality of the scene and store it as an impression.
"One of the reasons why budding authors have a hard time with characters is, quite simply, that they have not acquired enough experience of life. In my case, I have the advantage of have been on the earth for over half a century and having lived a fairly interesting existence so I have a reservoir of experiences and real people to draw upon - some experiences bought dearly, may I add. But there is no substitute for living - and living in such a way that entails some degree of risk. From risk comes adventure and from adventure comes the raw material that you write from - at least in my business. But actually this principle applies to conventional novels too except that here I am talking about emotional risk rather than putting yourself physically in harm's way.
"The story itself has a great deal of influence on character development and thinking that through can be quite difficult unless you really live the story through in your own mind. For instance, Hugo Fitzduane is innately a kind person with a simpatico nature but his experiences in the various books have made him harder and more of a command persona by THE DEVIL'S FOOTPRINT - if you compare it with GAMES OF THE HANGMAN. Real people are affected by events and evolve - and so must your characters.
Research/Terrorism/Weapons
"I am regularly asked whether I can recommend a good source for information on terrorism and weapons and so on - and I cannot but smile. The idea that you can understand all this stuff by logging on to a web site is unrealistic - to put it mildly.
"I do not wish to decry the importance of the Internet (which I do use and value) but if you want to really get familiar with this complex world of ours you have got to get out into the real world and meet the people who do this stuff and, insofar as it is possible, experience some of the reality. And then do it again and again until the knowledge becomes reflex. And the more you do this, the more people will talk to you because you have paid your dues.
"Fundamentally, however fascinating the technology and the hardware, this business is about people and that is where an author's priorities should lie.
"In my case, I made a conscious decision in my teens to get familiar with this world and have stayed with it ever since. I do it through field trips, extensive interviews, ongoing friendships, books, the media and every other technique I can come up with. But there is no substitute for walking the walk. As I write I have recently come back from two weeks in Washington DC where I met over forty people involved in the world that I write about including General Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Victor Sheymov, a senior official in the KGB until his defection. Both charming men, incidentally. Soon, I am off to visit the US Army's Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana and to spend some serious time with the US Marines.
"All of this demands a much higher level of commitment than may people seem prepared to make - and that is their privilege - but that is how I operate. Not that my approach is the only way. Many excellent books are written without any research being carried out at all. It all depends on the kind of book you are writing.
"But to return to the Web for a moment, ironically, the best counter-terrorist I know, refuses to use a computer - at all. But he is a genius with people."
The Flow Of A Story
"Like most things in writing, making a complex story flow naturally and logically is work based. The process takes a horrendous amount of work.
"Different writers have different techniques for plotting a story and I have no idea what the best one is. However, what works best for me is write the full story and then revise it and revise it and revise it until the thing starts to flow.
"I rarely change my initial story significantly (in my eyes) but I shuffle scenes and cut and re-write again and again until the book starts to feel right and become fast paced and smooth.
"The rewriting process is complex because again and again a change made in one sequence ripples its way right through the story in ways you would not expect."It is generally advised that you plan the story first in outline form and thus obviate the need for all the re-shuffling and re-writing. That may be true but I find that a story grows as I work on it so an outline is poor raw material compared with a complete story. So, although I do start with an outline, I really get rolling when I have a full book - dialog and all - to work with.
"An important element in the process is to have the work in progress read and critiqued by a third party - or indeed several third parties. Frankly, this is quite painful because few people like criticism, but it is invaluable as a way of fine tuning the end product. However, it helps greatly if your reader is someone you know and trust who knows something about how you write. Strangers tend to regard a work in progress as the final draft - even if they have been told otherwise and then to focus on the rough spots rather than where you are going. So keep your work to yourself until it is fully polished unless you have a reader who understands you and your approach. There are great editors who cultivate a deep understanding of their authors but mostly the author is dealing with someone who is under pressure and focused on the obvious problems rather than the broad thrust of what you are trying to do. To have an enlightened, supportive but constructively critical editor is a great thing but like great teachers such people are in short supply and most authors have to deal with the average."
Full Manuscript or Outline?
"GAMES OF THE HANGMAN was submitted as a complete book. In its initial form it was far too long but after much re-writing and tightening, it was sold by my agent on the first round of submissions.
"I am not good at writing outlines and so far have not enjoyed much success with them. Accordingly, although I will try and improve my outline writing skills, my main effort will continue to be deployed in the writing of the full book.
"The effectiveness of an outline depends heavily on the relationship you have with the person you are sending it to plus your own reputation. If someone knows you and you have a proven track record then an outline alone might be fine. But unless a new author has a really innovative idea, then I think one should start by submitting a complete polished manuscript. Apart from anything else, it will show that you really can finish a complete book. That in itself is a stumbling block for many people. A full length book is a marathon - not easy.
Can The Rejection Process Be Circumvented?
"I have suffered as an unpublished writer so I know exactly what it feels like - and as a consequence, I am tremendously supportive of writers-in-waiting - even though some of them may well be my competition in the future. However, I must say that most struggling writers I have been in communication with do not seem to be serious enough about their chosen craft. Simply put, they lack the necessary commitment to do the job right. And the business is just a whole lot tougher than you might think.
"It is impossible to circumvent the rejection process entirely because books are rejected for a host of reasons apart from their innate quality (I saw one manuscript dumped unread because it was typed with a dot matrix printer) but I think one can take some vital steps to improve the odds.
Firstly - and this is the key point whose importance I cannot overstress enough - do not submit your work until it is as polished as you can make it. Human nature being what it is, manuscripts from unknowns are read with a focus on what is wrong than what is right - because then the reader can get on to the next manuscript (and supply exceeds demand and he/she has a big pile to get through). Part of this polishing process should include having it read by other people and ideally those other people should include someone who has some professional expertise. So, after you have exhausted your friends, go and hire a free lance editor. Sure it will cost, but that is part of what commitment is all about. But get it right before you send it in.
Secondly, know something about the marketplace and ideally set up a personal contact to whom you can send your work. Start off with Writer's Market or one of the other reference books but then try and find someone who knows someone. Personal connections really do help.
Thirdly, send in your manuscript well presented and according to the expected standards.
Fourthly, don't be afraid to follow up. How you do this is a judgment call but a phone call of inquiry may just give you that personal connection you need. But I accept that this are is tricky.
Fifthly, make sure your communications are excellent. Having phone, fax. e-mail, answering machine are fundamental.
Finally, read as much as you can and see how others do it. Sounds obvious but all too many would be authors do not read enough.
"In my case, I had the advantage of an introduction to an agent by a best selling author, Anthony Summers who wrote GODDESS - and happened to be a neighbor but all that did was get me read once. Thereafter, I had to sweat it out like anyone else. What actually happened was that the book went through several iterations before being considered market ready and I received very little guidance in getting it to that stage. But I stayed with it though it was a very difficult experience. Getting that first draft written is only the beginning. The SAS have a training routine whereby you complete an arduous exercise and just when you, cold wet and hungry, about to board the truck which is going to take you back to base, it drives away. They call it a 'sickener.' Well, the writing business is full of sickeners but you just have to suck up the pain and endure. And there is plenty of pain and it does not end with the publication of one's first book.
"But anything worth doing is hard earned and being a published author is a rare privilege."
Was Games Of The Hangman Your First Novel?
"I made an attempt to write ten years earlier which did not succeed partly because I ran out of money. However, when I finally sat down to write a world class novel in 1986 I cast aside everything else and worked on it to the exclusion of virtually any other interests except my family. It was total commitment down to my spending all my money on research. And yes, GAMES OF THE HANGMAN was my first novel - in fact, apart from business reports, and a few brief journalism pieces to accompany my photographs, virtually the first thing I wrote."
