Michael Palmer Q&A Week 3 Transcription
Michael: “Hi everyone, Michael Palmer here again. Merry Christmas and happy holidays– it’s great to be back. I want to thank everyone for all the response and all the questions to this Q&A experiment. I’m going to get right on to the new ones. We won’t get to all of them now, there have been quite a few, but I’ll go right through the list and the order that I have them in. The first one is from Michelle.”
Michelle: “Hi Michael, Do you write every day? Do you have an outline that you follow or do you just let the ideas come to you as you are writing? Also, do you use the computer to write or a typewriter?”
Michael: “We let me start with the last question which is the computer one. I definitely use a Mac and I started my first two books on a $78 manual typewriter which I don’t think I have anymore. I only type with two fingers and I’m good with those, but just two fingers. And let’s see, the answer is I write every second I can I’m relatively slow, I don’t think very fast, so I write every chance I get. I do have some other business. I still have a job as a physician working in a program that takes care of sick doctors. So I do as much as I can and ‘do I use an outline?’ Yes, the answer is I used to really outline my books in great detail, but now that I’m working under a contract that requires me to write one book each year, I’ve found that I just don’t have time for an exhaustive outline. So I outline about five or six chapters at a time– I go over those outlines which are about maybe a half or one page per chapter and then I work on those. I’m also writing more and more and trying to work in shorter chapters. But I’m not used to it completely so that takes extra time and extra work for me too.”
John: “When you write a book do you have a schedule? Do you get up at a certain time, write for so many hours then do other things? Or do you just write non-stop until the book is finished?”
Michael: “I write all the time but I don’t have a schedule like ‘I have to finish chapter one the next day’ or ‘chapter two…’ sometimes it’s very very easy, sometimes it’s very very hard and I’ve kind of gotten used to it after almost sixteen books, just going with the flow. I get up around six every day, meditate, do some stretching, get some coffee, sit around, look outside, get ready to write and then finally just start going.”
Scott: “Do you write a book from beginning to end or do you jump around and write different parts at different times?”
Michael: “Yes. I can’t do anything else but write linearly and there’s a couple of questions about that.”
Linda: “In your opinion, how important is it to create a sympathetic villain, and how much space (compared to the protagonist) should he get in the book?”
Michael: “One of the criticisms my editors had of me and my early days of writing was that I was so ‘nice’ that I felt I had to justify the actions of my villains by making them be a zealot. We just carried whatever their beliefs were over the top. And then I couldn’t understand the existence of evil for evil’s sake. I’ve changed a lot in that area over the years and now I do believe there are people who are just plain evil. We don’t have to go any further than the people who are dealing drugs in schoolyards to appreciate that– I consider that about as evil as you can get. With no redeeming value except to make money for somebody who has no consideration of the victims. So I’m not afraid now to write a purely evil villain. In fact I think even readers enjoy it– and they enjoy seeing such a character get his comeuppance through the story. Obviously there are exceptions to every role and I’ll leave it at that.”
Keith: “Do you know the ending when you begin writing first draft?”
Michael: Let’s see, yeah, I sort of know it. I mean, I know who’s going to do what and who’s going to live and who’s probably going to die. Every once and awhile it all changes. But I just try to work on the book and not worry about the ending until I get to what we call the ‘choreography’ of the ending, which is where we begin to prepare and move characters towards the denouement of the novel, or the ‘climax’ of the novel. So I have a pretty good idea by the time I reach the choreography where I’m headed and how the book is going to end. Once in awhile there is a huge surprise, but most of the time it’s pretty well planned out.”
Jeff: “Would you consider, or have any interest in writing a Non-fiction book that would be very ‘revealing’ … so much so that you would be pressured to reveal your source of information?”
Michael: “I’m not afraid to reveal my source of information but I’d be a little apprehensive about revealing things about myself. There’s been articles written about me, I’ve had a pretty colorful up-and-down life and that’s fine. But I don’t think I’m ready to sit down and bear my soul to the world in a non-fiction memoir type of book. Maybe someday, but the at the time being, what my kids know is enough and what my friends know is enough and what my reading public knows is probably more than enough. So, I have no plans to write a memoir—but you never know.”
Michelle: “Hi Michael, Do you write every day? Do you have an outline that you follow or do you just let the ideas come to you as you are writing? Also, do you use the computer to write or a typewriter?”
Michael: “We let me start with the last question which is the computer one. I definitely use a Mac and I started my first two books on a $78 manual typewriter which I don’t think I have anymore. I only type with two fingers and I’m good with those, but just two fingers. And let’s see, the answer is I write every second I can I’m relatively slow, I don’t think very fast, so I write every chance I get. I do have some other business. I still have a job as a physician working in a program that takes care of sick doctors. So I do as much as I can and ‘do I use an outline?’ Yes, the answer is I used to really outline my books in great detail, but now that I’m working under a contract that requires me to write one book each year, I’ve found that I just don’t have time for an exhaustive outline. So I outline about five or six chapters at a time– I go over those outlines which are about maybe a half or one page per chapter and then I work on those. I’m also writing more and more and trying to work in shorter chapters. But I’m not used to it completely so that takes extra time and extra work for me too.”
John: “When you write a book do you have a schedule? Do you get up at a certain time, write for so many hours then do other things? Or do you just write non-stop until the book is finished?”
Michael: “I write all the time but I don’t have a schedule like ‘I have to finish chapter one the next day’ or ‘chapter two…’ sometimes it’s very very easy, sometimes it’s very very hard and I’ve kind of gotten used to it after almost sixteen books, just going with the flow. I get up around six every day, meditate, do some stretching, get some coffee, sit around, look outside, get ready to write and then finally just start going.”
Scott: “Do you write a book from beginning to end or do you jump around and write different parts at different times?”
Michael: “Yes. I can’t do anything else but write linearly and there’s a couple of questions about that.”
Linda: “In your opinion, how important is it to create a sympathetic villain, and how much space (compared to the protagonist) should he get in the book?”
Michael: “One of the criticisms my editors had of me and my early days of writing was that I was so ‘nice’ that I felt I had to justify the actions of my villains by making them be a zealot. We just carried whatever their beliefs were over the top. And then I couldn’t understand the existence of evil for evil’s sake. I’ve changed a lot in that area over the years and now I do believe there are people who are just plain evil. We don’t have to go any further than the people who are dealing drugs in schoolyards to appreciate that– I consider that about as evil as you can get. With no redeeming value except to make money for somebody who has no consideration of the victims. So I’m not afraid now to write a purely evil villain. In fact I think even readers enjoy it– and they enjoy seeing such a character get his comeuppance through the story. Obviously there are exceptions to every role and I’ll leave it at that.”
Keith: “Do you know the ending when you begin writing first draft?”
Michael: Let’s see, yeah, I sort of know it. I mean, I know who’s going to do what and who’s going to live and who’s probably going to die. Every once and awhile it all changes. But I just try to work on the book and not worry about the ending until I get to what we call the ‘choreography’ of the ending, which is where we begin to prepare and move characters towards the denouement of the novel, or the ‘climax’ of the novel. So I have a pretty good idea by the time I reach the choreography where I’m headed and how the book is going to end. Once in awhile there is a huge surprise, but most of the time it’s pretty well planned out.”
Jeff: “Would you consider, or have any interest in writing a Non-fiction book that would be very ‘revealing’ … so much so that you would be pressured to reveal your source of information?”
Michael: “I’m not afraid to reveal my source of information but I’d be a little apprehensive about revealing things about myself. There’s been articles written about me, I’ve had a pretty colorful up-and-down life and that’s fine. But I don’t think I’m ready to sit down and bear my soul to the world in a non-fiction memoir type of book. Maybe someday, but the at the time being, what my kids know is enough and what my friends know is enough and what my reading public knows is probably more than enough. So, I have no plans to write a memoir—but you never know.”
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