Michael Palmer Q&A Week 6 Transcription
Michael: “Hi there, Michael Palmer here with what I think is the week six Q&A. This is really a lot of fun for me—I could just keep doing this indefinitely because I love the immediacy of connecting with people who read my books. So, without further ado, let’s see what questions have come in.”
Davina: “How intense is your research for your novels? How did you get your first novel published? Do you have any degrees in literature?”
Michael: “I’ll answer the last one first. No, I never wanted to be a writer or ever thought I would be a writer—my degrees are in biology from Wesleyan and a degree in medicine from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. My research is very, very intense. I work countless hours on the internet mostly, I read books, I send off to Amazon and get books. I try to become as expert in a field and an area that I write about as possible—and I follow up on things. That’s the biggest part of my writing: preparation to write. I got my first novel published just purely by luck. I contacted an old high school friend in New York, he sent my work to an agent, and the agent liked what I had done and helped me write it.”
Gina: “About how long does it take you to finish an average book? Also, do you have any tips for aspiring fiction writers and their search for the perfect publishing company?”
Michael: “It takes me a yea to write a book. There are various parts—the research, the decision on what to write about, the first draft, the re-writes—but altogether, it takes about a year. As far as the other thing, unfortunately no fiction writer can go directly to a publishing company or house. You really have to get an agent. Now I will refer you to my website where I have a number of ‘writers tips‘ and in there is quite a large section about finding an agent. I recommend you go and look at that. Trying to get through to a publishing house is technically impossible.”
Jason: “When getting drafts reviewed, the most common feedback I get is to spill the beans and reveal everything. How do you negotiate getting the right details in place for a vivid picture of what’s going on without giving the story away?”
Michael: “Jason, my suggestion is to write what you feel and don’t let people tell you what to write, unless it’s somebody you really trust or have faith in. There are as many different ways to write a book as there are people who write. Certainly, I’m not looking to pace out what I call ‘a reveal’ throughout the course of a book because that’s what pushes people to keep turning the pages. So you don’t want to give away everything at once. You want to as slowly as feels comfortable and I would look to make your chapters each have some sort of ‘reveal’ in the chapters as you move along. At three quarters through the book, most of the reveals should be out except for the big ones. That one comes during the choreography and the conclusion of the book. I wish you good luck with your writing and I hope that I answered that for you.”
Jaimie: “How did you get your agent? How long did it take?”
Michael: “I’ll just reiterate that: please check my website and the section on finding an agent in there. I got really lucky very quickly and found an agent who was interested. But most people it’s going to have to be a full-time project writing query letters to the agents. You need to have your book done or the agent’s not going to be very interested. So I think you need to start writing the book an then find an agent. There’s lots of books on how to do it, there are many, many courses that you can go to where you can actually make an appointment at the course with an agent. Sometimes it costs like $30 or $40 for fifteen minutes, but it’s well worth it. You get to sit there and pitch your book.”
Mary: “Do you ever find your characters taking over while you are writing and notice that you are writing things about them that you hadn’t really thought about?”
Michael: “It doesn’t happen as much as a lot of writers I’ve heard talk, but once in awhile a character, a minor character, suddenly becomes interesting and fun for me and they get bigger and bigger. I’ll give you a quick example from my book “Critical Judgment.” I created a hermit to come into the emergency room ward after being beaten up in the town. The reason I created him was so I could show what a good doctor the heroine is. He became so interesting to me that I gave him a whole persona and he became I would say the second main person in the book as I went along and he was great. He was fun to write about and I wish I could think of some more business for him.”
Davina: “How intense is your research for your novels? How did you get your first novel published? Do you have any degrees in literature?”
Michael: “I’ll answer the last one first. No, I never wanted to be a writer or ever thought I would be a writer—my degrees are in biology from Wesleyan and a degree in medicine from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. My research is very, very intense. I work countless hours on the internet mostly, I read books, I send off to Amazon and get books. I try to become as expert in a field and an area that I write about as possible—and I follow up on things. That’s the biggest part of my writing: preparation to write. I got my first novel published just purely by luck. I contacted an old high school friend in New York, he sent my work to an agent, and the agent liked what I had done and helped me write it.”
Gina: “About how long does it take you to finish an average book? Also, do you have any tips for aspiring fiction writers and their search for the perfect publishing company?”
Michael: “It takes me a yea to write a book. There are various parts—the research, the decision on what to write about, the first draft, the re-writes—but altogether, it takes about a year. As far as the other thing, unfortunately no fiction writer can go directly to a publishing company or house. You really have to get an agent. Now I will refer you to my website where I have a number of ‘writers tips‘ and in there is quite a large section about finding an agent. I recommend you go and look at that. Trying to get through to a publishing house is technically impossible.”
Jason: “When getting drafts reviewed, the most common feedback I get is to spill the beans and reveal everything. How do you negotiate getting the right details in place for a vivid picture of what’s going on without giving the story away?”
Michael: “Jason, my suggestion is to write what you feel and don’t let people tell you what to write, unless it’s somebody you really trust or have faith in. There are as many different ways to write a book as there are people who write. Certainly, I’m not looking to pace out what I call ‘a reveal’ throughout the course of a book because that’s what pushes people to keep turning the pages. So you don’t want to give away everything at once. You want to as slowly as feels comfortable and I would look to make your chapters each have some sort of ‘reveal’ in the chapters as you move along. At three quarters through the book, most of the reveals should be out except for the big ones. That one comes during the choreography and the conclusion of the book. I wish you good luck with your writing and I hope that I answered that for you.”
Jaimie: “How did you get your agent? How long did it take?”
Michael: “I’ll just reiterate that: please check my website and the section on finding an agent in there. I got really lucky very quickly and found an agent who was interested. But most people it’s going to have to be a full-time project writing query letters to the agents. You need to have your book done or the agent’s not going to be very interested. So I think you need to start writing the book an then find an agent. There’s lots of books on how to do it, there are many, many courses that you can go to where you can actually make an appointment at the course with an agent. Sometimes it costs like $30 or $40 for fifteen minutes, but it’s well worth it. You get to sit there and pitch your book.”
Mary: “Do you ever find your characters taking over while you are writing and notice that you are writing things about them that you hadn’t really thought about?”
Michael: “It doesn’t happen as much as a lot of writers I’ve heard talk, but once in awhile a character, a minor character, suddenly becomes interesting and fun for me and they get bigger and bigger. I’ll give you a quick example from my book “Critical Judgment.” I created a hermit to come into the emergency room ward after being beaten up in the town. The reason I created him was so I could show what a good doctor the heroine is. He became so interesting to me that I gave him a whole persona and he became I would say the second main person in the book as I went along and he was great. He was fun to write about and I wish I could think of some more business for him.”
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