Q&A With D.J. MacHale and Book Giveaway
May 4th 2010 12:11
About a week ago I reviewed Morpheus Road: The Light here and started a book giveaway. Today I'm posting a Q&A between me and D.J. MacHale.
I was told to send a list of five questions, and I spent a long time agonizing over what five questions I should ask. I hope that you find the questions and the answers as interesting as I did.
1. When and how did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
When I was young I hated to write, but I was always a storyteller. What I came to realize was that I didn’t hate writing, per se, I just lacked the discipline to sit down and focus. (I still struggle with that) But I was lucky to have found a more appealing way to tell stories, and that was to make films and videos which I did throughout junior high and high school. But I didn’t consider I as a possible career back then. It wasn’t until I went to college and after a year of soul searching and wondering what I was going to do with my life that I decided to go back to do something I enjoyed, which was filmmaking. So I transferred to film school and it was off to the races from there. So I guess the short answer is I have been writing since I was very young, but decided to make it a career in college.
2. Do you prefer writing scripts or novels?
Both have their positives and negatives. From a pure writing point of view, I prefer novels. Writing a book is like having a direct line from my head to readers’ heads. Having said that, I also love the filmmaking process, but it’s an entirely different animal. When I’m writing a script, I always have to keep in mind that the script isn’t the last stop. It’s only the first step. That script must be shot and that involves thousands of additional choices. But the bottom line is that a good story is a good story, so I love doing both.
3. What's a scene that had to be cut that you're sorry has never seen the light of day? (This can be from any project)
That’s a tough one to answer because while they’re being written, books and scripts are living things. I’m always coming up with ideas that either work or don’t work. Some live for a while, others get dismissed within minutes for any number of reasons. So there are probably thousands of scenes I regret having had to cut, but have long forgotten about them.
But if pressed, I would say that I always regretted having to cut a number of scenes that I wrote for the TV movie “Tower of Terror”. It was a Disney movie about people who were investigating strange doings in a haunted hotel. I wrote several fun, spooky scenes with the ghosts that happened all over the hotel that had to be cut for various reasons…most having to do with budget and running time. That’s a good example of a difference between writing a book, and a TV movie . . . running time. A two hour movie can’t be two hours and six minutes, or one hour and fifty one minutes. It has to fit into an exact time slot, and that is very restrictive to the storytelling process. So I guess overall there haven’t been that many full scenes that I regret having lost, but more that I’ve had to constantly cut scenes down from the way they were originally written in order to get the show to time.
4. What's the first thing you do when starting a new writing project?
That’s the most fun and exciting time for me. I believe that you have to know where your story is going to end before you can decide on where it will begin so the first thing I do is write an outline. It’s not about the document, it’s about kicking back and thinking up the story. Nobody reads this outline but me, which is key. It’s just a way to organize my thoughts. It’s easily changed, added to, juggled, trimmed, whatever it takes to get the story into the overall shape that I need it to be in. This is the part of the process where most of the original ideas come out. I create the arcs for all the characters and come up with the plot…and the plot twists. It’s the purest form of storytelling. None of it is etched in granite, either. Once I go back and start writing the words that people will read, the outline is no more than a guide. I change things all the time. But whenever I get stuck, I always have that outline to set me straight and remind me where it’s all going.
5. What do you think the future holds for aspiring authors?
When technology changes, uncertainty and concern always follows. When movies were invented, people thought that was the end of live theater. When TV came along, people thought nobody would go to the movies anymore. When home videos and DVDs came along, people thought nobody would watch TV again. Now with the Internet and digital technology, people fear that DVDs will go the way of the dinosaurs. We’ve now got e-books and digital book readers and people fear that books will go away. Well, I can’t predict what might happen with technology, but I CAN predict that whatever the delivery device, there will always be the need for good stories, and that can only come from writers. So to anyone who aspires to write, I say go for it. Your stories are needed, and always will be.
The Giveaway
The prize for this giveaway is a copy of Morpheus Road: The Light and Pendragon books one through five. To enter into the competition, let me know what you thought of the questions I asked-and the answers I received. Please also leave your name and email address in the comment.
To get a second entry, follow me on Twitter @diannalgunn and link to this post.
To get a third entry, write a blog post mentioning this post and competition and leave a comment with the link.
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Comment by angelfreak
I especially liked question 4 because, while it mirrored some things I did in outlining for my NaNoWriMo, I definitely saw some things I could improve on. It was a great encouragement to try again this coming November.
I also liked question 5. His answer sounds like he's a really down-to-earth kind of guy and it's motivated me to not give up on my attempts at writing.
Name: Danielle
Email: dreammaster1984@gmail.com
Comment by angelfreak
Really Long Link
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
Thanks for your opinion. I spent a long time agonizing over what questions I should ask. I'm glad that somebody found them useful.
~Dianna
Comment by angelfreak
I was just wondering if it's been decided who won the book giveaway.
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
No. This weekend was very busy and I haven't been able to do the draw yet. I should have the results by Wednesday.
~Dianna
Comment by angelfreak
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds