Do you write every day?
I don't work on weekends, usually (although I have been known to sneak up to an office when I'm in the middle of a chapter - I hate leaving my characters hanging!) But other than that, I'm a workaholic. I will start a new book the day after finishing a previous one. What you need to remember, however, is that there's nothing I'd rather be doing than writing. My kids know that I need it like some people need medication - as a preventative, because when I don't write for a few days, I get predictably cranky. They've become used to sharing me with people who don't really exist, but who are incredibly real to ME while I'm telling their stories.
Do you always know the end before you write it?
Let me put it this way - I think I do, and I'm usually wrong. When I start a book, I juggle a what-if question in my head, and push it and push it until I feel like I have a good story. I figure out what I need to know and do my research, via the Internet or email or in some cases getting down and dirty (more on this later). I start to write when I come up with an excellent first line. And then I keep going, chapter by chapter, exactly in the order in which you're reading it. Often, about 2/3 of the way through, the characters will take over and move the book in a different direction. I can fight them, but usually when I do that the book isn't as good as it could be. It sounds crazy, but the book really starts writing itself after a while. I often feel like I'm just transcribing a film that's being spooled in my head, and I have nothing to do with creating it. Certain scenes surprise me even after I have written them - I just stare at the computer screen, wondering how that happened. For example, the scene in The Pact where Melanie nearly runs Chris down with her car. Or in Keeping Faith, when Millie Epstein resuscitates. Or in Salem Falls, that last scene (don't you dare peek ahead). When I was writing Plain Truth, I called my mom up one day. "You're not going to believe what's happening to Ellie!" I told her. I think she said I was scaring her and hung up. I know it seems a little unnerving, but I love the moments when my characters get up and walk off on their own two feet. In Sing You Home, one of the main characters did something VERY stupid that going to hurt him in the long run, although I kept telling him not to! And in Lone Wolf, I didn't realize that Edward was gay until I saw a woman hitting on him in line at the cafeteria and he wasn't interested in the least.
Which of your books is your favourite?
In more than a decade, every time I've been asked this, I always have said, "Oh, that's like asking me to pick which kid I love the most!" or in other words, something I wasn't ever going to do. But right now, I do have a personal favorite - Second Glance. I think it's the most complex book I've written to date, and I am incredibly proud of the characters in there... some of whom I've never seen in fiction ever before. Plus, it addresses themes and concepts that are rarely discussed in fiction. There's a real tendency when you write to think that Shakespeare did it all, and that we just recycle it... so when you feel like you've broken new ground as a writer, it's a big deal. For all those reasons, I think Second Glance is my biggest accomplishment to date.
How long does it take to write a book?
Nine months. Stop laughing. I don't know why it takes me the same amount of time to deliver either a book or a baby, but there you have it. Sometimes the amount of research vs. rough-drafting varies, but it generally takes three-quarters of a year for my head to gel ideas into a cohesive story. Often, I work on more than one book at once. I may be touring for Perfect Match, for example, while editing Second Glance, and writing a new book. It's like windows on a computer - several are open at once. It also means I'm usually about three books ahead of myself; I am currently writing LIVING COLOUR, the book that will be published next.
Does anyone read your books while you're in the process of writing them?
My mom and my agent. I take their comments and incorporate them into the next draft... and do a hefty edit. And another... and another...
Where do your ideas come from?
Usually, a what-if question: what if a boy left standing after a botched suicide pact was accused of murder? What if a little girl developed an imaginary friend who turned out to be God? What if an attorney didn't think that the legal system was quite good enough for her own child? I start by mulling a question and before I know it, a whole drama is unfolding in my head. Often, an idea sticks before I know what I'm going to do with it. For Mercy, I researched Scottish clans without having a clue why this was going to be important to the book. It was only after I learned about them that I realized I was writing a novel about the loyalty we bear to people we love. Sometimes ideas change in the middle. The Pact was not a page-turner when I conceived it. I was going to write a character driven book about the female survivor of a suicide pact, and I went to the local police chief to do some preliminary research. "Huh," he said, "it's the girl who survives? Because if it was the boy, who was physically larger, he'd automatically be suspected of murder until cleared by the evidence." Well, I nearly fell out of my seat. "Really?" I asked, and the character of Chris began to take shape. Sometimes I write books because other people make the suggestion: Plain Truth came about when my mother said I ought to explore the reclusive Amish. "If anyone can learn about them," she said, "it's you." And sometimes, ideas grow out of the ones I'm researching. That happened with My Sister's Keeper - information I learned while researching Second Glance so fascinating to me that I stuck it into its own file and turned it into a story all its own.
How do you do your research?
Meticulously. I hate catching authors in inaccuracies when I'm a reader, so I'm a stickler when I'm writing. At this point, I have several folks on call for me during a book - a few lawyers, a couple of psychiatrists, some doctors, a pathologist, a DNA scientist, a handful of detectives. When I start researching, I read everything I can about a topic. Then I meet with an "expert". Some things are harder to find out about than others - getting the head of launch operations at NASA to fit me into his schedule, for example; or making a series of connections that landed me in the home of an Amish farmer for a week. These are some of the things I've done in the name of research: Watched Sly Stallone on a movie set (for Picture Perfect); observed cardiac surgery (Harvesting the Heart); gone to jail for the day (The Pact); milked cows on an Amish dairy farm (Plain Truth); learned Wiccan love spells and DNA testing procedures (Salem Falls); explored bone marrow transplants (Perfect Match); gone ghost hunting (Second Glance). For Vanishing Acts, I spent time in a hardcore Arizona jail, and met with both detention officers and inmates (learning, among other things, how to make my own zip gun and the recipe for crystal meth); and went to the Hopi reservation to attend their private katsina dances. For The Tenth Circle, I trekked to the Alaskan tundra to visit a remote Eskimo village and to follow a dogsled race on a snowmobile – in January, when it was -38 degrees Fahrenheit. For Lone Wolf, I spent time with a man who lived in the wild with a wolf pack for a year – and got to meet some other wolves he has in captivity. For The Storyteller, I spoke with the real-life head of the department of justice division that tracks down Nazi war criminals. For Leaving Time, I spent time in Botswana with elephant researchers, at an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, and with Chip Coffey – a wonderful psychic!
Who are your favorite authors?
Alice Hoffman, Jo-Ann Mapson, Alice Hoffman, Anita Shreve, Ann Hood, Amy Tan, Diana Gabaldon, Alice Hoffman, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Emma Donoghue, Alice Hoffman, Jennifer Weiner, Susan Isaacs, Dan Chaon, Aimee Bender, Elinor Lipman, Chris Bohjalian, Ann Tyler, and Jane Hamilton. Oh, and did I mention Alice Hoffman?
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to
be a writer?
DO IT. Many people have a novel inside them, but most don't bother to get it out. Writing is grunt work - you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith… talent is the smallest part of it (one need only read some of the titles on the NYT Bestseller list to see that… :) If you don't believe in yourself, and you don't have the fortitude to make that dream happen, why should the hotshots in the publishing world take a chance on you? I don't believe that you need an MFA to be a writer, but I do think you need to take some good workshops. These are often offered through writer's groups or community colleges. You need to learn to write on demand, and to get critiqued without flinching. When someone can rip your work to shreds without it feeling as though your arm has been hacked off, you're ready to send your novel off to an agent. There's no magic way to get one of those - it took me longer to find my wonderful agent than it did to get published! I suggest the Literary Marketplace, or another library reference material. Keep sending out your work and don't get discouraged when it comes back from an agent - just send it out to a different one. Attend signings/lectures by authors, and in your free time, read read read. All of this will make you a better writer. And – here's a critical part – when you finally start to write something, do not let yourself stop…even when you are convinced it's the worst garbage ever. This is the biggest caveat for beginning writers. Instead, force yourself to finish what you began, and THEN go back and edit it. If you keep scrapping your beginnings, however, you'll never know if you can reach an end.