Q&A with author Jerry Hatchett discussion

I love to yack online. Let's get started!

I'm genuinely curious about how much of this you planned out in advance. Not just the plot points, but the characters themselves. They seem very distinct in your story (the characters). I just wondered if you "knew" them all ahead of time, or if some of them just showed up later. :)

And I want to know about the new book!

Well...unlike my other work, Pawnbroker was not planned at all. None. I opened up a new Word file one day and started typing, without the slightest notion of what I'd type before that moment. After a couple days of this, I enjoyed it so much that I kept going in the same fashion; I'd actually avoid thinking about the story when I wasn't writing. I wanted to see what a spontaneously generated thriller might look like. As for the characters, like I suspect it is with all authors, some of them are created totally from scratch, while others are an amalgam of people from real life.

Thanks for asking, Linda!

Well, that goes without saying. Wonder if it's the cool 7UD, which would be a good followup, I think, to PB!

It is the cool 7UD. ;)

Wow, I'm a bit surprised that this wasn't carefully laid out in advance. Did you have to go back and tweak things so they'd fit together as well as they do? (Now I'm talking about the plot points more than the characters.) I've written a few pieces spontaneously, but they usually either need major tweaking or they just meander a lot. And they're not thrillers! They're more character-driven.

Oddly enough, no. I read back through the first draft and was shocked to see how coherent it was. It of course required some editing, but it was minor compared to my Planned Works.

I've actually started a new novel that's being written in this same fashion. I'm deciding if I'm confident/foolish enough to release it as a serial.

Excellent, that is the answer I wanted!

So, if PB wasn't planned in advance, did you come up with the technology on the spur of the moment, or was that something that took some work? That's the kind of idea I could never come up with.

Thanks, Louise. :)

Yeah, the tech was absolutely off the top of my head. I hate spoilers and won't get into any here, but it becomes obvious fairly early in the book that a bunch of bad guys are after some unknown something. I honestly had no clue what that something was myself until the moment I wrote the tech into existence.

Pawnbroker

Well, I have no idea how you came up with such cool tech without staring at a computer screen for days (or months) - great job!

How did the manner of writing PB compare to writing 7UD - was that pre-plotted in any way?

Thx! To me, the creative process is always somewhat spontaneous. I don't outline and pre-plan the plot in any detail. That said, 7UD was much more planned out than PB. I had the big concept of 7UD worked out in my head, knew pretty much where I wanted to end up, and then just made up the details as I went. With PB, I had no idea where it was going and dreamed it up sentence by sentence.

Your 7UD process sounds like the process I'm using for my current WIP.

Who was your favourite character to write about in PB?

Oh, and do you remember your short story THE FALL? Still have it?

I don't remember it. OOOF. Do you still have it? :)

What's the nutshell on your WIP, Louise?

Oh wow, favorite PB character. Probably Ray Earl Higgins!

I don't think so. It's a shame, it was a great story. It had a cool twisty ending!

Mine is a girl investigating the disappearance of her mother seven years before. It also has a cool twisty ending! (I hope.)

How long did it take you to write PB and how many drafts / edits?

Jerry, you are giving me hope for Secret Agent Manny. I don't know the ending yet (I'm still only about 50,000 words in), but I like what I have so far, and it's all "pantser" stuff.

I love twisty, Louise! Maybe six months for the first draft of PB, another couple months to edit. That one went quickly.

Linda, of course there's hope for Manny!

That is quick. On a slightly unrelated note - I saw that you gave SHUTTER ISLAND by Dennis Lehane two stars, and wondered why so low? That book blew my mind so it'd be interesting to know what you made of it.

Linda, have you cracked open the Manny file since November? There are people waiting to read the finished article, y'know. ;)

I HATE stories which turn out to be a dream at the end. I like Lehane, just not that one.

I guess I didn't read it as a dream ending, per se, because of the way all the clues were there all along, and because it felt psychologically plausible. Interesting to get a different take. :)

Well, you and I probably agree on most books. An exception every now and then is okay. ;)

Hi Jerry,
Can you please describe how you prepare writing a novel? For example, any research that needs to be conducted, the setting of your work, if you use a computer or pen/paper. Thank you for your input!

Antonello

Thanks for the questions, Antonello. I do all my writing on computer. Trust me when I say, NOBODY wants me to write anything on paper. ;)

As for research, it depends on the topic. I always start out with typical Internet research and reading, and I often follow that up by trying to find experts who are willing to read passages related to their field, and tell me if I got it right. For example, when writing military scenes, I find experienced military people willing to check my writing for authenticity. I've also found helpful experts on nuclear weapons, tsunamis, etc. I know as a reader I can't stand when some little factual inaccuracy yanks me out of the storyworld, so I try hard to avoid doing that to my readers.

I also try to choose settings I've experienced, again with an eye toward authenticity, but this isn't always possible.

Again, thanks!

Jerry