Michael Connelly, (Continued...)

In the essay, “Characterization,” that you wrote for Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America (Writer’s Digest Books, 2002), you said that a good plot is empty unless filled with the blood of character. Why, in your opinion, is strong characterization such a critical part of a good story?

I think it probably comes out of my instincts and interests as a reader. As a reader I like to delve deep down into people and see how they react in different situations. I have found that I am the same way as a writer. I am more interested in interior rather than exterior circumstances. I think it plugs the reader into the world a lot better than plot aspects do. Of course, this is not to say plot is not important. You run the risk of slighting one thing when you talk at length about another. Plot and character are both two big plates that you have to keep spinning through a book. It’s not much of an act if only one plate is spinning.

I read that you lived in L.A. while writing your first eleven novels, and that your process was to hang out, observe, research, then go back to your office and write those scenes that would incorporate the things you saw. But now that you’re back in Florida and still write about L.A., you’re required to write from memory. Was this change in process difficult for you?

The only constant is change. I figured it was time to shake things up in a big way and that’s what I did. It wasn’t without a lot of thought and trepidation. I knew it would require a different way of writing but I thought after 11 books I was ready for it. It worked out pretty well in my opinion. I felt that some things were brand new about the process. It took the routine out of it.

Did you experience much rejection from agents and publishers before your first book, The Black Echo (Little Brown & Co., 1992) was published? Please describe your experience.

Technically, I didn’t get a lot of rejection. While I sent out a blanket letter to more than a dozen agents, I ended up getting the first agent on my list. It just took him a while to respond and in the meantime I was rejected by a half dozen or so agents who were further down my list. My agent then sold my book to the third publisher he gave it to. This sounds like it was all very quick and easy. Only at the end. As I said before, it was at least 6 years from the point I decided to try to write a novel to the point that my agent called and said he had sold The Black Echo.

Your new Harry Bosch book, The Closers, will hit bookstores in May, 2005. In this book, Bosch is assigned to the LAPD's Open-Unsolved team and is tasked to investigate a 1988 murder case of a sixteen-year-old girl. What inspired you to write this book, and how long did it take you to write it?

It took about a year to write it but I am a binge writer, meaning I start slow and gather speed. So it took a year but more than half the book was written in the last three months. I am always inspired by other writers and I think some of the most important crime novels in recent years involved going back to solve old cases as a means of showing a cross section of society and the changes of that society. I wanted to try to do that and so I wrote about an old murder and used the present investigation to capture a picture of what a crime like murder can do to a family, a place, even a killer, over time. Additionally, I had an in. I was close to a few detectives who work open-unsolved cases with the LAPD and they were willing to help me try to get their world right in my novel.

In this book, Bosch abandons his life as a private investigator to rejoin the LAPD. Would it give anything away to ask what motivated him to make this change?

There are two answers; Harry Bosch’s motivation and my motivation. Harry had been off the job for a couple years and realized he had made a mistake. He believes he has a mission in life and he realized that losing the badge—despite all the bureaucracy and politics that comes with it—inhibited his ability to follow his mission. So he went back. In regard to me, I found that I was going to be unable to sustain the series with Harry working as a private eye. While the classic novels that influenced me the most were private eye novels, I realized after writing two of them that I would be unable to sustain the realism I want to have in my books. Maybe it has something to do with coming to this from journalism, but the reality is private eyes don’t solve that many murders. So I knew that if I kept Harry as a private eye it would begin to undercut the believability of the character and series if he was solving murders right and left. So I decided to give him back his badge.

Do you have a favorite quote?

I like what Kurt Vonnegut Jr. said about the best advice he could give a writer. He said something along the lines of; “Make sure that on every page everybody wants something, even if it is only a glass of water.” I think what he was saying is that it’s all about character and character is delineated by wants and needs and how they are filled or lived with unfulfilled.

Besides writing every day, what other advice would you like to give aspiring novelists?

I think you have to experience the world to write about it. That’s not to say you must write what you know—I don’t believe in rules like that. I am just talking about experiencing the world. Living in order to write about living. Your mind should be a blender. Everything you do, see and experience gets thrown in. Throw in what you learn and what you hear. Throw in what you read in good books and see in movie theaters. Throw in what you see on your travels. Throw in the good and bad things in the world. When the time is right you flick on the blender, mix everything together and hopefully pour out a smoothie that is all yours.

Read more about Michael Connelly and his work at www.MichaelConnelly.com.

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Jennifer Minar is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance writer and the managing editor of www.WritersBreak.com. She can be contacted at jminar@writersbreak.com.