Matthew Reilly - Area 7

keeps aliens and crashed alien spacecraft. The second reason

was far more pragmatic: a blazing hot desert was the diametric

opposite to the Antarctic wasteland of Ice Station and

I figured that, visually, a sequel to Ice Station should be as

different as possible to the original. And once I learned

about the extraordinary landscape of Lake Powell, with its

incongruous mix of towering canyons and watery lakes and canals, the choice of location was settled. (And, hey, I'd

been to the cold for Ice Station, the jungle for Temple, and

the city for Contest, so why not tackle a desert environment

for my fourth book?)

Have you been to Lake Powell?

Yes, I have. As part of my research for Area 7, I went to the

Utah-Arizona border just to see the lake. I'd seen pictures of

it in books (and on the Internet), but decided I had to see it

for myself. It is absolutely awesome. Oddly, though, when

you meet Americans and ask them, "Have you been to Lake

Powell?" they say, "Lake what?" Granted, it is very close to

the Grand Canyon, so it's probably just overshadowed by its

more famous neighbor.

Some questions about technique. How do you go about

writing? For example, do you set yourself certain hours in

which to work each day, or are you a "have to be in the mood" kind of writer?

I am, without question, a "have to be in the mood" kind of

writer. The simple reason for this is that I have tried writing

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when I wasn't in the mood, and I didn't like what I wrote. I

had wasted my time. Now, if I'm not in the mood, I go to the

library and do some research or see a movie (often just to

give my mind a rest), and when I return, I am usually ready

and raring to go.

The more complex reason, however, for this method of

writing is that I just can't stand routine. I love variation, in

the hours I work, in the amount of writing I do, in how I

spend my day. (I also, it must be said, have a pathetically

short attention span!) So rather than look at writing on a

day-to-day basis--and say to myself, "Okay, Matt, you have to write for six hours today between the hours of 9 a.m. and

3 p.m."--I look at my writing on a weekly basis and say: "All right, this week, I would like to get four good days'

worth of writing done. Doesn't matter when I do it, as long

as it gets done." Now, I don't care if I get that writing done

during the day, the evening, or the middle of the night

(which can be a very good time to write since the phone--

usually--doesn't ring at two o'clock in the morning!). So

long as I get it done, I am happy. Working this way, on the

average day, I get about eight hours of writing done.

Sounds like this would require considerable self-motivation.

How do you motivate yourself to keep writing?

Generally speaking, motivation isn't a problem for me. Like

everyone else, I have my bad days (who doesn't?), but

they're not very common. Quite simply, I enjoy the act of

writing. I am not a stereotypical "tortured" writer, hunched

over my keyboard, tearing my hair out, gnashing my teeth at

the prospect of the next sentence. I like writing. I like creating.

And I love creating big action scenes with words on a

page. Since that's pretty much what I do each day, I find motivating

myself fairly easy. Now, motivating myself to exercise,

that's another story ...

Having said that, however, I should say something a little

more general on the subject (because I am asked about

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motivation a lot). Writing a book does take a lot of self-motivation. It takes me about a year to write each novel. That's

a long time to spend on a single project, so you have to really

love what you're doing--and that means wanting to tell

the story you're telling.

If you have a story to tell, no one will force you to

write it down. You have to do it. If you don't know the ending,

no one else is going to give it to you. You have to figure

it out. Writing a book--to me--is one of the most invigorating

mental challenges in the world. It can be hard (when I

was finishing the writing of Temple, my head was nearly exploding

with all the subplots running between the two parallel

stories); it can be thrilling (it took me nearly two weeks to write the hovercraft chase in Ice Station, but every one of those days was just awesome; typing fast, living the action in my head); and it can be painful (I cut a killer action scene from Temple--before I actually wrote it, thank God--because I felt it was one too many) but when you see that manuscript sitting on your desk at the end of it all, it is enormously--enormously--satisfying.

On a more defatted note, when you write, do you work on a

chapter-by-chapter basis?

No. I work on a scene-by-scene basis. I like to think that

with my books, chapter endings are generally not the best

place to stop reading. And, indeed, this is how I write--I

don't stop writing when I reach the end of a chapter. I keep

going, as I hope the reader will do. I stop my day's writing

when I get the scene done. Again, the hovercraft chase in Ice

Station is a good example. That forty-page action sequence

took me nearly two weeks to write (sounds like making a

movie, doesn't it?), but in it are a whole bunch of small interwoven

mini-scenes--Schofield going under the hovercraft;

Book Sr. saving Holly; Renshaw and Schofield

running alongside the cliff edge. I did each of these mini

scenes on a different day.

490 Matthew Reilly

Any other tips for aspiring writers?

Yes. There is no such thing as an "aspiring writer." You are a

writer. Period. I was told that once, and I have never forgotten

it.

So what's next for Matthew Reilly?

Hmmmm. Good question. With my next book, I want to

reinvent what I do, and take the action thriller to the next

level. It can go faster. I'm talking lean, mean and totally out

of control. In the downtime I've had since finishing Area 7,

I have been working on this idea, toying with new structures,

figuring out ways to make the narrative just zoom along. I

think if you want longevity as a creative individual (think of

Madonna, or U2, or of great storytellers like Steven Spielberg,

Michael Crichton, or Joss Whedon) you have to evolve, constantly reinvent yourself, and take your craft to a

new level. Reset the benchmark for yourself. So, to answer

the question: the future involves pushing myself to a new

level of speed in my next novel. And then I'm going to make

a movie.

Any final comments ?

As always, I just hope you enjoyed the book. Best wishes,

and hopefully, I'll see you next time!

Matthew Reilly

Sydney, Australia

August 2001

Read on for an excerpt from

Matthew Reilly's next book

CONTEST

Coming in hardcover

March 2003

From St. Martin's Press

THE SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR STARED AT THE PANEL BEFORE

her in stunned disbelief.

When is this going to stop? she thought.

On the panel in front of her, two rows of flashing lights

indicated that there were a hell of a lot of phone calls waiting

to be answered.

She took a deep breath and pressed the flashing square

that read "9," and began:

"Good evening, Con Edison Customer Service Line,

my name is Sandy. How may I help you?"

Her headset rattled with the tinny voice of yet another

disgruntled New Yorker. When finally it stopped, she

punched the code--401--into her computer console.