November 15, 2000
Sunnye Tiedemann, who teaches writing in her community and on AOL, writes short mysteries and is the national newsletter editor for Sisters In Crime. She is working on her first mystery novel.
"I've always wanted to write a book but I just don't have time" must top the list of Comments Authors Hear Most Often. William Diehl, author of the thrilling bestseller Reign in Hell, might have said that. Instead, when he realized he wanted to write a novel and it didn't look like he was going to, he made time -- quit his job -- and wrote the best seller, Sharky's Machine. In Part One he spoke of how he made his dream come true. A warm man, Diehl loves to tell what he's learned about writing, and he's generous with wholehearted encouragement and useful advice.
William Diehl's life is rich with unusual experiences, from childhood on. Mae West was his babysitter (before her Hollywood days); he was a witness to the Hindenberg tragedy; he was a bellygunner on a B-17 in World War II; and he was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s official photographer. Now, after 20 years during which he has spent writing eight best sellers, all in print, Diehl nears the height of his literary powers. He writes about a huge variety of subjects with powerful imagery and energy. There doesn't seem to be anything he can't conjure on a page; there doesn't seem to be any subject that's off limits.
"The subject matter has to attract me," he says. "I once spent two days with a very proficient counterfeiter. I had three hours of interviews with him on the art and decided to do a book based on that knowledge. I got about 100 pages into it and realized it was not going anywhere -- in fact, I was getting bored with it. So I trashed it and wrote 27 instead."
27, reissued last year as The Hunt, is set in World War II Germany. A master German
actor/spy/master-of-disguise embarks on a scheme that will cast the fortunes of war in Hitler's favor. Diehl's most charming hero, Francis Scott Keegan, gets wind of the plot and the hunt is on, ending in a showdown piece de resistance at Jekyll's Island, Georgia. Actual history mixed with imagination and Diehl's brand of word imagery guarantee a breath-holding read. He's a powerful writer who has a lot to say and says it through explosive characters in fast-moving fiction. Each book is different from the others. He has so much to say that you wonder what he'll get into next.
"After Ginny [Diehl's wife] and Temple [his daughter] finished Reign they both said, ‘What are you going to do now? You've gotten everything you hate off your chest in this one. The trial sums up pretty much what I'm concerned about: Corrupt politics, pollution, bribery, PAC money disenfranchising the taxpayer, the average voter. All my books have underpinnings of things I want to say. Reign in Hell reflects the political situation in this country. In the end it is a battle between two egos -- two zealots -- which I felt was the simple way to focus on what the book is about."
In his books, ideas based on what he sees wrong in society, structures based on "what happens next," and strong intuition based in good sense combine to make his style. He claims not to have a set style. "I change it consciously. I am always conscious of point-of-view. For instance, Hooligans is told from two points of view, both told in first person. When my editor finished that one he said the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my writing. He said, ‘Nobody else would have the guts to try something that radical. And you're the only one I know who could pull it
off.' "
The point of view in Reign changes five times in the first five chapters, from Stampler to Vail to the man and his son to the head of the ambush squad to the President. "But I have to be careful not to parody myself. That's why I change my books -- until Vail they were all quite different -- by design. The danger is you get smug, it's easy, and so all books sound the same. I think a lot before I write: How I'm going to do this, how I'm going to do that. I've written characters in blank verse just to see how it works. It worked and we left it in.
"Look, style is two things, the quality of writing and the individuality of the vision. Everything else contributes to that. You can learn the craft, how to structure a sentence, how to research, but a lot of it comes from inside you. You are a channeler. You channel it all into one focal point; and when it's clicking, that's as good as it gets."
Although his books are about issues he considers major, Diehl says he never thinks about theme. Telling the story shares top priority with the creation of unforgettable characters. He even outlines -- backwards. There's a lot going on when Diehl's finding out what happens next. "Every night when I quit, I outline what I've written to keep track of what I've done. I use a program called Writer's Blocks which enables you to move chapters around. It automatically resequences the story. I do that quite often -- change chapters around -- mostly for the continuity of the story, sometimes for pacing."
When he's working on a book, Diehl goes at it in long stretches and he begins with characters. "I usually write 15- or 20-page bios on them [in Vail's case, the first take on him was 50 pages long] and then I write a book sequentially. As I create plots and subplots I usually have to stop and do research. I spent nine months researching Reign. Had to read the Bible, which I had never done
before, had to attend snake-handling services at a church in South Georgia, had to study the Nez Perce Indians, spend some time with militia members, learn how to structure a RICO (racketeering case) and learn the protocol involved in meetings with the President and his Cabinet."
The character Martin Vail (whom Richard Gere played in the movie of the first book in the Vail trilogy, Primal Fear) is "loosely" based on an Atlanta attorney. Every once in a while a friend will show up in a book sporting his own name, like Geoff Isaacs, a Canadian promoter and dear friend of Diehl's. But the best character Diehl has created is Francis Scott Keegan, the hero in The Hunt.
"I love Keegan," Diehl says. "He is as close to me as any character I have ever written. When I wrote 27 I decided in advance the historical events I wanted to use in the book, then just wrote to them as I was writing. Also the real historical characters like Dillinger, Hitler and Roosevelt. It was a tough book to write and is still my favorite, although I really like Reign because I did what I set out to do."
Aaron Stampler may be the most surprising villain to come along in fiction in a long time. Readers often wonder where a character like that came from. "Created straight from my warped imagination, to make a point, as usual. When I created Aaron Stampler in Fear I thought he was innocent, and Vail had a great challenge to prove him so. But as the book progressed the evil nature of that character grew and grew in my mind. Incidentally, the last line of that book came to me when I got to it. I leaned back and said to myself, ‘So that's what this book was all about.' What I now know is that subconsciously I was building to that climax all along, but just had not dealt with it until the end. So in the end I realized it was about a man so obsessed with winning that he was blinded to the truth.
"Look, we are all storytellers. That's what a novel is all about. How you construct a story to keep a reader drawn into it is one of the most important aspects. I'm a reader when I'm writing a book and I figure as long as I am hooked and happy, so will be the reader. But I must always remember that it is the spine of the story that counts, so sometimes I trash things I really like in order to keep the story on track. I don't want to cheat the reader.
"It's all in focus -- focus on the work, and nothing else matters. Don't accept the first thing that pops in your mind. Keep honing your craft. Avoid stifling your imagination at all costs. Don't stereotype. Think of a new reason why things happen, why characters are the way they are. I try new things in every book to keep it challenging and exciting. When I'm writing, that's the action. It keeps me thinking you, completely independent, and it's my job. I actually work for a living."
Diehl keeps faith in his dream, and he sincerely believes that the same dream can come true for new writers today, in spite of the clouds of doom and dark predictions of disaster hovering over the publishing industry. Persistence, he believes, is still the key. "Publishers are always looking for the next Grisham or King or Rice -- the big million-dollar writers -- and they will always buy a writer of talent who can tell a story. Only 10% of fiction books are bestsellers, but the margin is smaller now. Middle- and lower-echelon writers are disappearing, but think...Cold Mountain, Angela's Ashes: first novels [or memoirs]. So the market is there; it's just a little more cautious."
And the dream is there for us all, like the golden ring on the merry-go-round, glistening among our hopes, ready for us to claim it. William Diehl is the perfect example of what can happen when you decide to have your dream come true.
http://www.writer-on-line.com/content/view/968/66/~Articles/Fiction-Writing/Living-the-Dream,-Part-Two:-An-Interview-with-William-Diehl.html
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