杏吧原创

Novel-writing sounds glamorous, but the truth is horribly different

JEFF HECHT: In 1996, my then agent was called by a high-ranking US state public health official, who wanted someone to turn his screenplay into a novel. She sent me a copy. His plot was serviceable if uninspiring: epidemic breaks out in Midwest, spreads like crazy, detective work nails smallpox, source is Saddam Hussein鈥檚 Iraq. All very 1990s. Except the end. Hero meets Mr President, says US must nuke Baghdad. Mr President says OK, US nukes city of millions.

I was appalled. Surely even in fiction they would carefully debate a nuclear attack? I spent more time upset than Mr President thought about nuking. I pulled the plug. I don鈥檛 think the movie was made, but I do know the author is now a biosecurity adviser to the . He was among those who beat the drum for Iraq鈥檚 weapons of mass destruction before everything turned into quagmire. Was it all just a plot for a very bad movie?

MICHAEL BROOKS: Writing a novel is the hardest thing I鈥檝e done. I read books called How to Write a Novel and ploughed into Stephen King and John Grisham for insights and tips. It was all a lot cleverer than I鈥檇 suspected.

My worst moments were having to kill off characters when the plot wasn鈥檛 working. Writing is very isolating and solipsistic because you inhabit the world you鈥檙e creating. My book ended up in Grisham territory, only quantum physics, not law. But I was careful to remember what physicist and novelist Alan Lightman said about not writing novels about science because it breaks the contract between reader and author. People like stories, not lectures.

I鈥檇 gone into 鈥減roper鈥� writing via journalism, so it鈥檚 unsettling for my wife to see me writing at 5 am without obvious motivation. One of my How to books says if your spouse isn鈥檛 supportive of your writing, leave them! That sounds a bit drastic: I鈥檓 not sure what I鈥檇 do if it actually came to that.

Find Jeff Hecht鈥檚 short fiction in Analog, Interzone and Odyssey; by Michael Brooks will be published by Random House Australia in December