Child Lee - Reacher said nothing: Lee Child and the making of Make Me

Aug 22 [2014]

andymartinink to LeeChild

subject: wild idea?

Hi Lee

How would you feel about a making of story about your next book?

Thinking about some of the questions that get bowled at you at public events, I reckon most of them concern the process of creation. (Apart from actual marriage proposals.) I was thinking that a genesis-and-what-happened-next type approach could be of wide interest as regards one of your books. i.e. a sort of work-in-progress approach.

Obviously you would have to be up for it, which is why I ask now, so you can blow the idea out of the water entirely if you want.

There are about 10 different ways of doing it, could be more or less systematic and focused, depending. But I guess the minimum isdepending on how it was doneI would need feedback from you on what you are actually getting up to as the story rolls along.

Im not sure this has been done beforea kind of literary criticism but in the moment, in real time, rather than picking it up afterwards. How This Book Was Written, but actually trying to capture the very moment of creation. I think it could be exciting, but as I say, you would have to really be in the mood for it. You have to admit, it would be differentso instead of the old cutting-yourself-off-in-a-log-cabin approach (or the urban equivalent), you would have someone (i.e. me) looking over your shoulder as you are typing the words.

Not exactly Boswell to your Johnson but something along those lines. Or Ishmael to your Captain Ahab. (Keith Richards to your Mick Jagger?)

Kind of crazy I know and you might say yes, and TOTAL BLOODY NON-STARTER TOO! On the other hand, you might feel that it could be a different angle on the whole Jack Reacher adventure. And it would definitely save you having to answer a lot of those questions!

all the best, Andy

Aug 23

LeeChild to andymartinink

Very interesting idea. Much to discuss. Detailed answer Tuesday from New York. Lee

Sent from my iPhone

Aug 24

andymartinink to LeeChild

great!

beginning: where did that idea come from? (one of the great mysteries)

end: getting it out there, reviews etc

writing Reacher could be as strong a narrative as the Reacher adventure (possibly with fewer actual punch-ups, but you never know)

Aug 26

LeeChild to andymartinink

Andy

Im totally up for this, but we better figure out the how/where/when, because the process is about to start.

Tomorrow I start on the concentrated launch promo for Personal, and then early next week Ill start writing the 2015 book. So really coverage should start now, to show how writing and promoting are inevitably combined.

So far I have no title, no real plot idea, but I have the opening pages in mind. I hope to get them down soon, and see what emerges after that.

Aug 26

Are you going to be in New York or what? I love the no title no plot thingthis is like the genesis moment. Void and without form. A

Aug 26

Yes, in NYC now, doing media etc, then on the road in Savannah, Georgia, Ireland and the UK between September 11th and 20th.

Aug 26

ok if I am going to do this SERIOUSLY (obviously a must), Id better get right over there and talk it over asap. On the other hand I dont want to get in the way if you are right in the middle of big media hoopla. On yet another hand, big media hoopla is a good part of the story. We start not at the beginning of this one, but at the end of the previous oneBasically, I dont want you to start writing before I get there! Sounds as though youre already writing it in your head. I feel Ive got to be perched on your shoulder like some kind of pirates parrot for the first lineobviously could catch up with you readily here but I reckon I need to start looking for flightshow soon, from your point of view, could I pop up in nyc for purpose of prelim conversation? Am cancelling dinner with the PM of course, Andy

Aug 27

Get here any time, sooner the betterbut seriously, Monday or Tuesday next week wouldnt be too late.

Aug 27

Sorted. In NYC Sunday. See you Monday? Say where and when and Ill be there.

Aug 28

Excellent. Could start (early) on MondayCBS TV in the morning, a Simon Mayo phoner to the UK in the afternoon, for a flavor of how it goesplus Monday is 20 years to the day since I bought the paper to write Killing Floor.

Let me know how you feel about that and Ill give you the details.

Aug 28

ha! so you actually had to go out specifically to buy the paperwowthe next best thing to cuneiform and clay tablets, right way back to the very beginning. Sounds perfect. If you dont mind me being a fly on the wall it would be great to tag along on the publicity train for a while. I was having lunch with Bronwen Maddox the other dayI bought her a copy of The Enemy! and she was saying how she had known loads of guys who were dreaming (in vain of course) of doing exactly what you did (the re-naissance thing). So the funny thing is although this is a unique one-off kind of phenom, at the same time there is definitely a universal factor here.

Aug 28

Cool. Be there at 7:30a.m. Monday and well head to the breakfast show. (Note Monday is Labor Daysubways will be running a Sunday schedule, but there should be cabs about and the streets will be quiet.)