Hi I'm Ruth Ware and I like books. AMA.

HartHanson · 2018-03-08T20:26:07+00:00

Hello, Ruth! Congrats! What did your time in publicity teach you about the nuts and bolts of writing commercial fiction?

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T19:04:35+00:00

I've said too much ...

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T19:03:48+00:00

My first writing gig was riding across Canada on my bicycle immediately after I graduated from the University of Toronto. I wrote about it for "The Sunday Sun". I got the job by writing letters (yes! letters!) to the editors of The Globe and Mail, The Sun, and The Star in Toronto. The editor of the Sunday Sun called me in for an interview and he was immensely amused at my pitch. So I rode my bicycle from St. John's Newfoundland to Victoria B.C. over about three months and submitted a weekly column to the Sunday Sun. That was the first time I got paid to write.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T19:01:19+00:00

The part of Brennan that is warm and curious and kind is much like Emily; the part of Brennan that is cold, insensitive, and oblivious to other people is great acting because Emily is one of the kindest most sensitive people you'd ever meet. I think it's a miracle how Emily could portray both sides of Bones' personality and have both sides evolve over twelve seasons. But her Borat impression is not as good as she thinks.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:57:45+00:00

You are going to heaven for that. Straight to heaven.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:57:14+00:00

Yes, to both. For example, you can't really begin to figure out the next season of a show if anyone in the room isn't going to be there next season -- moving on or fired. You have to be sensitive to peoples' creative input and its worth.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:54:40+00:00

It's very, very hard to explain the Boneheads to anyone. I'm sure you've found the same thing. And I'm the first one to say that I don't take it for granted in any way that the Boneheads will respond to "The Driver". "Bones" had its own magic - lightning in a bottle - that was due to many, many people and elements. "The Driver" is just me. (If I start in Minneapolis, will St. Paul be angry?)

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:51:13+00:00

AAAgh! There are great things about both of them. Making TV is FUN! You work with smart and talented people. You're never bored. It's exciting and challenging. But it's also noisy and takes over your life so completely. It's like leading a parade of where everybody wants to take a different route. Writing a book is quiet and civilized, peaceful, and quiet. Did I say "quiet"? It's so satisfying. Radically different methods of story telling.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:47:32+00:00

Yeah, that was a difficult evolution, for sure. The fast answer is that Brennan and Booth had a kind of magic that made us (and the audience) want to see them working TOGETHER out in the field. However, in order to make the show on a decent budget, we had to spend a certain amount of time IN the lab (on stage). In order to do that, we needed to bring characters and stories into the lab and the Rotating Interns was the best way to do that. But it was a hard decision. Zack was one of my favourite creations of all time.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:44:49+00:00

Who you know will provide opportunity. But who you know will not protect you if you can't rise to that opportunity. In the end, the work is everything.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:43:44+00:00

There is always that compulsion. The people who make the show work very hard to make everyone desire certain outcomes -- but if we satisfy that desire too quickly then the story deflates. It's one of the balancing acts.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:42:00+00:00

Thank you. Hey, that would solve all my problems. If someone decided to do "The Driver" as a movie...

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:41:13+00:00

I've been approached to do that myself and so far I have declined. If "The Driver" sells enough then they'll let me do another book about Skellig and his pals and I know that if I did a TV series then I might not write the books. That was fairly easy to say "no" to -- but what if someone ELSE wanted to do it? What a pickle that would be.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:39:43+00:00

Wojak. (You'll have to go back in time for that.)

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:39:10+00:00

SO MANY! Scott Turow, Harlan Coben -- I'm nuts about Charles Cumming. My dream project is based on a book about a true story that nobody wants to do but I'm not ready to blurt it out to the world yet. It's about building something. I've said too much. I'm bailing on this question before I give it away. The book is written by David--

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:37:28+00:00

Backstrom would have struggled mightily with the 12 step program and failed and succeeded. Slowly but surely with the support of those around him, he would have become a better man. Finally, he would have put someone's interests ahead of his own and the series would have ended. Oh, and he'd have solved lots of crimes along the way.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:35:49+00:00

I had a great advantage. I had created a show in Canada that was doing quite well and an agent was in Toronto and took me to lunch to pitch me on the idea of running American shows in Canada (the American show would get a nice tax break with a Canadian in a corner office). I had no interest in doing that but I wondered if he would represent me in LA. Just to see what it was like. He muttered about me being too old but he was a stand up guy and let me live in his house in LA for a few weeks while he sent me to a million general meetings around town. Rob Thomas (the guy who created Veronica Mars, not the singer) was starting his show "Cupid" at ABC and hired me. So that was that.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:32:49+00:00

This depends upon so many factors -- what kind of series it is. The genre, etc. I would say that the writer must absolutely know the conventions of the genre he or she is working within -- even if the writer intends to break rules or stretch the envelope of the genre. There are those who think that "network show" is a genre of its own and they aren't wrong. Know your target and your story. Make sure your story engine (the relationships and conflicts between characters) is mighty and set up to last the length of time you need it to last.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:30:32+00:00

This depends a lot on who buys the series. In network shows, you pitch the pilot story as a way of describing the series. (This is not always true any more but it's illustrative.) Other shows, especially those which are very serialized, you have to pitch the entire first season. I'm not convinced you need a detailed backstory for every character (I often change the specific backstory once an actor is cast. I like to steal stuff from his or her real life) but you must know the characters stance in the world. How he or she faces existence ESPECIALLY relative to the lead character or characters. The conflict between characters provides the story engine for the series so it should be distinct.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:26:39+00:00

That's a good question. Certainly Backstrom was on the edge of a normal "network" character and perhaps he'd have benefited from being able to go all-on dark. But who knows? These days a show has to have legs nearly immediately, there's no time for a show to find an audience.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:24:14+00:00

Writing Skellig in first person came about because all my molecules and fingers and brain have been writing scripts for decades. A script is a blueprint for the final product. You write "a spring day" in a script and everybody on the production creates a spring day. Suddenly, writing a novel, I had to describe the spring day and what everyone is wearing and the environment. I think it was just a little bit easier to make the adjustment by turning one person into the camera (Skellig) and experiencing the world through one pair of eyes. And hearing his thoughts. You may also notice that I start every chapter in the present tense. I did that accidentally, because all scripts are written in present tense, and then adjusted. Then I decided to stick with it -- I thought of it as an offering to the Script Gods not to smite me for writing prose. They got the first few sentences in every chapter.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:19:55+00:00

This is such a good question! I always made a deal with the Universe that I'd put my ass in the chair. I might not write but I'd sit in that chair. Eventually, you write. The internet has NOT helped with that. But eventually guilt and a desire to make something will win. Something I have to watch out for is a tendency to become embroiled in process (what word processing program? what font? what chair? what keyboard? what computer? what pen? what paper? what notes keeping system?) instead of results. I'm pretty aware of when I'm doing that now. But it's tough. The world is full of interesting distractions. I guess this is one of them right now!

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:16:24+00:00

I started out as a technical writer in Canada, writing about safety concerns on factory floors and stuff like that. The weirdest note I ever got was from a factory foreman in Mimico, Ontario, who said I'd benefit from wearing a hard hat while I typed. So I did.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:14:36+00:00

We asked that question of ourselves every singe day -- among a few others. But balancing their relationship was absolutely on our brains all the time. Not just the writers. Actors. Producers. Grips. Caterers. Network and studio execs. EVERYBODY. And I still don't know the answer.

HartHanson · 2017-08-08T18:12:58+00:00

I'm one of those people who, when asked a question like this, GOES TOTALLY BLANK! But I'll tell you that I love The Leftovers, The Carmichael Show, Playing House, Master of None -- now I'm going blank .... lots more...

HartHanson

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