My interview with Michael Scott
By Rory Hawkins
On the 9th of May, Charters school was lucky enough to
welcome fantasy author Michael Scott, only a week after being visited by
another author, Michael Grant. Mr Scott visited to promote his 106th
book and the last in a six book long series: The Enchantress, which, as he
stated in his presentation to the year 8s, took him a year to write. I was lucky
enough to be asked on the school’s behalf to interview Mr Scott, or, as I was
allowed to call him, Michael.
I found Michael to be a very
agreeable person, I enjoyed talking to him and he answered the questions the Book
Club and I concocted with both enthusiasm and detail. I got the sense that he
enjoyed the interview as much as I did.
When I asked why he became a
writer, Michael answered: “I’m a writer because I’m a reader. I believe you can
only really be a good writer if you’re a reader. I remember picking up a book,
reading and thinking: ‘Wait- I can write better rubbish than this’.” I nodded
to this; if you’re someone who’s into creative writing you’ll come across this
at one point or another. Michael went on to say this was when you were ready
yourself to write. “But,” Michael continued, “you’ve also got think if there’s
space for you, what makes your writing different.” When I continued the question
to: ‘Why did you decide to write for young adults?’ Michael answered eagerly;
“They’re a very interesting audience and, in my opinion, this is the golden age
for YA writing; when you’ve written a book, it’s pure story for teenagers. An
adult will come up to you and say your book was rubbish. A teenager will come
up to you and point out all the bits they liked, from chapter three or four and
so on. But that’s also one of the hardest parts. With this genre you have to
create your own logic and you need to keep to that or-”
“Or they’ll point that out and
scrutinise you for that,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“Have you actually based any
characters on people you know?” I asked.
“No,” Michael replied bluntly,
“my golden rule in writing is to not base characters on people you know, not
just because you may point out a not too endearing thing about them. People
look for themselves in book characters, most people want to find something that
they share with a character. In fact, the only characters I made up in the
Flamel series are the twins themselves. As you already know, I brought together
mythological figures from all across the world. I simply gave them personalities
from how they were portrayed in their myths.”
After what Michael had said
about not basing characters on people, I hardly thought that we wouldn’t be
straying from the questions I had written down previous; ‘Which character do
you think you are most like?’ was next. Michael agreed with me on this. After
quickly concluding that he was like none, we went on to the topic of which he
proffered.
“Most people would think that
Nicholas Flamel was my favourite. Really? No. I like my villains: Dr Dee and
Machiavelli especially. Dee, actually, used to the hero, in a few of my other
books.”
“But in the Enchantress, things
change for Dee.”
“Of course; I had flip with the
Enchantress, circumstances change for Dee and, in the end really, he becomes
good.”
I got Michael to reveal some of
his writing ‘top-tips’ when I asked the next question: “Did you always know how
the series would end?”
“Yes,” Michael began, “I wrote
the ending first. It’s like setting yourself a target; you want to get from
here... to there. The fact that there are six books is only because when I
wrote the whole series out in note form I saw six synopses which let me divide
it into six books.”
“So you wrote all of the books
out in note form beforehand?” I asked.
“Not completely, I left some
room for the characters to surprise me. The Flamel series was very interesting
to write, one of my best and favourite series, I have to say.”
For anything I had missed
asking Michael, the year 8s certainly picked up in the Q and A part of Michael’s
presentation. He told them that ‘At the heart of every legend there is a grain
of truth’ and ‘As you collect stories across the world you find similarities’
among other things. When asked why he was a fantasy author, Michael replied: “Fantasy
is the best genre. You can do anything you like; you can make your own world
with your set of rules.”
“Which do you prefer: reading
or writing?” asked one pupil.
“I spend as much time reading
as I do writing. And I have to say, writing is the best job in the world. Being
a writer lets me travel all around the world. I often ask my publisher if I can
sell a book in, let’s say, Australia, or promote it or something, just so I can
go there.”
Michael went on to say that in
terms of publishing one’s work, this was the golden age for young people,
websites like Wattpad allowing publishers to snap up up-and-coming young
authors. His tips to year8s wanting to
go into a career involving creative writing were ‘Never put out second rate
work’ and ‘Try and set yourself a writing goal; I aim to write four A4 pages a
day, much to my editor’s delight.’
One cheeky year8 couldn’t hold
back the question of: “Do you like vampires?” (clearly meaning the
stereotypical cliché of modern-day bloodsuckers becoming charismatic yet moody
models).
“Well actually I have one
vampire as a main character, Scathach. In Flamel, I went back to original
vampires. You see, original vampires drained energy, which later was confused
with blood, and some didn’t even look remotely like people. One,” Michael said
with a wry smile, “is literally a floating skull with fangs and a spinal cord
trailing behind it,” much to the girl’s displeasure.
When asked about the book ‘The
Enchantress’ itself, Michael said: ‘If you’re not surprised by the ending
there’s something wrong with you.’
If you’ve already read the Flamel series, then you’ve got the joy and
annoyance to look forward to ‘The Alchemyst’ movie in 2014. As Michael told me,
with a budget of $120m, parts are being filmed in the same CGI studios as ‘The
Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit.’ And if that’s not enough for you, the
first book in ‘The Earthlords’ trilogy is to be launched next year with the
aptly named title of: ‘The Earthlords Rising.’ Michael told me of its simpler
to follow storyline; “One main backdrop and all major characters introduced in
the first book.”
But if you haven’t already
completed ‘The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel’ then you’ve got some
catching up to do.
I would like to express thanks on the behalf of all the Year 8s and staff at Charters School who really enjoyed Michael's talk.
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