FAQs with Michael Robotham

Frequently Asked Questions

Click on a question to read the answer.

1.Tell us about your new novel, LYING BESIDE YOU.

2.Where did the idea for the story come from?

3.You often write in the first person. How do you go about capturing the voices of your characters?

4.What made you decide to write psychological thrillers?

5.Your plots are often quite intricate and often have readers guessing right until the end. Do you map them out beforehand or do they come naturally?

6.You often take minor characters from one book and make them the main character of your next one. Why is this?

7.Is it true that you've ghost-written for some very famous people?

8.Can you tell us any secrets about them?

9.Did ghost-writing help or hinder you as a novelist?

10.Ghost-writing is a very different discipline to writing fiction. How did you change your mindset?

11.How much pre-planning goes into each book?

12.Do you have a set routine for your writing day?

13. Do you believe successful writing can be taught?

14.How do you manage to sustain the tension? It was a real nail biter and I was guessing right up to the end?

15.You write in the first person and the present tense. This is somewhat unusual, as most writers choose the third-person and the past tense. Is there a particular reason why you use this?

16.Do you have any advice for new writers or anyone just starting out?

1: Tell us about your latest novel LYING BESIDE YOU.

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: This is the third book in a new series that picks up the stories of forensic psychologist, Cyrus Haven, and troubled teenager, Evie Cormac. It can be read as a stand-alone, but people who have read GOOD GIRL BAD GIRL and WHEN SHE WAS GOOD will remember that Evie was discovered hiding in a secret room in a house where a man had been tortured to death. In LYING BESIDE YOU, we pick up the story when Evie is twenty-one, sharing a house with Cyrus, who has his own tragic back story. Twenty years ago, his brother Elias murdered his parents and twin sisters when he heard voices in his head. Now, Elias, wants to be . Now, Elias wants to be released and Cyrus has to decide if he can forgive the man who stole his childhood.

2: Where did the you come up with the idea for the new novel?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I have never written a story across two novels before, but I realised when I was writing GOOD GIRL BAD GIRL that I didn't have room to tell the whole story in a single novel. Evie Cormac is perhaps the most exciting character I've ever written because she is so damaged and vulnerable. And because she has the unique ability to recognise when someone is lying. I have always been fascinated by the idea of 'truth wizards'. The world's leading expert on the subject is Paul Ekman, an American psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco, who is a pioneer in the study of emotions and how they trigger facial expressions, some so fleeting very few people can read them. I have read all of Professor Ekman's books and studied the psychology of lying. Keeping secrets is a fundamental aspect of being human, so much so, that some evolutionary psychologists believe that lying is built into our DNA, and that better liars are more successful.

3: The story is narrated by Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac. How did you go about capturing their voices and getting inside their heads?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: For many years, before becoming a novelist, I was a ghostwriter, helping the great and the good to pen their autobiographies. These were books written in the first person about people who had very different lives. My job as the ghostwriter was to capture their voices so perfectly that nobody would recognise my fingerprints on the manuscript or the finished book. I treat my fiction in the same way. I have raised three daughter and Evie Cormac has elements of all of them, although hopefully my trio aren't so damaged.

4: What made you decide to write psychological thrillers?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I didn't actually set out to be a crime writer. It might sound naive, but I just thought I was writing an interesting story. It came as quite a shock when the label was applied. The reason I created Joseph O'Loughlin was due to my fascination with the human mind. Everything we do and say; and everything that has ever happened or will happen in the future comes down to that few pounds of porridge we call a brain. When Mozart wrote his symphonies, when Hitler ordered the Final Solution, when a serial killer murders young girls, or when a teenage mother abandons her baby in a rubbish bin – it all comes back to some aspect of human behaviour.

5: Your plots are often quite clever and have readers guessing right until the end. Do you map them out beforehand or do they come naturally?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: Some writers create a group of interesting characters and let the story unfold naturally but this is very hard when it comes to writing thrillers. At some point you have to steer the plot in the right direction. I love creating characters and their back-stories. Plotting is the bit I find hardest. Writing a thriller is like taking a journey. You know where you're going to start and finish but you never map it out too carefully, otherwise you might miss that side trip along the road less traveled.

6: You often take minor characters in your books and make them the main character in the following book. Why is this?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I love having the luxury of being able to look at the world through a completely fresh set of eyes every time I sit down to write. This helps me to stay fresh. I don't get tired of my characters. Each book normally features new voices or new perspective on the world.

7: Is it true that you have ghostwritten some autobiographies of very famous people?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I've been lucky to work with some remarkable, mercurial, difficult, insanely funny, manic and exceptional people. Many of these traits helped make them famous. Some of them I can't mention but others have acknowledged my help. I've worked with the likes of Ricky Tomlinson (Ricky), Lulu (I Don’t Want to Fight), Geri Halliwell (If Only), Tony Bullimore (Saved) and Margaret Humphreys (Empty Cradles/Oranges and Sunshine).

8: Can you tell us a secret about them?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: A big part of being a ghostwriter is winning people's trust. You learn things that even their families, wives, partners and best friends don't know. Sometimes there are tears and tantrums but hopefully, in the end, we have the truth. That's why I keep their secrets

9: Did ghostwriting help or hinder you as a novelist?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: Ghostwriting did more than pay the bills. It allowed me to see if I had the discipline and wherewithal to write 100,000 words; to sit alone in a room for month after month on a single project. It may seem odd, but I approach my novels in the same way as I approached my ghosting projects. My characters are as real to me as any real person I have worked with. I approach each book as if I'm writing their life story. At the same time, I occasionally get annoyed when I'm introduced as 'Geri Halliwell's former ghostwriter'. That was almost 20 years ago.

10: Ghostwriting non-fiction is very different to writing a fictional thriller. Did you have to create a completely different mindset? How did you approach it?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I have wanted to be a novelist since I was about twelve and always saw journalism and ghostwriting as being stepping stones. Writing fiction is a lot harder than I expected. Instead of having a wealth of material at my fingertips - the interviews and research about someone’s life – I have to start from scratch, inventing everything. There are few things more terrifying than a blank white computer screen. I love the freedom of writing fiction but sometimes it feels like I'm standing naked on a high wire above Niagara Falls with everything hanging out in the breeze.

11: How much pre-planning goes into each book?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I don't plot my books in advance. Instead I come up with an idea, create a group of characters and let the story unfold organically. Stephen King once described it as like discovering a bone sticking out of the ground. You begin brushing the dirt away, unsure if you're uncovering some rare fossil, or a dog bone. Hopefully, it's the rare fossil.

12: Do you have a set routine for your writing day?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: Graham Greene once said that putting words on paper is the final part of the writing process. The most important part is done almost subconsciously. That's why my wife has learned to understand that when I'm sitting, staring out the window (or sleeping on the couch) I'm actually working. In truth, I start work after breakfast, break for lunch, and work until late afternoon. It's not all writing. I have emails to answer, books to edit and research to do. I work weekends and holidays. I try to write every day - even if just for a few hours.

13: Do you believe successful writing can be taught?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I think writing can be taught, just as tennis can be taught, or golf or painting, but showing someone the theory won’t make them a great writer. Nobody else can put words on a page for you. It takes practice. It takes perseverance. Most of all it takes passion. If you’re writing for fame or fortune or posterity, prepare to be disappointed. If you’re writing because you’re passionate about it, prepare for a life long love affair.

14: How do you manage to sustain the tension? It was a real nail biter and I was guessing right up to the end.

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: I think the tension is sustained because it builds up so slowly. The story is like a slow-burning fuse where there's plenty of time to meet the characters and learn about them. The fuse burns faster and faster and explodes in the last third of the book. By this stage, hopefully readers will really care about what happens.

15: You often write in the first person and the present tense. This is somewhat unusual, as most writers choose the third-person and the past tense. Is there a particular reason why you use this?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: First-person present-tense is definitely challenging, but I think it creates a sense of immediacy and pace which grabs the reader and makes them feel as though they are literally being drawn into an adventure that is unfolding in real time.

16: Do you have any advice for would-be writers?

MICHAEL ROBOTHAM: Write, write and when you’re sick of writing, write some more. It’s the only way to get better.
Read everything you can - not just the very best writers because some of them are so brilliant you will consider giving up because your prose might never match theirs. Read the lesser writers, the mere mortals, and ask yourself how each book could be improved. Take it apart like you would an old alarm clock. Why does it work? Why it doesn't it work? Learn. (With the truly great book, you won't be able to take it apart because you won’t be able to find the joins.)

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