Raising the Bar - An Interview with Bestselling Austalian Author, Matthew Reilly
By Anthony Santoro

In Matthew Reilly, I’m certain that we nearly had a brilliant lawyer. Very nearly. If his sharp mind and proficiency with the English language had been put to use on a courtroom floor he would have proven a fine catch for some law firm somewhere. Fortunately, he chose the literary road and, we might say, used his powers for good rather than evil. And, although he graduated university with a degree in law, he has become one of Australia’s finest authors.
 
Probably his greatest strength as an author is that he knows who he is and what type of writer he is, and there is no doubt about that when he’s writing a cracking page turner.
 
Reilly is as well known for his books as he is for his rise to the top of the bestseller list. His first book, Contest, which he wrote between the ages of 19 and 20, was self published. Interestingly, he did this not with the idea of making money and cracking the big time with his very first release, but solely to get his name out there. And he did – his book was discovered by MacMillan Publishing and the rest is history. Among writers, his story is almost folklore – his has been the kind career many writers could only dream of. Ultimately, what impressed me most about Matthew Reilly was how normal he was despite his success. He likes Star Wars, golf and his DeLorean (better known for its depiction as the time machine in the Back to the Future trilogy)...but when you speak to him, you can’t help but get the feeling there is a whole other dimension to his success than just the bestseller lists.
 
When Matthew creates a novel, he’s not just writing for you, the reader; he’s creating a book he not only loves writing...but reading, too. And that’s a defining feature – as a writer, he writes what he most enjoys reading.
 
When I told a friend that I was interviewing Matthew Reilly, her shoulders slumped, her head flopped to one side and she let out a sigh. “Matthew Reilly!” she said, “Man, his books are exhausting...but in an awesome way!”
 
I relayed this to Matthew and it delighted him. “That’s what I want,” he said. “I want people to be exhausted. I want the action to overwhelm them.”  Modestly, he adds “That’s hopefully what makes a Matthew Reilly book. I want people to pick up one of my books and say, 'Great, I’m about to go on a rollercoaster!'"
 
Matthew has hit upon quite a discovery. If anyone can recall their mandatory reading at schools (you can?), well it’s not hard to understand the appeal of Reilly’s novels. “It’s [Reilly’s books] deliberately visual” he says. “I’m taking you into close-ups, I’m putting you into wide-shots.  I do that because the reader thinks in a movie language.”  And in addition to his sales to back up his writing philosophy is the premise that “People see so much more television and movies than they do books. Now, in some of my books, you see bullet time [ultra-slow motion as in The Matrix].”

Matthew’s rise to international author stardom didn’t come from studying long and hard about ‘how to be a good writer’. Alas, like many other brilliant writers, Matthew learned the craft of writing from his peers. Except in his case, his peers were in the movie industry. An avid movie buff, as evidenced by his website (www.matthewreilly.com), Matthew put into practice what he knew – action films. He doesn’t “pretend”, as he puts it, to be a master of descriptive, pretty or narrative text – he’s an honest writer who writes what he loves: action.
 
I wanted to know as an estimate how long it took him to write a novel. “The Five Greatest Warriors took me eight months to write the first draft. Then I spent five months revising it – going over and over it to make it as fast as possible, getting rid of any word that didn’t have to be there, any paragraph that didn’t have to be there. What took me twelve months of hard labour takes a reader a day to read! And that’s exactly what I want.”
 
What’s his greatest strength? “I feel like I’m the person reading the novel when I’m writing it.”  Matthew is in the very fortunate position of being exactly the type of reader that would read his books. The bonus of this mindset is that he knows what his readers want to read and he loves writing the adventure for them. “As a writer, you have to be true to yourself. You have to write what you love to read. If you love romance, write romance. If you love action, write action. But if you’re an action guy, maybe don’t go and try to write a Booker Prize winner...because people that read the book will spot you as a fake in a second.”
 
His confident attitude has been a rewarding one, especially in an industry which isn’t easy to crack. Maybe he owes his level head to his legal background, maybe not, but what is true is that Matthew is a writer who went far beyond what would normally be expected of an Australian author.
 
Speaking for myself (and maybe a few other writers here and there), reviews can sometime cut like rusty blades, but Matthew’s approach to them is more than just a little refreshing. His first experience was in his final year of high school. He wrote a creative piece which one teacher gave 10/10, another gave 5/10 so, for a third opinion, they gave it to another teacher who gave it 7/10. Naturally, he realised that reviews are somewhat of a subjective thing.  “When you’re starting out, a nasty review cuts. But once you’ve been around long enough, you develop a bit of an armour...you become quite objective about them. If anything, a bad review tells your fans, at least, that you have a new book out!”
 
Matthew keeps it in perspective.  As a writer; “You are sticking your neck out and there will be people out there that want to cut you down...a reviewer may genuinely not like your book, but he also may just not like your kind of book.”  So for new writers, he says, “If you do get your book published, make sure you’re mentally prepared for that public reviewing process. You have to lump it and say ‘Well, you get good ones, you get bad ones’.”

Having read Matthew’s latest book, Five Greatest Warriors, I’d say he can look forward to a few good ones.
 
Matthew Reilly’s new book, Five Greatest Warriors, is published by MacMillan and is available where all good books are sold.