Lee Goldberg's literary credits are way too numerous to list, but you can check out his Wikipedia page
here. He's an author, screenwriter and producer of over a hundred books, TV shows and/or movies. And that figure may be low. One of his many accomplishments is writing a popular series of novels based on the TV show Monk, which he also wrote for.
I found him to be very engaging and extremely thoughtful with his answers. Thanks, Lee, for spending a few moments to play 5 questions with me.
- Tell us the difference between writing for a TV show and writing a novel.
They are entirely different experiences.
Television is very much a group effort and what you are writing is a blueprint
that lots of other people are going to use as the basis for their creative
work, whether it’s the actor, the director, the production designer. And when
you write a script it’s not locked in stone. It’s going to change. It’s going
to change because everybody has notes. It’s going to change because production
concerns force rewrites. It’s going to change because of actors and directors.
It’s in fluid motion all the time.
A book is entirely my own and unaffected by
production concerns or actors. I’m the actors, the director, the production
designer… it’s entirely mine. It’s not a blueprint. It is the finished product
and it won’t change much once I am done with it. It’s not a group effort
-- I plot it myself and I write it by myself. It’s entirely in my head and I
live it for months.
Creatively speaking, there’s a big difference
between writing prose and writing a script. In a book, you are seducing the
reader. You are bringing them into your imagination and holding them there for
as long as they’re reading the book. You construct everything. You construct
the sets, the wardrobe, the world. You’re God. You can even read a character’s
thoughts. In a script, everything that happens and everything the characters do
has to be revealed through action and dialogue.
In a script, you could introduce a scene like
this:
INT– RESTAURANT– DAY
It’s a cheap Chinese restaurant with very few
customers. There’s an aquarium with live lobsters, fish, etc. in the window.
Monk is disgusted by what he sees...
But in a book, you have to describe the
restaurant in detail. You have to tell us everything that’s going on. You have
to set the scene for the reader. It’s an entirely different skill. That’s why
some novelists are terrible screen writers and why some screen writers can’t
write a book. They can’t jump back and forth.
The only thing that TV and books have in common
is that both are mediums for sharing stories...in books, you tell stories, in
TV you show them. That simple distinction is a difficult one for many writers
to overcome when moving into one field from the other.
2- You've written such a variety of
genres, do some of your readers get frustrated when they follow your work and
read outside their realm of familiarity?
Not that I am aware of.
3- Update your publishing status right
now. Do you have traditional publishing
deals and publish as an Indie as well? And do you approach the act of writing
differently depending on the route you take?
No, I take exactly the same approach
regardless of who is publishing my books. I simply write the best book that I
can. I don’t worry about who is going to publish it – whether it will by me,
one of Amazon’s imprints, or one of the Big Six. I’ve had great success
self-publishing my out-of-print backlist, selling over 100,000 copies in the
last two years, and just released a new novella, “Fast Track.” My crime novel
“King City,” the first in a new series, was published last May by Amazon’s
Thomas & Mercer imprint, and my on-going, bi-monthly “Dead Man” series is
published by Amazon’s 47North imprint (in fact, my novel “The Dead Man #1: Face
of Evil” was 47North’s very first title!).
William Rabkin and I co-created the “Dead Man” series and recruit
novelists we know, or love to read, to write the books. Our authors include
Christa Faust, Joel Goldman, “Star Trek” writer/producer Lisa Klink, Bill
Crider, Aric Davis, Mel Odom, Anthony Neil Smith, and Emmy-award winning
writer-producer Phoef Sutton (“Cheers,” “Boston Legal,” etc.) We’re up to 18
“Dead Man” books so far with more
coming. I’m also very much in bed with so-called traditional publishing. “Fox
and O’Hare,” the new series I am co-writing with Janet Evanovich, premieres
June 18th with the publication of “The Heist” from Random House. And, of
course, my 15 “Monk” novels remain in print with Penguin/Putnam. I think it’s a
big mistake for writers to limit themselves by being strictly “indie” or “big
six.” I’m a writer first-and-foremost. I have written for big publishers and
little publishers, movie studios and small production companies, major
television networks and cable channels. Ultimately, for me it just comes down to telling great
stories, regardless of the medium or the distribution channel.
4-One of your latest projects is a short
film titled, "Bumsicle," which has been invited to quite a few film
festivals and has actually been nominated for awards. It's extremely difficult to get into some of
these prominent festivals. Tell us about
the film and your involvement?
“Bumsicle” is based on a short-story of
mine that was published some years back Michael Bracken’s anthology “Fedora III.”
It’s about a small-town detective investigating the death of a homeless woman
who froze in a park. It’s a sequel of sorts to “Remaindered,” a short film I
wrote & directed for Riverpark Center in Owensboro, Kentucky as part of their
International Mystery Writers Festival. They approached me about making a short
film as a teaching exercise for film students in several of their local
colleges and universities. Riverpark and the schools would pay for everything,
the only catch was that I had to use all local talent in front of, and behind,
the camera and treat the set as a classroom. I jumped at the opportunity.
Shooting “Remaindered” was a fantastic experience and the short film ended up
screening in festivals all across the country. We had so much success with “Remaindered”
that Riverpark asked me to do it again, which is how “Bumsicle” came about.
What’s great is that the city and people of Owensboro really get behind the
films, donating their time, energy and resources. Making the movies was great
fun. The fact that we are getting some acclaim and attention for them is an
added delight. I hope we’ll do another
one before the year is over.
5- You're scheduled to write a series of
books with Janet Evanovich. How did that
come about, and how will you two work together?
One chapter per person, or will it be more integrated?
Janet and I have been good friends for
many years. In fact, we’re both surprised that it didn’t occur to us long ago
to write a book together! We have a very similar sense of humor. Once we came up
with an idea for the book, things moved very fast. Random House snapped it up
and we wrote the “The Heist,” in less than six months (it helps when there are
two of you at the keyboard!). We are now deep into writing book #2. We plot
together, trade drafts back and forth as we’re writing, and talk frequently
throughout the process. We also get together at her place in Florida.
