Liane Moriarty Reveals The Secret To Writing A Best Selling Novel

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Wake Up with Robin and Kid.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Our next guest is the Australian author of nine, Yes,
nine international best selling novels, including Big Little Eyes, the
best selling book which was adapted into a series starring
Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I'd have each other's backs, right, just got yours.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
Then there's nine perfect Strangers.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I almost didn't come. I don't want to suffer. You're
already summary.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
And now she's released a new book titles Here One
Moment Today, Robin and Kit welcome author extraordinariy Leonne Moriarty.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
You can take your head it.

Speaker 5 (00:46):
It's such an honor to have you in the studio, Leone.
I know people must say that if they're book people,
it's like meeting sort of their hero.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
It's nice to meet book people, yes, because you can
tell the difference between the book people and the non
book people.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
So think, and you've been introduced to a lot of
non book people. I think now because the show is
because rather your books have turned into shows and series.
Now you're getting TV people and movie people that love exactly, Yes,
and can you tell the difference between them.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Everybody is very lovely.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
I bet you get new levels of excitement, though, they
bet when you know. So for you, like when you
when you write a best selling book, is that the highlight?
Or is it when it gets turned into a show?

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Is that? No, it's absolutely the book. So I never
want to think that the book is just a midway
point along the way to the series, because the series
that's all about all other people, so all their talents
or the talented actors and all that sort of thing.
But the book is just between me and the reader.
So yeah, so that's the best. And seeing somebody read

(01:52):
my book out in public, that's the most exciting thing ever.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
And I totally respect that. But when David Kelly, who
is someone who's done Ally mcbeel and some of the
biggest television shows, then what licenses your book to make
it into a series? When did you find out about that?

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, so I'm not just taking that as as if
it's nothing. Of course, it's a career highlight. So I guess. Well,
the first thing I heard was that Nicole Kidman wanted
to meet me, so I thought that that was all
that would come of it, because I'd had books optioned before,
so I can always remember saying to her, well, I

(02:32):
know not to get too excited about this because it
may or may not happen. And so many other authors
had said to me before, don't get excited until the
day they start shooting. And she said, no, no, if
we option it, get excited because we won't be optioning
it just for the sake of it. So yeah, of
course it's I mean it when I say that's the

(02:54):
most special thing was about between me and the reader.
But of course it was also a big thrill.

Speaker 5 (03:01):
It was interesting for me because I was very passionate
about Big Little Eyes as a book, like it was
one of my all time favorite books. And then when
I heard that it was being made into a series,
and I got super excited, and I organized a group
of friends and we sat down and we were going
to watch it, and I had to walk away really
early on. And the reason is is that I was
so invested in the australianness of it I could not

(03:25):
cope with it being set in America. I really, like,
I'm not kidding. It took me a couple of years
to go back and because I was so like imagining
for me in Sydney, or couldjie in an like I
can imagine the apartment block. I could see the characters
in there, and then I'm like, they're in America.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
I know. Well, I love that obviously, I love I
love hearing that. But I always say to people when
people say, I hope they don't change your book, I
always say, but nobody can change my book. Nobody can
change your experience of the book. And it's so interesting
to me because when you're saying, you're thinking of Kuldji,
whereas in my mind, I'm thinking somewhere slightly different because

(04:11):
of all our experiences, every single person who reads the
book has a slightly different experience of reading it. So
it's not like there's one.

Speaker 5 (04:19):
No, not exact in terms you don't care then well,
I mean, I would have loved it to have been
set in Australia, and I do have my first adaptation,
which was my second novel, The Last Anniversary.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
They've finished filming that and it's set in Australia with
an all Australian cast. But to be honest, I think
it actually allowed me to stand back a little bit,
to detach myself a little more, the fact that it
was set in America, and that maybe for my very
first book I would have wanted it to be exactly

(04:51):
the same, and I honestly don't believe that an adaptation
has to be one hundred percent faithful.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
What about the characters? Though happy with how Nicole Kidman was,
how Reese Witherspoon was, how Sorry Kravitz was, like their
big name actors taking on your characters, that you literally
gave birth to him.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
And that I think they all did a wonderful job.
But what have come to realize is that each of
them they take on things from their own lives and
their own so each of their interpretations. So I think
they're looking around at people they've observed in exactly the
way I've observed, and they create something It's quite separate,

(05:34):
but also just as wonderful.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
I'm always intrigued by the life of an author, like
are you the type of person that goes often to
to a lake house and sits down with a keyboard
and types of wayla you know what I mean? When
are you right?

Speaker 1 (05:48):
What do you get? I've always wanted a lake house.
I can see as soon as you said, I can
see that. So no, oh, Actually we'd go to Tasmania
a lot because my husband's Tasmanian. Okay, So I do
have a place looking at the water over there in
the y, which is which is beautiful. It's not a

(06:12):
lake house exactly. Yeah, I want to do that running
along the boardwalk.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
But actually you mentioned Hobart because the new book it
starts on a flight from Hobart exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Okay, So it's out of Hobart, and so it's an
ordinary flight out of Hobart to Sydney, which is a
flight I've taken many times myself, because I'm now an
honorary Tasmanian. And yes, a woman stands up and starts
pointing at each of the passengers and telling them how

(06:47):
and when they're going to die.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
And does she know that she has this ability before
the flight or is it just something she has a
turn on the flight? What happens too much.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
I tell you to much accept that that's what happened,
and that will all become clear.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
And then the people, then, I guess, have to deal
with knowing that when their expiry date is and how
they're going to deal with that.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Of course, they don't necessarily believe it. And so my
American publisher said, you need to make clear that everybody
gets on the plane gets off the plane, So it's
not about someone carking at midflight, that's right, or a
plane crash, because a lot of people do read the
book on a plane, and so I think most of

(07:39):
the characters get off the plane, and some of them
they keep thinking about it, but most of them just
put it out of their heads until the first prediction
comes true and then they start to get worried.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
So tell me how you came up with this idea.
What was it about? Was it about death? Was it
about mortality?

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yes, So I was on a flight myself exactly like that,
and I was thinking about my own mortality. And there
are a few reasons why I had my own mortality
on my mind. So a few things that happened in
the preceding years. So the first thing was my sister
was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then I lost my dad,

(08:22):
Then we had the pandemic, when I think all of
us were thinking about death, and then I myself was
diagnosed with breast cancer. So both my sister and I
were all good now. But yeah, I think all those
things combined, plus just the fact that I'm in my
fifties and I've i read somewhere recently that they call

(08:46):
it sniper's alley, this time from your late forties to.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Six That's not helpful, is it not.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's horrible were you're likely to get a diagnosis and
you're so you've sort of got a duck and weave
all those things. So yeah, So I was thinking about
my own mortality, and I was looking at the passengers
around me, and I was thinking, are you going to
be the person who makes it to one hundred and
dies peaceabuleneously? Are you going to be the person whose
life is unexpectedly cut short? And then I was thinking

(09:16):
about the fact that one day in the future, at
least one hundred years in the future, say that information
would be available, as in, somebody could look back, look
at all the names of the people on that flight
and know exactly how and when they die. And then
I thought, what if that information was available right now?

Speaker 5 (09:34):
Because and for me, it was very personal. And I
haven't finished the book, but you know, I've had been
married twice and both of my husbands have died, one
from suicide and one from cancer. So sorry, thank you,
but it's the amount of times that my family and
I have thought, what if we had known, particularly with suicide, right,

(09:56):
what would have changed so much? Would have changed? Like everything?

Speaker 1 (10:03):
And could you have changed? Yeah? Yeah, And I think
that every single time I see a photo of you know,
you see those photos of people who have been murdered
or whatever, and they've taken it at a party, and I think,
what if you had known as they were taking that
photo of this wonderful moment, Yes, this is the photo
that they'll use, but you try, and you would have

(10:27):
tried to dodge that destiny. You would have done whatever
you could to have stopped it.

Speaker 5 (10:31):
But then I also think, like with my second husband, Sean,
who died of cancer, because he knew, like and it's
really interesting with the terminal diagnosis, because you are told
that it will be imminent. Yes, it totally changed how
he lived his life in the most profound and positive way.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yes, and so yes, so you know, you know all
about this. But I think I thought when I was
writing this book that everybody would have a similar profound
realization if they were given this diagonal you know, this prediction.

(11:10):
But of course it's a bit different because number one
and maybe this happened too, that when you're given a
terminal diagnosis. You don't accept it immediately. The first thing
you do is try.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
To Oh, you've got bottles of vodka and KFC And
we went to theme park with all these kids because
it was like the devil may care?

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Who cares?

Speaker 5 (11:31):
Do it? Yeah? But it's so interesting now my mum
who's eighty nine, now eighty nine? That is, you know,
like your death is inn't it? She is not having
a bar of it, and yet all of us are
going to dive of old age?

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yes, but is that the best? So that's what's so
interesting to me. She's got the right. Yeah, And I
think some people right up until the very of old
age are still thinking, No, that's not happening to me.
That's true.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Would you want to know? Leones, someone could tell you
this is the day it's going to happen, and this
is why would you want to know?

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, that's why I go back and forth in my head.
But I think i'd have exactly the same. See. I
gave one character who has the prediction that they're going
to die in a workplace accident. But obviously if you
were given that prediction, the first thing you would do
is try and quit dodge work, or you change your job,

(12:25):
then you'd worry. Am I going to yes, exactly, So
I don't know. I know that. You know, sometimes you
read stories where a family members given a terminal diagnosis
and the family keeps a secret from them. I wouldn't
like that. No, I would want to know, and I'd
want to eat KFC.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
Exactly.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
But the other thing I really recommend you read this book,
and what I love about it is that because it's
a plane full of characters, you've made it possible for
everyone to find someone that they would identify with. So
whether it's the dad missing the daughter's concert, or it's
the guy that you have predicted is going to dive
a drug overdose like in his thirties, Like, it's just

(13:10):
at all points I'm reading them going, yeah, I can
imagine that.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
So I can't wait to get to the end. And
the Bergain inside of me says, this is going to
be a great movie. I want to read it too,
But you can just forget the books the movie.

Speaker 5 (13:27):
Make sure because you've executive produced Big Little Eyes or
you wanted to producers, if this book ever makes it,
it still has to come out of Hobi.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Out of hob But I know I think I agree.
It needs to come out of hope. Yeah, it's important
to the story.

Speaker 3 (13:44):
Yeah yeah, well, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Now my pleasure. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I was just thinking, as an Australian, you go through
your whole life being called leanne.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, but I bet your Americans would get it right
because that's the slightly different spelling.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Guy, it's legon or do they Yeah, they see and
they actually find it hard to pronounce to say. Australians
often put on a posh accent and say okay, Leon.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
It can't open. The Robin and Kid Podcast