Tell us the story behind the story. How did THE BOYS NEXT DOOR come to be?
I’ve been a Beatles fan for so long, I feel like I’ve been researching this book for my whole life.
Oddly enough, it wasn’t their music that first got me interested in the Beatles. I was only a toddler when they first came to America, and I was aware of them as I grew up, but I wasn’t into pop music. My parents were big classical fans, and the music I heard in our house growing up was mostly classical, occasionally show tunes.
One day in junior high, a friend gave me a book about the Beatles (they had broken up by then), a slim paperback that basically told their story from beginning to end. And I was fascinated. They were such interesting characters. So smart and funny. I wasn’t aware of just how innovative they had been, or how hard they had worked, and how famous and influential they became. And they were just so cool! It was a great story, and I was hooked.
Then, of course, I started listening to the music. I don’t remember which album I listened to first, but I remember the thrill of hearing each of the albums for the first time, and the incredible way their music evolved, getting better, and wildly different, with every new record.
All of which, naturally, made me want to read even more about them! Which I did. And that, I think, is the endless Beatles Loop that so many of us live in. The more we know about them, the more we want to hear the music, and vice-versa. Beatles music and the Beatles story live side by side.
In the end, though, what made me want to write this book is that I wanted to spend some time with the Beatles. As a writer in Hollywood, there are actors you’d love to write for – you think how great such-and-such actor would be in this role, and how funny they’d be saying this line. And I thought, I would love to write a really good part for John and Paul and George and Ringo. I enjoyed every minute with them.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing THE BOYS NEXT DOOR?
I’ve spent most of my life writing drama (plays, screenplays, etc.) which are, of course, mostly dialog. And not just dialog, but lean, spare dialog, using as few words as possible. I remember thinking, how can I possibly fill up 300 pages with descriptions and observations, and paragraphs that go on and on and on? What helped me, I think, was having a character (the main character, Alan) who is based very much on a younger version of myself. It’s much easier, I think, to talk at length about something, or respond at length to a situation, if you’re able to do it in your own voice, speaking honestly.
I worked with a wonderful editor in New York, Sarah Rutledge, who would constantly give me the note, “but what is he feeling here?” My tendency – again, as a dramatist – is to say, this happened, then this happened, then this happened. And she was telling me to slow down, and think about the emotions that lie beneath the actions. Because that’s where the meat of your book will be.
It was also challenging to get the historical part of it absolutely right. Because there’s been so much history written about the Beatles, and so many Superfans who know it chapter and verse, I knew I had to be careful. Make one little factual error and they will descend on you like a swarm of hornets! (I should know; I’ve been one of the hornets.)
What is the message you want readers to take away from your book?
What the Beatles did for me – and I think they’ve done this for a lot of people – was teach me how to be an artist. Not in some pretentious way of “living an artistic life,” but in a very concrete, specific way: how do you make a song? How do you make a painting? How do you do 26 different takes of a song, and only then does it become “Strawberry Fields Forever”?
And that’s really the story of my book. Alan dreams of being a poet, but he doesn’t know how. He’s very young and very naïve about it. But he meets these guys, his own age, who really don’t think that much about being artists because they’re too busy being artists. That’s their job. They make music for 6 to 8 hours every single night and sure enough, they get pretty good at it. The Beatles are learning to be artists, right in front of Alan’s eyes. (I‘ve also come to believe, from my research, that the Beatles in 1960 were also learning about art from Stuart Sutcliffe, the “Fifth Beatle” who died tragically young, and was himself a remarkably gifted painter – and whom John Lennon idolized. But that’s in the book, too.)
So I would hope that readers would be inspired by the Beatles in the same way that I was. Not only can you make art, but you can also have a lot of fun – and look very cool – while you’re doing it.
Describe your background. Did your background play a part in your book?
Yes — I tell people that, even though the book is ostensibly about the Beatles, it’s very much about me, college-aged. Like Alan, I was very pretentious. Like Alan, I was uncomfortable around women, even though I thought about them 24 hours a day. (I don’t think I would have done nearly as well in the fleshpots of Hamburg as Alan ends up doing, but hey, what’s the use of writing about your own life if you can’t improve it a little?)
Like Alan, I was profoundly affected by the Beatles.
Describe your writing schedule. Do you outline? Any habits?
I take a lot of notes before I start. I throw a lot of ideas on the page to see what sticks, and what starts to grow. Edward Albee, who I studied playwriting with, called it “getting pregnant with a play.” At a certain point it gets so large and active in your own head that you can’t help but start writing it.
I like to know maybe the first half of the story before I start writing, and discover the second half as I’m going. I used to make very elaborate outlines, from start to finish, but I never once was able to stick with it. Something better always came up.
What books are on your nightstand? What are you currently reading?
I just finished Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. I’m reading Citizen Vince by Jess Walter (I loved his “Beautiful Ruins.”) Recently read Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, and a biography of Mike Nichols.
Which authors do you admire?
The authors I first fell in love with were Flannery O’Connor and Philip Roth. Two authors with absolutely nothing in common except they both made me laugh. I’ve read a lot of T.C. Boyle and Nick Hornby, for the same reason. And Maria Semple. But I also love the pure wordsmiths. I re-read “The Great Gatsby” every so often, just to enjoy the beautiful sentences. I’d put Truman Capote in that category, too.
What have you learned from this experience?
I’ve taken a lot of classes in writing and worked with a lot of great writers, and everything I’ve learned from every one of them was helpful in writing this book. Writing a novel was new territory for me (this was my first) so it was enormously useful, when I got lost or started to doubt myself, to have some technique to guide the way. I think that’s what a good writing education can get you. Maybe you can’t teach someone to be a great writer, but when you’re flailing away in the ocean and in danger of going under (it happens to all of us) it’s good to have a few things in the water to hold onto.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self?
When I was studying theater, I had to take a class in stage lighting, which was a total snooze, but I’ll never forget one thing the teacher said. “Never solve a lighting problem by adding more lights.”
What are you working on now?
Another fanciful history set in the 1960’s, this one revolving around the landing of Apollo 11.
Dan, tell us that story about the real-life Astrid Kirchherr!
Okay, sure.
ASTRID AND ME
Astrid Kirchherr, the brilliant German photographer who took those iconic early photos of the Beatles, as you may know, recently passed away. In my book, she’s one of the main characters, and the love interest of the character who’s based, a little bit, on me. By all accounts, she was a beautiful, charismatic person, and, in the course of writing the book, I fell in love with her a little bit myself.
I wanted very much to get her blessing on the project, and also get permission to use one of her photographs. She was hard to track down. I got in touch with her “people,” who said they would arrange an introduction. I didn’t hear anything for months, and finally, after I found an address for her online, I wrote a long, heartfelt letter (to the main character in my novel!) expressing my admiration and thanks for everything she’d done.
The letter was scheduled to arrive in Germany on a Thursday. She died on Wednesday.
I was heartbroken. In the days that followed, however, I got in touch with the man who bought the rights, ten years ago, to all of Astrid’s photos. He told me some great stories about the lady, and said that my book was exactly the sort of project that she would have loved. He gave me permission to use the photos. And I ended up dedicating the book to the memory of Astrid Kirchherr.
About the Author
Dan Greenberger is a Los Angeles-based writer for television and film. He is a three-time Writers Guild Award winner for his TV work, and his short films have played at festivals across the country. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia University’s School of the Arts.
His favorite Beatles song is She Said She Said.
