Writing Belle: Indie Monday: New Adult Authors of XII: Genesis

Happy Indie Monday! This week you get to enjoy a joint guest post by New Adult co-authors Brian Palmer and Jason Rowe, the creators of an amazing post-apocalyptic adventure, XII: Genesis. Love New Adult? Love adventure?

Me, too.

Read on, my friends...

On how the vision for the XII Saga came to life:

Jason Rowe

Jason: I originally had the vision for XII about ten years ago. It started with images and scenes of a dark, dystopian future and a group of misfits who were called to battle the forces of evil.

I'm a proud Star Wars geek as it was the first film I ever saw in a theater back when it was originally released before the special editions and prequels. I've also been a Marvel comic book fan since that time. Take those passions and throw in more recent favorites like the Underworld series, Book of Eli, and Avatar and my original vision started turning into something much more epic.

I delayed writing it because I was working on other projects, and then when I was ready to hammer it out the TV series Heroes came out and it seemed like I needed to let that run its course before my story could go anywhere (I wasn't sure if it was going to be a screenplay, my forte, or a novel).

Not long after, I met Brian, shared the story concept with him, and we decided to make it a joint venture as a series for young adults.

I'm still protective of the voice and tone so I tend to inadvertently pull rank on Brian from time to time, but we've drawn closer to the middle in writing styles, and without his contributions and our creative brainstorms, XII wouldn't be what it is today, nor would we have the storyline for the series mapped out the way we do. Thoughts of the last book and knowing how this story will play out over eight books literally has had us in tears as we discussed it.

On how we made our unique writing process work:

Brian Palmer

Brian: Writing solo is a hard enough act to pull off, especially when you are first creating a story. There are often a number of forces which will try to distract you or keep you from pressing forward in this endeavor. Sometimes it’s life, sometimes it’s procrastination, or sometimes we’re just like that dog in the movie Up who loses all focus the moment he senses a squirrel is nearby. God only knows what the obstacles are for you, but here are three circumstances Jason and I had to navigate through before we could complete the first entry in our series.

There are two of us writing this series. We had to figure out what our dynamic was going to be like in order to make this project work. Every detail had to be run by the other person so we could stay on the same page. The hardest part of the writing process was figuring out the best way to write the story. Should we divide and conquer, with each of us writing about certain aspects of the novel and then come back to each other later on for edits? Should one of us take control of one chapter and then switch back and forth afterward? After a while we finally discovered that the only way this process would work is if we talked through every single detail and wrote it out at that moment so we could write, edit and brainstorm together. This leads into our second issue…

We don’t live nearby, let alone in the same state! When you are writing by yourself this can be easy to do if you are dedicated. But when you have to meet with another person who lives two states away from you and you both have day jobs and families, scheduling time to write together can be a nightmare. House visits or trips to Starbucks were out of the question for us, so how did we find time to write together? Skype. If you ever find yourself writing with a long-distance partner, this or some other form of online video chat might be the best way for you to go. Making a weekly Skype meeting schedule was essential to finishing this novel!

Jason was a screenwriter, while I was a novelist. This took a little getting used to! I’ve always been prone to writing flowery descriptions and finding a way to write scenes, dialogue, etc. in 500 words when about 50 would do. I have never done this to show off; it’s just always been the way I have written. Jason, on the other hand, is far more succinct in his writing style, very staccato with his cadence and the like. Rather than view this as a problem, however, because our voices and styles tended to be so different, we found ways to meet in the middle.