Aida
asked
Ais:
Hi Ais! Thank you so much for writing such an amazing series (ICOS). I wonder how did you manage to actually make an emotional wreck out of me with your writings? reading was exhausting! I enjoyed it immensely. how can you manage to write with a co author? is it difficult? are Boyd and Sin, Emilio and Zach created by both of you? or did you each pick a character and write about them? you are amazing thank you!
Ais
Hi! I'm so sorry, I meant to reply to this earlier and completely forgot I hadn't! ahaha sorry about making you an emotional wreck! At least you could enjoy the roller coaster ride :) As for co-writing, we talked more about it here if you're interested in a longer answer: https://aisness.wordpress.com/2013/11...
It isn't difficult if you write with someone who's on your wavelength and who is a friend :) Actually, I think it's really helpful because you can keep each other in check on following deadlines, etc. On the other hand, it does cause delays in being able to write if schedules don't align or if ever there's a massive disagreement on plot or something else. So I could see how co-writing could be prohibitive in a lot of situations, but I think if you get the right person to co-write with it can be a very good thing :)
We write the characters we created (with very few exceptions, one being Lou who was originally Sonny's character but then I took over when he became so important in Boyd's past). There are a few characters we can technically share if needed for a scene (like, if I'm writing a chapter and one of his side characters appears I could just write that side character into the chapter without him having to write it if we both feel comfortable with that) but generally we don't share the characters. We created our own characters and then told the other person what the character was and how they would fit into the plot and then we went from there.
Actually, if you took a list of all the characters who are mentioned at all or have any sort of appearance in the series, I'm not sure if it would fall 50%. I think Sonny has more characters overall than I do, especially in the beginning -- that ended up being mostly for practicality. We wanted to write it in a way where most of the chapters had both of us writing someone in it so that it kept the story interesting, kept the burden off of one of us above the others, and so that we had something interesting to look forward to in the writing of it.
But the thing is, Boyd is the main POV for the majority of the series, and especially in the first book. And Boyd is my character, and because his story was one that had to be so carefully done as a journey across the series to show his growth as a person and an agent and because I like looking at the psychology of characters so I really had to get into his mind throughout and because I like to write things in a way that is emotionally raw, Boyd was an exhausting character to write. To really be fair to his story, I felt like I needed to devote a lot of my energy and attention into him. So that meant that, for both my own mental preservation and for practicality in writing the scenes, most of the characters that had a lot of speaking parts were Sonny's. So for example, of the ones you mentioned (Hsin, Emilio, Zach) they're all Sonny's. Because it also made sense; after all, all of them have connections with each others in the past. Most of the time, if we were going to have family members or important people from the past involved, then the person who created the main character they were connected to also created the other characters. That meant that I also, then, created all the characters related to Boyd, Boyd's past, Boyd's family, and the thing that comes up in Fade that I won't mention now for spoilers but all of those people I also created.
But when we knew we were creating a group of people at once who would be main characters or even side characters, we agreed to split the number down the middle. It was always more of a "you create 3 and I'll create 3" kind of thing rather than either of us giving any sort of directive at all to the other about who or what will be created.
And then sometimes one of us would say to the other, "I think ___ is going to do ____ and that will affect the plot ___" and the other writer would say, "Ok, cool," and we would together figure out a way to work that into the plot, and see if that addition would affect our own characters in the process or if it would stay mostly confined to the other person's characters.
Did I make that more confusing than anything? I hope not ^^;
It isn't difficult if you write with someone who's on your wavelength and who is a friend :) Actually, I think it's really helpful because you can keep each other in check on following deadlines, etc. On the other hand, it does cause delays in being able to write if schedules don't align or if ever there's a massive disagreement on plot or something else. So I could see how co-writing could be prohibitive in a lot of situations, but I think if you get the right person to co-write with it can be a very good thing :)
We write the characters we created (with very few exceptions, one being Lou who was originally Sonny's character but then I took over when he became so important in Boyd's past). There are a few characters we can technically share if needed for a scene (like, if I'm writing a chapter and one of his side characters appears I could just write that side character into the chapter without him having to write it if we both feel comfortable with that) but generally we don't share the characters. We created our own characters and then told the other person what the character was and how they would fit into the plot and then we went from there.
Actually, if you took a list of all the characters who are mentioned at all or have any sort of appearance in the series, I'm not sure if it would fall 50%. I think Sonny has more characters overall than I do, especially in the beginning -- that ended up being mostly for practicality. We wanted to write it in a way where most of the chapters had both of us writing someone in it so that it kept the story interesting, kept the burden off of one of us above the others, and so that we had something interesting to look forward to in the writing of it.
But the thing is, Boyd is the main POV for the majority of the series, and especially in the first book. And Boyd is my character, and because his story was one that had to be so carefully done as a journey across the series to show his growth as a person and an agent and because I like looking at the psychology of characters so I really had to get into his mind throughout and because I like to write things in a way that is emotionally raw, Boyd was an exhausting character to write. To really be fair to his story, I felt like I needed to devote a lot of my energy and attention into him. So that meant that, for both my own mental preservation and for practicality in writing the scenes, most of the characters that had a lot of speaking parts were Sonny's. So for example, of the ones you mentioned (Hsin, Emilio, Zach) they're all Sonny's. Because it also made sense; after all, all of them have connections with each others in the past. Most of the time, if we were going to have family members or important people from the past involved, then the person who created the main character they were connected to also created the other characters. That meant that I also, then, created all the characters related to Boyd, Boyd's past, Boyd's family, and the thing that comes up in Fade that I won't mention now for spoilers but all of those people I also created.
But when we knew we were creating a group of people at once who would be main characters or even side characters, we agreed to split the number down the middle. It was always more of a "you create 3 and I'll create 3" kind of thing rather than either of us giving any sort of directive at all to the other about who or what will be created.
And then sometimes one of us would say to the other, "I think ___ is going to do ____ and that will affect the plot ___" and the other writer would say, "Ok, cool," and we would together figure out a way to work that into the plot, and see if that addition would affect our own characters in the process or if it would stay mostly confined to the other person's characters.
Did I make that more confusing than anything? I hope not ^^;
More Answered Questions
Marie
asked
Ais:
Hello ! I'm new to the fandom (just finished ICoS!!) And I am sorry if you got this question before. did you ever considered stopping or taking a step back from writing ICoS because it might have taken too much of your time ? especially if it was a free work ? Thank you for boh of your work ! It was an amazing journey
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