Written by Amanda Vetsch
The Young Adult Book Project authors recently completed a huge writing milestone, they submitted first drafts of each chapter! Each set of co-authors has been working on their chapter draft since the writers’ retreat in March, and submitted their drafts in early July.
Each chapter has a set of two authors writing on it, a young adult and a thought leader. The writing process is unique to each set of co-authors. Some have regularly occurring check-in calls, with independent writing time in the in-between. Some of them have shared writing prompts they both respond to, and then review similarities, differences, and what they want to hold on to. Some split up their outline and assigned parts to each author. All of them spend time in conversation figuring out how to weave their writing together, into one chapter.
Each writer has a process that’s unique to them. Some set aside consistent time in the morning to write about a specific thing, some let the ideas simmer while they drive, clean, or garden and capture them in a notes app to later add to and elaborate on them. Some start their writing time by reading. All of them work hard to communicate their experiences, thoughts, wonderings, and questions.
So far, the biggest challenge to writing a collaborative chapter seems to be finding time, time to write, time to meet, time to rest, time to celebrate. Other challenges include figuring out how to weave the different perspectives into one chapter and right-sizing the content. Does each author write from the first person point of view and just notate when they switch? Do they write as a collective “I” or “we”? How do they tackle a theme that’s so enormous and narrow it down enough to fit in a chapter?
Over the next month, Kristina and Amanda are reading, reviewing, offering feedback and conversation for each chapter’s co-authors. Help us celebrate this milestone by cheering on our authors!
Stay tuned for more blog posts soon about how the writing process has been going for our young adult authors!