Becky: A lot of our ideas are generated not so much from plotting a novel as from our own conversations during time spent together. Things that make us laugh when we're together very often become part of our novels.
For example, a passing comment about "those paintings in the 1970s of big-eyed children" became part of HE'S THE ONE. Or some of our bad retail stories--we've all done our time in retail--became material for SOMEONE LIKE YOU. We do make a very loose outline, but we don't get scared if any of us deviates from it. We trust each other.
Jim: Subsequent to the first novel, we would usually have some discussion about our narrator, and where the story was going to go. The first book easily took on a life of its own, since we didn't start it with the idea of publishing it, but knowing the following projects would likely be published gave us a different focus.
Timmy: If we are working on a novel that continues the lives of characters from a previous book, we like to get an overall sense of where we want to see those characters end up. We also take current events into consideration; what has changed in the world can definitely impact the direction the lives of our characters take. I think this is satisfying for readers, because it gives them a point of reference and will help the reader empathize with a character.
Timothy: I don't know how much planning we do beforehand, but we definitely do a lot of talking. We'll talk a lot about our narrator and try to come to a common ground about his personality, what he looks like, his birthday, his family, his job, where he lives, what his apartment looks like, what he wears, and on and on. A lot of these details won't make it into the book, but it helps us write the same character consistently throughout the book. From there the conversation naturally moves into discussions about conflict, secondary characters, settings, and eventually a plot is formed. Maybe we'll write a few chapters, and then maybe we'll work on an outline. But, generally, what seems like a random discussion can turn into a new book. I think SOMEONE LIKE YOU started when Becky and I were stuck in traffic one day. We passed a mall—or maybe we were driving home from the mall--and she idly said, "I read an article the other day about people who spend nearly their entire lives in a mall."
Becky: If we have a rough outline, or at least some chapter ideas, we pick things we want to write. Sometimes we pass them back and forth. Timothy L and I have the most time to write, as writing is our full-time career, so probably we do a larger percentage of the writing, and we definitely do most of the editing during the process. Once there's a full draft, all the writers read the entire manuscript and make edits.
Timmy: Certainly this changes from novel to novel. While we do divvy up the work from the beginning, our personal lives often dictate who does what and how much. Each of us also brings a unique talent to the group, and that talent will also demand that certain scenes or situations in a novel be completed by a different writer.
Timothy: People always assume we each pick a character and write only that character throughout the book, but that's impossible. The main characters are in almost every chapter and we'd go nuts handing the book back and forth between us after every descriptive sentence about them, or every line of dialog. Usually, we look at the outline, which has a short description of what happens in each chapter, and we'll pick what we're interested in writing at that moment.
