Holly Black & Cassandra Clare Talk The Iron Trial with Parade

"Every scene w[as] written by both of us. We don’t trade off chapters or character point-of-view." A fascinating conversation with #TheIronTrialauthors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare about collaborating on the series! This_Is_Teen shared a great interview Parade had with Holly & Cassie. 

What was your writing process on this project?
Holly: One of us would write 300 to 500 words, then pass it to the other person, who’d write over those words, then write another 300 to 500 words and pass it back. And honestly, that worked out really well, because we’d just write until we got stuck. The idea was that every scene would be written by both of us. We don’t trade off chapters or character point-of-view. And my mom was really unnerved because she couldn’t tell the difference. She’s a big Cassie fan! I mean, she likes me fine, but she loves Cassie.

So which came first—the world or the characters?
Cassie: We were on tour together and we were at an airport, and Holly had this idea a long time ago: wouldn’t be it be awesome to do a chosen hero narrative, but with a twist. And I thought the twist was a really interesting point. I told her it would be a great story. And at this airport, I was reading a Rick O’Riordan book, and I commented on how I loved middle grade, but didn’t have a great middle grade voice. And Holly was like, “I have a great middle grade voice.” And I was like, “Thanks for that, but…” And we started about this idea, and she immediately knew what I meant. And we started talking about it, and by the time we got the plane, we had the whole character of Callum nailed down, along with his backstory, and the world, almost all the stuff that would happen in the five books.

Holly: We wanted to collaborate on something for a long time, but every time we had an idea, it fizzled. And this was something that, the more we talked about, the more it worked: “And this will happen, then this will happen, then this will happen!”

Cassie: Middle grade was fun for me. I was a bit worried about dumbing things down, but then I quickly realized that’s not what you’re doing in middle grade at all. It’s complex, it’s fun, it’s life-changing. One of the great things I learned about middle grade is that friendships take the place of the romance—that’s where the intensity happens! Family and friends. So we were able to do these complicated and beautiful friendship movements.

Holly: One of my favorite things in books is watching someone make the mistake. You know it’s going to happen. You keep thinking: “Don’t do it!” But of course they’re going to do it. It’s riveting. You learn through them that it’s okay. It’s the ecstatic fall, where you watch someone make that terrible decision and there’s such pleasure in it.

Cassie: It’s the story generator. It’s like, “Oh no, Katniss, don’t volunteer!” But what’s the book if she doesn’t?

Read the entire interview here.