The Leigh Ann Kopans Interview: Brackets, Outlines, X-Men, & More!

Debut YA author Leigh Ann Kopans is pretty damn awesome, as you might have guessed if you follow her on Twitter, keep up with her blog, or read my review of her upcoming YA novel, the superhero-themed sci-fi romance ONE. This week she stopped by to answer some questions about ONE, which releases on June 11 (go add it on Goodreads if you haven’t already!). Here we chat about pleasantly nerdy things like how she drafts so dang fast, why brackets are sparkly magical writing tools, and what song would play over the closing credits of ONE: THE MOVIE.

(Note: I didn’t ask Leigh Ann questions about indie author-dom, just because she’s written so extensively about her path to publication on her own blog. If you’re interested in indie publishing, she’s got some must-read Publishing 101 posts on cover art, finances, requesting reviews, and more.)

 

Thanks for stopping by, Leigh Ann! Let’s talk about ONE first. You pull off a really impressive juggling act in this book—the central romance is compelling, but so are the action/sci-fi elements that are woven throughout and take center stage in the last third of the book. How heavily did you plan out that balance ahead of time? Did you make a detailed plan, or did you just let the story evolve?

Ohhhh my gosh. Well, ONE is really the last book I drafted completely without an outline, just one hundred percent by the seat of my pants. That means that the “impressive juggling act” you talk about (thank you!) was actually preceded by a bunch of splatted tomatoes at my feet. ONE went through two big revisions and a thorough beat-sheeting examination before it ever queried.

(Now I’ve learned my lesson and always draft with an outline. Less exciting, but less dangerous, too.)

Ooh, that’s interesting. Now I’m SO CURIOUS about your earlier drafts of ONE; I’m a total process nerd and I love seeing how stories develop and change.

So as I mentioned in my review, one of my favorite things about ONE is the healthy (but still exciting) romance between Merrin and Elias, who are true equals and really challenge and respect each other. Did you write their love story specifically as a response to other YA romances that maybe aren’t quite so positive? Or did Merrin & Elias just tell you what kind of relationship they wanted to have?

Oh, that question makes me smile. No, I didn’t write it as a response to anything, even though I think responses to unhealthy YA romances are certainly in order.

The short answer to this question is that I’m a character-driven drafter, which means that almost all my stories begin with an image of a character and build plot and other story elements around them. Merrin was the first character speaking to me, and the one thing people know about Merrin as soon as they meet her is that she doesn’t put up with any crap. If Elias had done anything jerky early on, she would have kicked him to the curb, which would have totally ruined the story.

Yeah, I think Elias senses her curb-kicking tendencies and respects that about Merrin, which makes them a perfect team.

Okay, I gotta ask: When did your fascination with superheroes start? Who’s your favorite superhero—and, since I love the baddies, your favorite supervillain?

I grew up watching the X-Men on Saturday mornings. I loved them so much that I asked my Dad to record them, and I’d watch them all week long. The character I remember latching onto back then was Rogue – she was SO powerful and yet SO conflicted. The emotional and existential challenges that defined her as a character totally captivated me, and I think you can see my childhood love for that kind of story reflected in the plot of ONE.

My two favorites, though, are Jean Grey (from the X-Men) and Jan VanDyne aka “the Wasp” (from the Avengers.) Merrin and Elias have their last names, as a little love note to Marvel from me.

Magneto is hands-down my favorite supervillain, because after that performance by Fassy in X-Men: First Class, how could it not be? But I do have an intense love for Samuel Fisk from the Daredevil series, too, which I’m sure my readers can guess. 😉

Fully support the Magneto love. I will admit to huge gaps in my Daredevil knowledge, but your Fisk character in ONE is pretty awesome, too.

Speaking of series: Did you always know ONE was going to be a series, or did you reach the end and realize there were many more chapters left in the Merrin/Elias story?

I think I always knew there was a possibility for a series. I certainly hope there are more chapters left in their story – they’re only 16 and 17! LOL.

Yeah, I can’t wait to see where things go with them in the sequel. I’m guessing they don’t open a superhero charm school and have an uneventful life together. (Though I’m hoping for a happy ending. Please?)

Let’s talk technique a little. When you’re ready to start a new book, where do you tend to begin: with a concept, or with characters? Or does it vary from story to story?

Oh darn, I accidentally answered that above! It’s always, always character. In fact, dialogue between characters is almost always the first thing I write on a book, and I often write entire scenes around a single sentence of dialogue running through my head.

Even on the two retellings I’ve written, the reincarnations of the characters have to grab me enough to convince me they’re worth being the star of a retelling!

You’re one of the fastest drafters I’ve ever met. I know a lot of writers (me included) struggle with fast-drafting, because you have to let go and silence your internal editor. What are your secrets? Do you have daily word count goals? Any mental scripts you use to keep yourself on track?

I’m afraid this isn’t a very sunshiny answer – I just hate hate HATE drafting, and want it to be over with. I don’t mind revising, editing, any of the rest of it – but that initial freefall of not having all the words to a story actually IN EXISTENCE freaks me out? I guess? I turn into a volatile fire-breathing dragon during drafting, so I try to get it done as quickly as possible.

But yes, you’re right – the technique is this: Write a semi-detailed chapter-by-chapter outline, then GO.  Trust your outline for the most part, and your instincts a little bit. Don’t pause to research small facts – anything you don’t know, put in brackets, like this:

“The problem with radioactivity is that it [does this horrible thing to your body,]” said [woman’s name.] She sighed and flipped her [color] hair behind her shoulder.

The brackets make it easy to go back through and find the missing information later, so that you don’t let that get in the way of the flow of words.

Also, I think about it this way: I can pull off a 5k day with any focus and a couple dedicated hours. If I do that for 15 writing days, I have a first draft. Easy peasy.

My biggest minute-to-minute motivation is having friends check in on me. I’ll tell someone I want to have 2k words by a certain time, and if I know she’ll be holding me accountable, it’s a big push.

Those are great tips (and OMG YOU’RE A BRACKETS GIRL TOO. I do the same thing—and you’re right, it’s a magic trick for maintaining momentum).

I love to ask other authors this: How do you keep your characters fresh and vivid in your mind as you write? Do you use style boards, playlists, photos, dossiers?

Photos and playlists, yes. Those are actually the first two things I do for a story before I begin writing, is find character photos and playlists. I’m frozen without them. Not to mention that it’s a big motivation to start working on a new story, because those are some of the most exciting parts.

(And a quick pro tip – for photos of realistic looking teens for your YA characters, stalk the blogs of Senior photographers. A treasure trove of real eighteen-year-olds from which to model characters.)

Writing characters who are sympathetic but realistically flawed is always a big challenge. Do you ever imagine reader reactions while drafting a tough scene where your characters act out a little—like, “if he does X right now, he might lose the reader’s sympathy”? Or do you just keep a tight focus on the characters and what choices they’d make in the moment?

Honestly, I focus on the characters and their story. I trust my critique partners to tell me when a character is unlikable. In ONE, it was a pretty intense challenge to mold Merrin into a likable character – Merrin 1.0 was a serious bitch. In fact, I’m sure lots of people will still have some issues with her.

As a mom of one, I find it craaaaaazy hard to balance career/parenthood/ writing life. So I have to ask: HOW DO YOU DO IT with four kids? When do you get your writing done, and can you share any time management tricks with fellow working parents?

I’m very, very, very, very, very tired. Very tired. Like, I fantasize about sleep.

Part of the challenge is that my four kids are all under six years old, and so they’re intensely needy – they can’t do laundry or dishes or lawn-mowing just yet. They’re also early risers – usually up by 5:30.

The solution is that I wake up even earlier. My alarm goes off at 4:00 AM, which is when I write. Sometimes I can grab an hour at lunch time or a few hours on the weekend. And when I’m in intense drafting mode, which I talked about above, my house is a disaster. Seriously, it’s disgusting.

Also, I cook maybe like twice a week. The rest of the week is boiled pasta and veggies or veggie nuggets.

 

(I will never, ever complain again when my alarm goes off at 7:30.)

Okay, before we wrap up—a few super-random questions, just for fun:

 

What’s the last book Merrin read?

GRACELING by Kristin Cashore. It’s an old classic, and she can identify with Katsa like whoa.

 

What song would play over the closing credits of ONE: THE MOVIE?

“Wake Up” by Arcade Fire. Because, seriously. Tear my heart out.

 

If you were a superhero, what would your costume look like?

What makes you think I’m not already wearing my costume?

 

(You guys, she totally is. It’s made of old manuscript drafts and steely threads of determination.)

 

Props to Leigh Ann for taking a break from an actual whirlwind of promo to answer these questions. If you love a little sci-fi in your contemporary YA, go add ONE on Goodreads and pick it up when it comes out on June 11!