Collaborating, Revising, and Hacking: An Interview with E. C. Myers

What’s your writing background?
I’ve been writing fiction for about fifteen years. I started out writing science fiction and fantasy short stories, but I didn’t sell any of my work until after I attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop in 2005, which helped me level up my skills. Since then I’ve published a bunch of stories in various print and online magazines and anthologies. I started writing young adult fiction in 2007, and my first YA novel, Fair Coin, was published by Pyr Books in 2012. It won the Andre Norton Award for Best Science Fiction or Fantasy novel, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) that year. When I’m not writing stories or novels, my day job is also writing, currently freelancing and as a full-time technical writer for a nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania.
How did Adaptive find you?
When Adaptive was beginning to develop their first scripts into novels, they were looking for YA authors who were a good fit for their projects. A friend of mine, fellow YA author Tiffany Schmidt (Break Me Like a Promise, Send Me a Sign), connected me with Marshall Lewy. He liked Fair Coin, and I liked their spark page for The Silence of Six, so Adaptive offered me the opportunity to audition for it. And then they picked me to write it!
How long did it take you to write the manuscript?
Not counting the many months of planning and outlining with Adaptive ahead of time, I wrote the first draft of the book in three months. Looking back, I’m not sure how I managed that, but the outline definitely helped because I had a clear roadmap! We revised the manuscript over the next few months, so all told it was probably six or seven months to the book in its near final draft, as it appears in print.
Books published by Adaptive will ultimately be turned into TV series or movies; how did that affect the way you approached the project?
We were always looking for ways to keep the story active, to get Max and his friends away from their keyboards and out in the world chasing down clues while being chased by bad guys. It was a tricky balance, because novels have different requirements from films, which is where the “adapting” process comes in and often compromises much of the source material. But it helped me to think about how the pages might be translated to the screen one day, and strive to make the plot and character development more dramatic rather than introspective—showing, not telling. Which is generally better writing anyway. Add in the extra challenge of representing hacking in an authentic, realistic way, which traditionally Hollywood has not been terribly successful at. The Adaptive team and my editors were great at reminding me throughout the process to make the story more visual whenever I could and keep the pace fast, and then leaving me to find creative ways to make that happen while still telling a story that works in prose for YA readers. I love TV and movies almost as much as I love books, so I’m really looking forward to seeing The Silence of Six in its next incarnation, whatever that may be.
What was the revision process like?
A week or so after I turned in a draft, the development team at Adaptive sent me an editorial letter and a manuscript marked up with comments. This included feedback from my editor and multiple people at Adaptive, as well as early readers on occasion, which let me know what was working and what needed to be tweaked or rewritten. After I reviewed and digested these detailed notes, I dried my tears and hopped on the phone with everyone for a quick chat and some brainstorming—and then I was off to make the book better. I had a month to turn around the next draft, which was largely fueled by coffee. Wash, rinse, repeat until we all agreed it was in good shape. As the editorial letters for subsequent drafts came in at fewer pages, I knew we were on the right track.
Did you communicate with the original screenplay writer at all?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have that opportunity. In fact, I never read the original screenplay, which was probably a good thing because I felt freer to do my own thing with the premise. I would love to meet or talk with him sometime though! (Unless, would that be awkward? I would probably make it awkward.) Stephen Hauser wrote the original script, and he also wrote the movie Sphere, so I’m sure he knows how challenging it is to adapt a story from one medium to another. He came up with a tremendous hook, and I’m honored I was able to help keep the project alive.
How did you choose your pen name?
When I first started writing, about fifteen years ago, I did a vanity search for “Eugene Myers” and “science fiction”—and stumbled across something called The American Book of the Dead, purportedly a future history of America. Whoa, what? I thought it was written by another Eugene Myers, but it turns out that was the name of the protagonist; even so, I didn’t want people to confuse me with another, very different project, so I decided to use my initials and publish fiction under E.C. This was also well before Disney’s Tangled hit the scene, so I didn’t think the name “Eugene” sounded cool enough, and I rather like that readers can pick up my work without any preconceptions about the author’s gender.
How did writing for Adaptive differ from working on your other novels or projects?
In some ways, it was pretty typical of other books I’ve worked on, though at a much faster pace. If you aren’t writing under contract, you have all the time you need to make a book “perfect,” but our timeline was very tight. The outline was a huge part of this process, which was new to me. I’ve outlined books before, grudgingly, but never in as much detail as The Silence of Six needed. The complexity of the plot demanded it, and the story still changed a lot from that first outline to the fourth draft of the manuscript. The level of collaboration also took some getting used to. I have a terrific writing group that helps me revise my work, and I had co-written a short story with a friend before (“Lost in Natalie,” with Mercurio D. Rivera), but typically I’m used to being in control of what goes on the page. That was still the case to a large degree for The Silence of Six, but I had to balance my vision with everyone else’s and be open to any idea that would make the book as strong as it could be. It was a terrific learning experience that has made me a better writer and collaborator, which has served me well on other projects since.
If you had to write a logline for your life thus far, how would it go?
A young, aspiring writer from New York tries to beat the odds and get published, while accumulating debt and rejections. Six weeks at an intensive writing workshop help turn things around, and soon people start paying him for his work. He might just make it after all—as long as he never stops writing.
Read more about Adaptive Studios here.