Konrath, J.A. - DRACULAS (A Novel of Terror)

In which Paul, Jeff, Blake and Joe interview each other about the process and experience of writing DRACULAS…

BLAKE:Joe, the idea for this book started with you. Where did you get the concept for DRACULAS and how did you go about assembling collaborators?

JOE:While browsing bestselling Kindle titles I was surprised by how many were classic novels in the public domain. One that leapt out at me was Stoker’s DRACULA, and how many incarnations have been done of that particular character. The recent trend is turning vampires into teen heartthrobs and romantic leads. I don’t find that nearly as interesting as a horrible creature that needs human blood to survive.

I didn’t want Bela Lugosi in a black cape, or anything sexy. I wanted something ugly and horrifying. So I postulated that the original DRACULA was based on a real historical event—a human mutation that was contagious and could cause outbreaks.

So I called up Blake, because we bounce a lot of ideas off each other, and I knew this was potentially a fun one. I didn’t have time to do this on my own—too many other deadlines—but I knew how this could work. I’d written three other Jack Kilborn books (AFRAID, TRAPPED, and ENDURANCE) which all operated using the same formula: There is an overpowering evil, and several different characters fight to survive during an eight hour period. No chapter breaks, just point-of-view changes.

This structure could be done, simply, with more than one writer. All we needed were three or four motivated individuals, each whom would follow a few characters, and we could have an ensemble piece.

If I recall, Blake was up for it, and we brainstormed other writers who might be interested. I’d worked with F. Paul Wilson before on a previous story (A SOUND OF BLUNDER in the collection BLOOD LITE) and pitched it to him, hoping he’d be available and interested. Then I contacted Jeff Strand, whom I’d worked with on SUCKERS and CUB SCOUT GORE FEAST, but he wouldn’t commit to it because he was too busy with other projects.

Then I told him FPW was in, and Jeff signed up immediately.

BLAKE:Although we each have pretty unique and varying writing styles, we did our best to seamlessly interweave all the individual sections so the sum of the parts would feel like a cohesive book. Readers may have hunches about who wrote which characters, but should we go ahead and take our pants down and tell everyone who wrote what?

I’ll start. I wrote the pregnant couple, Adam and Stacie Murray, some of Moorecook, Shanna, and all of Oasis. Because Joe and I kind of jumpstarted this thing, I also wrote some of the other characters leading up to all hell breaking loose in the emergency room, and also the opening chapter.

JOE:Yeah, Blake and I came up with the setting, the premise, and the dracula rules and mythos. Then we wrote the first few thousand words, setting it all up, after asking Paul and Jeff what kind of characters they were interested in writing.

After that, I took Jenny as a main character, and then popped into various baddies, including Lanz and Moorecook and Benny.

JEFF:I wrote the point-of-view scenes with Randall the lumberjack (which notably does NOT include the scene where he gets a boner) and the point-of-view scenes with Benny the Clown.

PAUL:I gravitated immediately to the “gun-nut cop.” I have a bunch of participants in the repairmanjack.com forum who are into guns— really into guns—and I’ve learned a lot from them. They’re not nuts — they’re enthusiasts and aficionados. Some are gunsmiths. If you’ve ever held a fine firearm, you might understand and appreciate where these folks are coming from. I came up with the name Clayton Theel and he began to write himself.

BLAKE:Let’s talk about how we actually wrote this book.

JOE:It was actually pretty easy. We used a program called DROPBOX which allowed everyone to read each others’ sections instantly. The structure was a snap to fit together.

This thing was so simple to write, it’s almost laughable. I don’t think we had a single disagreement on anything. Everyone was a total professional, turning in great scenes that needed minimal editing.

It was also a lot of fun. There aren’t too many balls-to-the-wall monster books being done anymore, so this was a welcome change of pace.

JEFF:Well…there were some disagreements! But never anything heated, and none that weren’t resolved quickly, and none that ever involved anybody saying “Dude, you’re writing crap! Crap!!!”

JOE:I disagree that there were disagreements. Also, you’re writing crap.

JEFF:I forgive you. See how quickly that was resolved?

PAUL:If only all novels were this easy to write. I was fascinated to watch a dynamic of one-upsmanship develop. He’s going that far? Hmmm…I could push it a little further. That’s how some of the over-the-top scenes developed. For instance, Blake nudged me with the kangaroo mother on the OB floor (you’ll know who I mean when you get there) and a situation where Adam was about to be chomped on by Oasis, the little-girl dracula. He’d left it up to me to save him. I couldn’t resist ratcheting it up a notch.

BLAKE:Did you guys approach the writing of DRACULAS any differently from the writing of your solo work? For me, because of how fast and spontaneous we wrote, I found that very liberating and would say I didn’t approach the writing with such an anal, meticulous eye. I wrote faster, and I don’t normally write so fast, so that was interesting to push myself in a way I don’t normally.

JOE:I finished my scenes first. My secret was picking the character with the least amount to do, then sending constant emails telling you guys to expand your story arcs.

But seriously, this was one of the quickest, easiest projects I’ve ever worked on. It came together fast, and was never complicated, difficult, or a chore. I enjoyed writing it, and reading what you guys did as you turned stuff in. It was also ridiculously simple to put all the sections together.

JEFF:I didn’t approach the actual writing style any differently than I would in a solo novel, because we all had our own point-of-view characters, so I didn’t have to worry about making it sound like something that Joe Konrath/Blake Crouch/F. Paul Wilson would have written. I only had to keep a consistent narrative voice for my characters.

Obviously, there are differences in the process in a collaborative work simply because it’s considered unprofessional to scream “No! We’re gonna do it my way! My way! My way! Mine! Mine! Mine!” And there were things that I wouldn’t have done if I’d had 100% control that ended up working out really well.

JOE:The funny thing is, though, it is extremely difficult for the reader to figure out who wrote what section. The book is pretty seamless. The characters each are unique, but all of our writing wound up being very similar in execution. I don’t spot any particular moments where our fans could say, “Oh, FPW must have written that” or “That’s 100% Blake Crouch.” Each of our parts really contributed to a solid whole.

PAUL:I never let people read my first-drafts, but I felt at home with you guys so I just dumped my pages into Dropbox as they were done. (I went back and tweaked them later.) The idea was to maintain momentum and let everyone else see where you were taking things. We had no outline, just worked from a vague timeline. Mostly we wrote in sequence, but I jumped ahead a couple of times because a scene would pop fully formed into my head. We seemed to develop a sort of hive mind along the way where we kind of knew what everyone else was doing. The only time we needed an outline (and it wasn’t much) was the roof scene when all the characters were interacting.