How has the process of writing a novel together been?
First of all, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a lot of work too, as it’s not very common for a French and Norwegian author to put their minds and pens together.
It all started during the pandemic, when Johana was living in London and I was based in Oslo. We knew each other because we were published by the same publisher in the UK/US (Orenda Books). A French colleague had asked Johana to reach out to me about participating in a noir fiction short-story collection in France, with the proceeds going to charity. Johana very kindly offered to edit and polish my father’s initial French translation (he taught French at a high school in Norway). While we were talking on the phone about various aspects and choices in that story, we realised very quickly that we had a unique creative energy when we talked about our craft.
Ideas were sparking left, right and centre, every time we talked. At one point we thought: Why not see if we can write something together? After all, it was covid, and at the time we were both depressed out of our minds. This could become beacon of light, so to speak.
That’s when Johana told me about an idea for a character she’d been harbouring for a long time, a sort of memory and body-language expert. I loved the prospect of such a lead character, and once we gave her a name, we started plotting and doing research. In fact, we outlined the first three volumes of the Kari Voss series before even writing a single word of Son.
We needed to know where we wanted to go with Kari. Johana did most of the research and wrote the Kari chapters, while I more or less took care of the rest. Having said that, we were always sending chapters back and forth, each of us adding or deleting sentences or paragraphs, meaning that in some parts of the book we’re not even sure ourselves who wrote what. Maybe that’s why it comes across as one voice.
There were some challenges to all of this, of course, the both of us writing in our own language first, then translating it to English so we could understand each other. At first we meant for this to be published in Norway, as Kari is Norwegian, but it became impossible for the both of us to take part in the editing process. In the end we decided to see if we could do it in English. Thankfully, our lovely common English publisher asked: ‘Can I please publish this?’ And Orenda Books led on the edits, then rights were sold across the world!
In short? It’s been a blast.
You’re both used to writing with great success and acclaim individually – what were the biggest advantages and challenges of writing in collaboration, and, more specifically, in collaboration with each other?
When you start a collaboration, in just about anything in life, you never really know how it’s actually going to work out. You don’t know whether it’s going to be as much fun after one month or seven as it was in the beginning. You don’t how your everyday life will play into it, either, especially when you live in two different countries and you don’t even share the same mother tongue.
Johana has small children as well, while mine are grown up and out of the house. That means we live very different kinds of lives. Sometimes you’re dead tired. Sometimes you’re away for two weeks travelling. Sometimes you have to focus on solo projects. You need to be able to deal with all kinds of curve balls that life throws at you, while being on the same page, quite literally. You need to be able to handle criticism too.
Luckily for us, neither of us has big egos, and we both want the same thing, which is the best possible end product. And we share the same work ethic as well; we don’t mind the long hours or the sometimes endless rounds of rewriting. We know it’s part of the process and therefore completely necessary. We don’t care, either, about who had the idea for this or that or who clocked in the most hours.
In hindsight, the biggest challenge – without a doubt – was the language question in the initial stages. It took us a long time to realise how we needed to do this. Once that was determined, everything became so much easier.
One of the greatest assets of working together is the fact that we’re always two, whenever we write ourselves into a corner. There is a great chance that four eyes will see better than two, or that two brains will manage to come up with something smarter than just one. The creation of this universe is a good example of that; it was born from our imaginations colliding with each other.
A good friend and colleague of ours, Jørn Lier Horst, said it well: If you go into a forest and you stumble upon an abandoned house that looks really scary, chances are better that you’ll venture inside if you’re two. You probably won’t if you’re alone. It’s a bit the same with writing. As a pair, we can afford to be more daring in our thoughts and ideas. Perhaps the initial idea isn’t perfect, but it might spark another one that will lead us in a direction neither of us would have thought of on our own.
Another huge advantage for us is the fact that we come from two different cultures. That means we will inevitably have different perspectives on various issues, which lays the foundation for a fruitful discussion. But, the biggest plus? It might just be achieving something together, like we have with Kari, who’s going to be published in over forty countries (and counting). It’s so much more fun to celebrate success with someone than on your own, isn’t it?
Did you agree on the storyline, themes and where you wanted the novel to go? And if you disagreed in the writing process, what did you do?
A: There are always discussions about ideas and if this way or that way is the right one going forward. But, touch wood, we’ve never argued, not once. That’s, in part, due to the fact that we have so much respect for each other, and each other’s opinion. If either of us has a bad feeling about something, chances are there’s a problem with that scene. We know each other so well now after working on Son that we can tell from each other’s voices whether we’re convinced about something or not.
With Son, we established what Johana refers to as a ‘skeleton’ of the book, a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline of the plot, before starting to write. After that we wrote chronologically, not moving onto the next until we were satisfied.
The book is the first novel in the new series about Kari Voss, who’s a psychologist and expert on body language and memory, who therefore can detect lies – how do these abilities affect the dynamics of the story? And what inspired you to choose her characteristics and way of approaching investigations?
A: The initial idea was really to explore the theme of body language, but as Johana delved into her research, she came across the work of Dr Elizabeth Loftus, who is an expert on memory, often used as an expert witness in trials in America. It was really fascinating to dive into her science on how fallible our memory is. Our memories change every time we recall them, as if we alter the reality of the past just by thinking about it. It’s both fascinating, disturbing and ideal for storytelling: How can we determine what is true if our own memory is lying to us?
And, of course, adding that science to a person who’s more or less or real-time human lie-detector, and voila – you have a great crime-fiction character. We were really sure about that.
From the onset, we were adamant that we didn’t want Kari to be a superwoman with superpowers. Yes, she had to be brilliant, of course, but we also wanted her to have flaws, like we all do. On the one hand, we wanted readers to like her, admire her, and to want to be like her to a certain extent as well, but also to identify with her on a human and personal level, in her fallibility. What we also thought would be very interesting was to give Kari a condition where her own body and brain shut down under extreme pressure and stress, causing her to lose consciousness and memory. It’s as if her own body is mocking her.
What do you hope to explore further in the series in the future?
Oh, plenty of fun things. We couldn’t be more excited to continue the Kari Voss series. As mentioned, we have planned for three books to begin with. Let’s see where she takes us after that. Next, though, REMEMBER will be out in Spring 2027, and wait till you see what happens next…
Thomas Enger is co-author of SON, written with Johana Gustawsson, and published by Orenda Books.
