Cohn and Levithan Team
Write Entirely by E-Mail

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
(Knopf)
ISBN 0375835318
Buy this book
via Amazon.com.

He’s the editor of Scholastic’s PUSH imprint, and author of the award-winning Boy Meets Boy (Knopf, 2003), Are We There Yet? (Knopf, 2005), and The Realm Of Possibility (Knopf, 2004).

Together, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have crafted Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Knopf), an edgy she-said/he-said YA account of two high school seniors’ most unusual first date. As they prowl New York City’s nightlife ‘til sunrise, accidental couple Nick and Norah swap barbs, pop music references, hopes, and vulnerabilities in a witty, compelling read.

Gritty and authentic, and told in alternating chapters – Cohn writing Norah, Levithan writing Nick – Infinite Playlist marks the pair’s first collaboration. The authors enjoyed working together so much, a second collaborative title is on the way.

AUTHORLINK: How did this book come about? What brought you two together, and why write a book together?

COHN: David and I had known each other for a couple years, we would go out to lunch or a movie on occasion, and it happened that at one lunch I proposed an idea I had for a book: Alternating male/female narrators named Nick and Norah, two straight-edge, bridge-and tunnel kids who'd meet at a club in Manhattan one night. David could write Nick, I'd write Norah, and we'd just see what happens in the night. No rules other than sticking with the characters through the night, and each of us would pick up the story where the other left off, no deadlines. That was it as a game plan. I didn't necessarily think we'd actually write the book; I was just tossing out an idea. David followed it up a couple months later by e-mailing me an AMAZING first Nick chapter that was so enticing I couldn't NOT respond right away as Norah. The book took off from there, written entirely by e-mail, and really, I think, written foremost for our own pleasure and entertainment.

AUTHORLINK: How much prep work did you do? Did you have the plot all worked out, everything outlined, before you got typing? Or did it grow on its own?

COHN: The entire book was written by e-mail exchange over the course of about two months – almost like the book wrote itself on its own momentum. David and I were living on opposite coasts at the time, and we really had very little discussion about the story or the plot. In fact, I think that's what allowed the book to be written as fast as it was – once it got started, David and I sort of tacitly agreed not to discuss it, and just write it. It was especially gratifying and cool because we'd send chapters to one another having no idea whatsoever what the other writer would do next with the story and characters. I was constantly challenged and surprised trying to answer David's chapters.

But it did sometimes feel like one of those strange and rare scenarios where we as writers stepped aside and let the characters do the talking. The story grew on its own, without any prep work, though David and I do share a big love for music which certainly propelled Nick and Norah's characters. I think he and I both remember and understand what it's like to want to translate that music love within the context of your relationships, whether friendship or romance, so having that in common as authors (though I don't know that David and I really understood this about each other until we started writing this book) probably helped lend Nick & Norah that kind of energy and background.

LEVITHAN: It was really all about the spontaneity. Also, the fact that we didn’t have any editor or publisher attached made it really just between us. We each told one person about what we were doing, but that was it.

AUTHORLINK: What was the actual writing process? Rachel writes a chapter, then passes the file to David, who adds a chapter and passes the whole thing back to Rachel, and so on? Did you discuss it as it was progressing?

COHN: Yes, we'd write a chapter, e-mail it to the other, and just kept adding on to the same document.

LEVITHAN: Most of the chapters were written very, very quickly – sometimes in one long sitting. We didn’t even really go back and revise – we just kept pushing forward. I always knew Rachel was waiting for me to ricochet back to her, and vice versa. We didn’t talk to each other about it; like just about everything else, we were on the same wavelength about how to get things done.

AUTHORLINK: The teen voices are dead-on. How'd you guys nail it? Research? Recall? Eavesdropping? Espionage?

COHN: For myself, I get asked this often, and my answer is: I have no idea. I just go by instinct and try not to think too much about how I write a teen voice, for fear of screwing it up.

LEVITHAN: Yup. You just get in the head of the character and find the voice. Where do the words come from? Even Nick reflects on this, and his answer’s the same as mine: Who knows?

AUTHORLINK: Had either of you collaborated on a book before? What's great about collaboration? What's a challenge? Did you edit each other's work?

COHN: I hadn't collaborated on this type of project before, so it was huge fun for me, though I'm sure that had very much to do with my choice of writing partner; the chemistry was just right, and felt so from the very first exchange of chapters. David, of course, is a terrific editor as well as author, so he was already experienced with collaborating. For me, what's great about collaborating is also what's challenging – the surprise. I always send my chapters to him thinking he'll send a certain type of response that I've imagined I set up – and he never does. Sometimes that surprise inspires some passionate writing from me, and sometimes it truly stumps me as to how to respond. But we luckily had and have a good instinctual trust with each other about where the other writer takes our characters, and I think that helps the process a lot. We've just completed a second book. It's called Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List, and we've again alternated chapters, but this time writing from several characters' points-of-view.

LEVITHAN: I once tried to write something with a guy I was dating. That was a BAD idea. The trust wasn’t there. But with Rachel it was, as she says, pretty damn easy. What she says is true: as an editor, I am very much used to working with other authors. Just not to this degree.

AUTHORLINK: Now, about that language. I gotta say, I don't remember thinking or speaking so many F-bombs as a high school senior. Of course, that was 20-some years ago. Do kids really talk like that? Did it give any editors/librarians/Barnes and Nobles/etc. pause?

LEVITHAN: Chris Crutcher has a great line – you have to speak to kids in their native language. And, really, that is how I thought in high school, and how some kids think now. Do they say them all? No. But the word is a very specific word and has a very specific use. And, c’mon – I refuse to worry about “F-bombs.” Real bombs are much scarier.

AUTHORLINK: So speaking of editors, how did this wind up at Knopf? David, why not PUSH or Scholastic?

LEVITHAN: Ha! You want to discredit yourself as both an editor and a writer at the same exact time? Try publishing your own book!

AUTHORLINK: Will there be a sequel?

LEVITHAN: There’s nothing in the works. And while I love the characters immensely, I also love where Rachel and I ended it.