Heide: Hello friend, this newsletter comes to you from somewhere quite unusual.

Iain: Yes, we’re both currently on Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.

Heide: Or at least a bit of land where Hadrian’s Wall used to be. We won’t be on the proper bits of the wall for another day or so as we move West to East.

Iain: That’s right. We’re on holiday!

Heide: Now, not all co-writers go on holiday together. This is actually quite unusual.

Iain: Yes, I’m sure some of our readers think co-writers are like Morecombe and Wise, working together and then sitting in bed together and breakfasting together. But, no, that’s not the case.

Heide: Except this week, we and our long-suffering other halves are on Hadrian’s Wall, having a brief break before the madness of our November writing plans.

Iain: Yes, you see, we are very much unlike Emperor Hadrian —

Heide: I’ve often thought that.

Iain: Hadrian invaded Britain and then built his wall to effectively declare “No more! I will not go any further into that territory!”

Heide: Whereas we *do* plan to invade Scotland?

Iain: Not that, no. We are going to try some co-writing more deeperer and more involved than any we’ve tried before.

Heide: Oh, yes! Next week, we start our Extreme Writing plan. 

Iain: This basically means that we are going to write literally together. We are going to watch each other write, comment on each other’s writing as it emerges and then, for funsies, swap at fixed intervals.

Heide: We are going to bang out —

Iain: Craft, Heide.

Heide: Oh, yes. We are going to craft the opening chapters of a new book series. There will be three books in total but we want to establish the tone, so we’re going to do these intense sessions together.

Iain: Our methodology is borrowed from “extreme” or “paired” programming. You even got your son, Angus, to explain it to me.

Heide: I think it’s a good methodology that we can make use of. We even discussed it further while on one of our research trips.

Iain: We’re wrapping our heads round the idea. It’s going to be interesting.

Heide: I’m quite thrilled to be trying something that’s such a departure for us. You know how we both crave variety in our work.

Iain: Variety, yes. The good sort. Will this be the good sort?

Heide: I think so. We should be well and truly inside the mind of our new protagonist, Nicole by the time we’re done with Extreme Writing Week.

Iain: Do we think that’s a good idea? She’s quite an extreme character, isn’t she?

Heide: Yes. I hope she’s going to be really relatable, though.

Iain: What? Even the bit where she goes off on a murderous rampage?

Heide: Especially that bit!