‘What If It’s Us’ authors on film adaptations and queer baiting

CEBU, Philippines — Recently joining the ranks of characters getting the movie adaptation treatment are Ben Alejo and Arthur Seuss, whose love story just might be the next explosive rom-com of this generation. Optioned for film, production company Anonymous Content (“13 Reasons Why,” “The Revenant” and “The OA”) and Brian Yorkey now have rights to the best-selling book “What If It’s Us,” featuring Ben and Arthur. 

Borne by the friendship of writers Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli –  who were in Cebu for a National Book Store book signing event – “What If It’s Us,”  about Ben and Arthur’s meet-cute at a post-office, and how after being separated and eventually finding each other, make things work despite the circumstances. But even with their show-stopping romance, the two can’t quite work out if the universe is pushing them together or pulling them apart.

“What If It’s Us” is quickly flying off shelves and into the hands of the next eager reader. Perhaps, like in the book, the universe had conspired for now-best friends Adam and Becky – who shared the same agent and ended up reading very early versions of each other’s works in 2013 – to meet. It wouldn’t be until four years later that they’d finally put together “What If It’s Us.”

Prior to their book signing at Hall 2 of SM City Cebu’s Cebu Trade Hall last Saturday, Adam (“They Both Die At The End,” “More Happy Than Not”) and Becky (“Simon vs. The Homosapiens Agenda,” “The Upside of Unrequited”) sat down with The Freeman to share how they went about tag teaming for the young adult read, how fanfiction writing helped them become their own writers, their thoughts on queer baiting, and advice to aspiring writers. They also spilled some details on how Ben and Arthur came to be before they’re fashioned to be become big screen characters.

How did you guys come up with “What If It’s Us”?

Becky: It goes all the way from the beginning of our friendship. We had the same literary agent who sold our debut novels within the same week. We ended up reading very early versions of each other’s books, and we were obsessed. It kind of reached the stage of the friendship where we were oversharing and talking about dates we went on years ago. I told a story about a guy I ran into at a coffee shop. We made eye contact and I didn’t talk to him. So I looked him up online and it was kind of a missed connection.

Adam: I got so excited about this, even like with the premise of what if you meet someone and you get separated and wanting to reconnect with them. I pitched it to Becky, like what if we did it a YA novel. In the story they actually do find each other and the complications that arise after they do... Becky was immediately on board. We spent the next three years figuring out the story while keeping busy with our solo books.

How was it working with each other on the same book?

Adam: Unbelievably fun. We had each other to turn to when we were struggling with the hard days of writing. We love these boys so much that being able to bring their story to life was so much fun.

How did you fashion your characters?

Becky: In a lot of ways, they were inspired by us. I put in a lot of myself in Arthur and Adam put a lot of himself in Ben. Ben’s best friend, Dylan, is very closely inspired by our friend David Arnold. His wife’s in there too.

How did you go about writing the book without overlapping each other’s voices?

Adam: We had our respective chapters. Becky was responsible for writing Arthur, and I was responsible for Ben. We got to learn how to write each other’s characters. It wasn’t so much as we were stepping on each other’s toes as it was we were just sort of like developing an ear on how to best write each character. It felt intimidating at first but coming from a background of fanfiction writing, it kind of improved a muscle on how to access each other’s character’s voices for our respective chapters.

Is voice something you develop like a skill? Or is it an innate, inimitable quality unique to every writer?

Becky: I certainly can’t speak for anybody. For me, I think I started developing that skill, writing and understanding how to manipulate voice... I found my background in fanfiction writing very helpful. At the beginning you try to sound like a certain author, you have characters you already know and they already exist. It’s more of like a goal to move towards to. Over time, I was finally able to translate that skill to an original character. It is a challenge. It’s a challenge to create a voice out of thin air. There’s trial and error involved.

Adam: Sometimes the voice really does present itself to you. Writing Ben, it was harder to click with him. At that point I had written four different queer boys, all who have taken a lot from me, a lot of details were based on me. Ben was the fifth queer boy I was writing. How does this voice stand out from the previous voices? So reading the dialogue in the Arthur chapters, that helped me sharpen him a bit.

What fandoms did you write fanfiction for?

Adam: “Harry Potter.”  And TV shows like “Charmed” and “Supernatural.”

Becky: “Harry Potter” and mostly animé shows like “Sailor Moon” and “Ranma ½.”

Were there times that you did the writing on the fly and working with what the other did to their respective chapters? Or did you have a framework?

Adam: We had an outline, which was pretty much the result of discussing for three years before we got to sit down and write it. We had different scenes and moments that we wanted to play out. We came up with a little bit of a map... Things evolved and things vanished in the middle of writing the actual book. And we were never keeping each other in the dark on what was going to happen. It was collaborative on every level.

Is editing easier with two authors working on the same thing?

Becky: I found it to be... Editorial, in terms with the amount of editing, I found it to be the same since we were still going back and forth with our editors. It was helpful for me, when we get the notes, to immediately have somebody to kind of interpret and bounce the notes with back and forth. It’s a really nice way to absorb the notes.

Adam: It’s funny because there was one edit note that was so Arthur-heavy and Becky had to do a ton of Arthur work. And times where the editors would leave notes on each page for the entire manuscript and they were all for Ben’s parts. I was like, I am such a failure. When you think about it, it’s easy because you just edit half the book. We were responsible for our respective chapters. There was never a time when I did heavy Arthur work and Becky never went in and did major Ben reshaping.

Becky: We’re always here for each other to help guide the other to the best direction, along with the help of our editors who tag-teamed.

Having done well as individual writers, what were your expectations of “What If It’s Us” when it comes to reception?

Adam: We’ve seen a lot of overlap between our readers over the years. It’s one of those things when we’re like: Are we actually getting more readers? Or are we just going to have the same? And it’s really cool. We have readers who have only come to read my books, and readers who have only come to read only Becky’s books. And readers who have never read any of our books, and those are the some of the coolest ones.

Becky: And these people [who never read our books before] are so sweet. They apologize and we’re like, no! That’s totally badass! We’re glad you’re here! Ideally, that’s what happens.

Adam: As for the reception itself, readers have come with their own expectation of what the book is going to be, with respect to our individual collaborative energy.

What were the most memorable reactions?

Becky: It’s an early reaction. People wanted to purchase the Danish publishing rights for the book. And the editing team, Christian and Kaya—they read the exact same manuscript, same ending, same words and had completely different reactions.

Adam: Kaya was like, “Oh I love these boys so much, their love story is so great. I’m so happy this morning having stayed up to read it.” But Christian was like “I am a puddle. I am a mess. I’ve cried so much, I was talking about it to the staff and it had me crying all over again.” And we were like, did you guys read the same book? Every reader brings their own experiences. Christian saw something Kaya didn’t and Kaya saw something Christian didn’t. And I think that’s wonderful. That’s the beauty of reading. Books are not intended, you can read the same book and have different takeaways.

With two minds at work, how did you decide on an ending?

Adam: We’re very proud of the ending. It took us four different endings to get there. It feels very special, and very true. It would have been so easy for us to find what I think, can be sort of a mid-ground. Or go towards a more Adam ending, or a more Becky ending. But we didn’t. We didn’t try to stick to our signatures, if you will. This is different for the both of us and the book is absolutely stronger for it.

How did you feel when “What If It’s Us” was optioned for film?

Becky: We’re psyched. We’re surprised for this to happen very early. And with film stuff, things happen behind the scenes and you can’t announce it for forever. When it was announced, we were very surprised. And with Anonymous Content and Brian Yorkey... I remember, Adam and I. I was at a parking lot and I told him to check his email. I was coming out of a coffee shop and he was waiting until I came out. It’s very exciting, very unexpected.

Adam: Obviously a lot of things have to fall in place before it can actually happen. But this is a big first step. And with Brian Yorkey and his current status and this passion for the story—it feels like good factors.

What’s going on so far and how involved are you going to be? Any actors you have in mind?

Becky: Nothing yet, it’s so early.

Adam: We’re going to be producers. We have a few ideas but we’re not casting directors. What we like might actually be ineffective.

What is your stand on book to film adaptations? Are you one of those “the book is better than the film” types?

Adam: Of course there are some examples where the book is better than the film and vice versa. And we’re the authors of the book, that’s what we control. If we wanted to make a movie, that’s what we would have been doing. But there will be opinions and they are welcome.

Becky: There are people who come to me and are like “OMG. I love ‘Love, Simon’! It’s even better than the book!’ And I’m like, can you go ahead and tell anybody except me? I’m literally the last person you should say that to. I mean it’s my favorite movie too, I get it but I wrote the book. I’ve always been the kind of reader and film viewer where I can completely differentiate each other. And if you don’t like the movie, the book exists. If you don’t like the book, maybe a movie exists…

Where do you take inspiration for your work?

Adam: In general? For the solo stuff, it’s normally sparked from the fears that I have. Like “They Both Die At The End” was my fear of dying young and unexpectedly, “History Is All You Left Me” was me being afraid of losing someone I love without making things right. Also, growing up gay in the Bronx with a fear of coming out. Writing through that fear improves my world views and gives guidance.

Becky: I tend to write books that my teen self would want to read.

With works containing cultural and gender representations, what are your thoughts on queer baiting?

Adam: Queer baiting in general is shitty. But I think it’s hard to answer without knowing the situation. Because maybe a character has taken a few seasons to come out because that’s life. You don’t come out at Season One Episode 2, maybe it’s Season 3 for a reason. But it gets disappointing. Like “Supernatural”—it’s a show that I love and critique as well. It’s disappointing when they put homo-erotic tension between characters because that’s what the fandom wants. It’s disappointing to queer viewers if that’s as gay as the show is going to get. When they dangle this in front of you but not actually give you a character you can root for… that’s disappointing. I’d rather you just have an absence of queer presence at all. For me, nothing is more disappointing than “Cursed Child.” That was so clearly set up to feel like an Albus-Scorpius ship. But in the end of the book, they’re 14 years old. Maybe they find each other after Hogwarts, and things click into place. But that felt baitey to me. It’s very disappointing, feeling like we’re going to have an out gay character in “Harry Potter.” I was ready to cry thinking that that was going to be the result but it didn’t happen. And with a ship that was not properly introduced…On other levels, on the narrative side, I would support especially if I understood the situation better.

Becky: I couldn’t have put it in a better way than Adam did. I think it’s something you have to be mindful of as a creator. You have to be aware of what expectations you’re putting out and the promises you’re making in the early chapters, and if you’re actually delivering that promise, and understanding your readers.

How about books and movies about being queer being defined by the sensual aspects instead of the story itself?

Adam: I feel like that’s valid. Sometimes, the impression with coming up with a queer story is that it has to be about coming out. Actually, I love seeing sex-positive things on queer stories because the reputation is that queer people are sexual deviants. And to see and explore new ones, it’s welcome. They’re a helpful course to correct some images. I love when it’s about love. I love when it’s about sex. I love when it’s about coming out. I love it when it’s about anything that happens to be queer, and engaging in different forms. I think any of these examples are valid.

How do you overcome writer’s block?

Becky: I haven’t found yet a solution that works every time. But I find it helpful when I fall back in love with the story. I’m the one making Pinterest boards and playlists and just trying to reconnect emotionally with the material. A lot of the times when I am blocked, it’s because I’ve lost the emotional connection to it.

Adam: I have a different notebook for each book. It’s about taking a step away from the laptop and sort of like writing down what I hope to accomplish, plus scenes that I struggle with, and listing ideas that could but don’t have to be in the book just to get the mind sort of wheeling a bit. Also, read a book, play video games—these are different ways of engaging a story that doesn’t necessarily have an active story-telling. Have fun, I play video games, go for a walk…

Advice to aspiring writers?

Becky: Practice writing fanfiction and working on that voice thing.

Adam: Writing is always trial and error. You have to figure out what’s best for you. You can listen to all of the YouTube videos of writers talking about writing, and podcasts, but remember that what works for them might not work for you. Figure out what works for you.