Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead is a worldwide best seller and poised to be the next big young adult adaptation. Richelle spoke with Hypable about how the book series started and her writing process.

It all started in 2007 with the release of the first Vampire Academy book. At the time Twilight was sweeping the nation but Vampire Academy brought something new to the table. The lore for the story was nothing like the sparkly vampires of Twilight. In fact, there were two types of vampires in Mead’s world. “The idea for two races of Vampires comes from a scrap of a little Romania folklore I heard and I really I had little information but I liked the idea of having different kinds of vampires. I ran with that and built my own society and social structure around that.”

From that little piece of lore an entire world was built, populated by characters that jump off the page. As fans of the series know Mead is fearless in her writing. Shadow Kissed was definitely a shocking read.

Mead explains her reasoning for making those tough decisions. “It’s about moving forward the way I have to with a story. I knew when I sat down to write book one what terrible things were going to happen in book three. But I knew that those were needed to get to the end because I knew what Rose and Dimitri’s ultimate outcome would be in story six.

I kind of start with the big over reaching story and if something bad has to happen along the way that’s part of the way the story has to go. It’s a hard thing I know but to me it helps the characters earn their ending. I like books where I am surprised and I’ve the same reaction to books that my readers have. I’ve wanted to throw books but at the same time I’ve loved those books.”

When it comes to the actual writing process Mead says that she definitely outlines each book but for the series she has a general idea of what will happen. She outlines each chapter of a book as much as possible but surprises happen along the way, and for her those surprises make writing fun.

Richelle Mead has currently been doing double duty writing both the Gameboard of the Gods series and the Bloodlines series. So how does Mead keep up with her crazy schedule? “Usually my schedule is dictated by what my next contract is for. I typically finish a book, send it off and start on my next project until I get edits for the first one. For example this week I am finishing the sequel to Gameboard of the Gods and then next week I’ll start Bloodlines #5.”

“I trade off a lot,” she continues, “I am editing one and writing another. It always doesn’t line up. There are times where I am in this wonderful great rush of inspiration and then edits for the previous book arrive and those take priority. It all works if it is scheduled well and if I keep on top of my own time management. I have to treat writing very much like a job that I do from 8-5.”

Check back tomorrow for the second part of our interview with Richelle Mead where we discuss the adaption of Vampire Academy and her time on set. There is definitely some Dimitri/Danila talk you don’t want to miss!