Who came up with the concept of the New Jedi Order?

Did LFL come up with the idea and seek out the authors with a general outline of how to proceed?

Did they seek out the authors and it was a joint collaboration?

Was it conceived by the midichlorians?

 

"In universe," the concept of the New Jedi Order would tend to have its roots in the forshadowing of the last in-continuity story prior to Vector Prime, Crises at Crystal Reef. The final line of that book is as follows:
[color]"New legends of the new Jedi."[/color]

So, it's not really any big stretch to start talking about these new legends of the new Jedi in the next major stories.

Behind the scenes, in rl, the concept was a joint effort by Del Rey and LFL. All levels were involved in the planning sessions - from people high up at Lucasfilm (the highest levels), to the authors themselves.

 

Im sure I remember reading in that Zahn out of favour thread that three authors did put ideas forward that werent done. KJA was one I think. Any more on this?

 

KJA? What's that?

 

Kevin J. Anderson.

 

Many thanks for all the info.

 

Thank God they said no to him..Damn Byzantine hack.

 

At a convention, TZ also alluded to being in on things early on. He was at the LFL ranch when planning was going on. But, he didn't go into specifics.

The main author that always came up in the beginning in Del Rey comments, etc. was Stackpole. Most likely Del Rey used his shoulder to lean on a whole lot early on. Then, after the first couple of novels, you see in author interviews that they relied on the adjacent authors to develop indeas. I think that creates a pretty strong chain of continuity.

 

Was it planned to the point where they knew how it would begin and how it would end and left the journey up to the authors?

Were the high points planned out from the beginning, i.e. Ben's birth, ******* death...etc, etc?

 

I like the Byzantines!

 

From Telling War Stories: An Interview With Shelly Shapiro:
"When The New Jedi Order story arc was first being crafted, one of the key architects was Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director at Del Rey Books. Shapiro, together with the editorial team at Lucas Licensing, helps steer the direction of adult STAR WARS fiction told in the hardcover and paperback books set in various eras of STAR WARS history."

And...

"...Those of us in on the initial planning sessions representatives of Lucas Licensing, Del Rey, and some authors had our individual ideas of who should be the sacrificial lamb. But word came down from on high that our choices were limited. Chewie was the character we all agreed on. Reader response was split right down the middle: sadness but appreciation for both the need for the death and the effect on the surviving characters; and total, absolute fury. I was not surprised that readers were upset I'd expected that-but I was surprised at the vehemence with which some of that anger was expressed."

And...

"We started our planning sessions with the agreement that we wanted to do a vast, multibook series. Then we brainstormed ideas: What kind of crisis would face our characters? How did we want to see both existing generations of characters develop through the series? What would we find most exciting to play with? Once we'd come up with a sketchy outline of where we wanted to go, start to finish, we had to get it approved from on high. For example, as I mentioned earlier, we were told we could NOT kill off certain characters. We originally intended the enemy to be dark Force users; we were told they had to be non-Force users. We had a certain plan in mind for one of the characters; we were told to use a different character for this particular plan. That was about the extent of George's involvement unless there was more going on behind the scenes than I was aware of. The writers have all been chosen by mutual consent: some of them were suggested by me and approved by the Lucasfolk, others were suggested by the Lucasfolk and subsequently approved by me. We really work as a team. That said, the final say always lies with Lucasfilm. The writers have a lot of independence in coming up with a story, provided they work in the plot points necessary to keep the overall story arc moving along. I have a lot of independence as editor: Lucasfilm doesn't even see an outline or a manuscript until the author and I feel pretty confident that it's ready to be looked at for approval. If we disagree, we discuss the issue even argue it occasionally-until we come to some resolution. But in the end, we make whatever changes the Lucasfolk require. It's their intellectual property (well, George's, but it's their job to protect that for him), and they have every right to control its destiny."

And finally...

"We know in a very general way how the series is going to end. But from the start we planned this to be an organic, ever mutating storyline, always open to new direction based on what evolves along the way. So the ending is nowhere near carved in stone yet."

I think you should be able to draw a pretty good idea about the origins of the NJO from Shelly's interview.

 

Thank God they said no to him..Damn Byzantine hack.

He wasnt going to write the series, (I read) he put forward an idea. Doesnt even mean he'd write one