We're nearing the finish line--almost ready to send the
completed work out to the beta readers. We finally came up with a title we all
like and are chomping at the bit to begin working on the sequel.
It has not all been a bed of roses. But mostly, I find
myself looking around at the beautiful thing we've created and thinking to
myself, "Wow. That was a lot easier than it could have been." In
spite of the naïve and haphazard way we all stumbled into this project,
everyone has been professional and hardworking, our vision has remained
unified, no one has morphed into a prima donna, and we've all managed to stay
enthusiastic. The fabulousness of what we've done blows me away.
That said, here are
5 things I've learned since the last
time
I wrote about collaborating:
1. Bureaucracies move more slowly than
dictatorships.
This wasn't immediately apparent. Of course, there were the
inevitable times when someone was too busy to write or got writer's block, but
still, the course of writing that first draft ran pretty smoothly. Editing is a
different beast altogether. Major edits often require major discussion. I'm a
digging-my-heels-in-the-sand kind of person. Especially here in the last third
of the book, I don't want to change things that are going to cause ripples
through the whole story. Sheena is a transformative kind of person. She's not
afraid of experimenting with changes that might force us to start over. She
wants this book to be the best it can be. Often, after causing my heart rate to
skyrocket, she decides that our original idea was the best anyway, and I
breathe a sigh of relief. Or we all realize the idea is amazing, and then the
work to add it in doesn't seem quite so tedious. Writing with Sheena has taught
me that turning everything on its ear can be awesome.
2. How to use each other's characters.
In our first draft, we really didn't use each other's characters.
It ended up being an exaggerated form of "telling, not showing". It
is pretty natural to shy away from using a character we didn't own and that we
didn't know extremely well yet. We've completely fixed that in this second
version, and the results are breath-taking. I think it is pretty rare to find
three such distinct voices in one book. But we've had to learn to accept
ownership of the character we've created, and to not be afraid to ask each
other to change something that doesn't fit. Sabrina is fearless about this, and
I mean that as a total compliment. She knows Juliette, inside and out, and
whenever Sheena or I use Juliette in a scene, she tells us how Juliette would
actually have reacted, and we fix it. I'm thinking of one scene in particular
where someone wants to wipe Juliette's face tenderly. But Juliette wouldn't
cry. She wouldn't fall into the fountain. If she had blood dripping down her
face, she wouldn't sit at the fountain, she'd go get medical services, it
hasn't been suggested, but I doubt she forgot to wipe her milk mustache...We'll
find a reason to get that face wiped eventually, but it takes time. When
Sabrina writes one of our characters into a scene, she asks us in advance how
they would react. In the beginning, sometimes I didn't know. But I know Ana
now, and I'm getting nearly as careful about it as Sabrina is.
It's pretty cool. I think when I write a new novel, that
kind of back and forth scene creation is going to help me so much. Remembering
that every character is the star of their own story and looking at each scene
with that perspective in mind is going to enrich my writing permanently.
3. Characters can be quirky.
In her blog post, Sheena calls Ana an "Every Girl"
sort of character, and that struck me. That's the kind of character I enjoy
writing. As far as I can remember, every main character I've ever created has
fit that pattern. I probably won't change. It's who I am, and there is nothing
wrong with it. But I have been amazed at how much I've come to love Sam and
Juliette. When I first read their character sketches, I remember being worried
about it. Juliette, for example, is grumpy, and I was afraid that might make
her unlikeable. Not at all! Her glow shines forth all that much more brightly
against the backdrop of that character flaw. And Sam...well, Sam has a way with
the ladies that I thought might make it hard to respect him. Again, I was so
wrong. He's super-duper respect worthy. In the future I hope I am less afraid
to let my characters be flawed.
4. Writing in a group is hard.
When writing multiple characters, timelines can be as
complicated as advanced calculus.
For example, in our first draft, sometimes I would write to
a spot well beyond where Sabrina (who wrote after me) needed to be, and so she
would have to backtrack to tell her story. And in the beginning, Ana went
first. But in the second draft, Sam goes first. As we work to clean up these
timeline glitches, and as we add other subplots (that inevitably mix events
up), scenes we really like don't match up any more, and it causes me untold
stress. Sabrina and Sheena are calmer about it, promise me that it will all
match up before we send it out, and I believe them, but it is hard to let it
go.
5. Writing in a group is awesome.
For me, the best part has been always having two other
people to chat with about what I'm writing. Writing is usually a lonely
endeavor, and writers have to be careful about how much they talk to other
people about it, even when those other people are interested. But Sheena and
Sabrina are as heavily invested in this book as I am. I can pop them off an
e-mail and get an incredibly knowledgeable, thoughtful and interested reply
back. We can debate the finer points of how magic works, where it came from or what
the cost is and they have different perspectives that broaden mine. I sometimes
worry about having writing be a solitary journey again someday. But for now,
I'm counting my blessings.
