Writing Partners
Hey, it's my turn to post. It's been awhile. How is everybody? I'm not even sure what to write about today. But it has been a busy month, since last we met. I've been keeping busy between work and writing. I accepted a job tutoring 4th and 5th graders after school. My 5th graders hate me because I make them do math. Isn't that awful of me? They are what? 11 years old? Starting Jr. High next year, and they don't know their multiplication. How many times does 8 go into 40? They don't know. They'll guess until I tell them they're right.
My 4th graders love me, even though I make them write lots of sentences. But I also give them chocolate, so that's something.
If this experience has taught me anything, it's that I'm never, ever going to have kids or be a full-time teacher. Ever. At least the cats don't talk back when they ignore me.
But I don't just wrangle kids. I've been promoting The Zebra Wore Fishnets (go to my blog to see the awesome reviews) and selling novels to Liquid Silver (and Samhain Publishing and Whiskey Creek Press Torrid), and writing a novel for Harlequin's new line, Everlasting (hopefully a novel they will want).
That's enough about me though. I've been thinking about writing partners, mainly because I've been working with one for the past week. We're just playing around. We actually met the night we started writing together. It's a very interesting experience. I never know what the other character is going to say or how she is going to react. I don't know about her motivations. I don't know where a particular scene is going. It's terrifying and liberating at the same time.
Now, I don't think I'm going to ever write a novel with a partner a paragraph at a time, as we're writing now, but it's a surprising experience. Especially writing erotic scenes--surprising and hot! Half the work and twice as much fun.
But I'm curious about other authors' experiences with partners. Have you tried it? Would you ever try it? How do you do it? What's your process?
My 4th graders love me, even though I make them write lots of sentences. But I also give them chocolate, so that's something.
If this experience has taught me anything, it's that I'm never, ever going to have kids or be a full-time teacher. Ever. At least the cats don't talk back when they ignore me.
But I don't just wrangle kids. I've been promoting The Zebra Wore Fishnets (go to my blog to see the awesome reviews) and selling novels to Liquid Silver (and Samhain Publishing and Whiskey Creek Press Torrid), and writing a novel for Harlequin's new line, Everlasting (hopefully a novel they will want).
That's enough about me though. I've been thinking about writing partners, mainly because I've been working with one for the past week. We're just playing around. We actually met the night we started writing together. It's a very interesting experience. I never know what the other character is going to say or how she is going to react. I don't know about her motivations. I don't know where a particular scene is going. It's terrifying and liberating at the same time.
Now, I don't think I'm going to ever write a novel with a partner a paragraph at a time, as we're writing now, but it's a surprising experience. Especially writing erotic scenes--surprising and hot! Half the work and twice as much fun.
But I'm curious about other authors' experiences with partners. Have you tried it? Would you ever try it? How do you do it? What's your process?
SExed by Anonymous at 1:19 PM
5 Comments:
My crit partner and I were talking over a collaboration last year before life got a little busy on both of us. I'm not sure when we'll find the time to write anything for publication, but I'm sure it'll come. As for writing spicy scenes, well, we're both adults with lively minds... :)
BTW, love your book! That title is just wonderful!
http://ajays-blog.blogspot.com
uhh, i'm not a writer (might consider it in a few years), thus i don't have a critique/writing partner. I can imagine there being some pretty...interesting times though *grin*
Elizabeth
www.elizabethsreviews.blogspot.com
The most fun I had writing with partners was RESOLUTIONS. The four of us (Dee S. Knight, Jasmine Haynes, Leigh Wyndfield, and moi) sketched out the basic story, each wrote our part, Dee pulled it together and submitted it, all within about three months. What a great team. We were proud of the end result (a novel in four parts, actually, instead of an anthology, because the stories are tied together) and earned a 4 1/2 Stars Top Pick from RT.
I'd do a project with these three again in a heartbeat. What wonderful women and talented writers! I'm honored they included me.
Nessie
I wrote with a partner a few years ago on a totally different venture. Basically, we met for coffee, chatted over the changes we'd made the night before and then worked on the things we'd do that day. She considered me the writer, while she was the idea person. I enjoyed having the feedback the next day. The story went nowhere because we didn't have an end in mind first.
I still write for feedback, whether it's crit partners or readers.
I wrote an entire novel with a partner last year. We're still working on getting it published. We got along very well and pretty much kept out of each other's way. She handled certain chapters and I others. We each gave way to the other's vision at times and only got into one rather heated argument.
Would I do it again? probably not. At the time, I didn't have the confidence to write a whole novel by myself (this was a full length 85K one). But now I know I can do it, although I'm sometimes glad to get input from a crit partner or anyone willing to take a look at a manuscript.
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