Take it away, Jolene. My blog is now yours ... at least for today;)
WRITING COLLABORATIONS
I think it’s fun that people are so curious about this. The
most asked question that Nyrae and I got on Out of Play was – HOW DO YOU WRITE
WITH SOMEONE ELSE???
Here are a few things I wanna tell EVERYONE about it.
1.
If you like being in control, don’t write a
collaboration ;-) The FIRST thing I do when I step into writing a story with
someone else, is know that the story is out of my hands, know that if someone
vetoes my idea, I just move forward, which brings me to…
2.
When you edit. Edit forward. What I mean by this
is – If your partner deletes something of yours, or says – “this doesn’t work”
or something along those lines. You move forward. You LET IT GO and continue
on. If you’re frustrated about this, that’s not good ;-) Which brings me to…
3.
I write collaborations for FUN. The second
they’re not fun, I’d walk away. This has not yet happened to me because I’m
good at #1 and #2. And this brings me to…
4.
You must trust your writing partner. You HAVE to
trust their instincts as a writer, their knowledge of their character, and that
they know how to craft a story. Which brings me to…
5.
Picking your partner – The first person I
collaborated with was Nyrae Dawn. She is AH-mazing. She’d been writing for a
lot longer than I had, and I knew I’d learn a lot. Dizzy was the first book I
ever wrote IN ORDER because Nyrae writes in order. Which helps me remember…
6.
I always learn so much when I write with someone
new. From Nyrae I learned how to write a story starting at the beginning. I
tried to write one on my own this way after we finished Dizzy and it didn’t
work, BUT it helped.
7.
Nyrae and I approach a story differently. I come
up with the character and the story decisions are dictated by that character.
Nyrae comes up with the storyline and then molds her character to fit to it.
HARD for me to work this way, but again – see #1.
8.
Christa Desir is not only a writer but an
editor. She writes emotion like NO ONE else I know. I really pushed myself to
dig deeper into my characters after writing with her. Also. If you’re intimidated
by your partner b/c of their awesomeness like I used to be with her? (Now I’m
just thrilled to be friends w/ someone who has so much awesomeness) I think
it’s a GOOD thing. It’s also good to diversify who you write with, for example…
9.
I needed to write something light and fun,
emailed Cassie Mae a premise and a few ideas and she sent me a Chapter One
later that day. LOVE that. Her comedy writing is brilliant, so I learned a lot
from her too. And…
10. Steph
Campbell is the second person I wrote with. She does such amazing deep,
conflicted love stories. And we didn’t know when we started, if Tobin and Delia
would find their way to each other in the end. It worked. For us.
11. With
all of these partners, we each took a character, a general idea of where we
wanted the story to go from beginning to end, and then sort of mapped out (kind
of) the few chapters ahead of wherever we are. I like to keep things loose so
the unexpected can happen while writing.
12. Benefits:
I learn a LOT from the people I write with. It’s FUN. There are no long pauses
while I figure out plot points b/c I always have a brainstorm partner who knows
the story as well as I do. Their
audience reads our book, and hopefully some of those people wanna come hang and
read my books, and vice versa…
13. So.
IF you can do #1 and #2, and keep all the other fun stuff in mind… Writing a
collab is a BLAST.
14. And
FINALLY. Me and Cassie Mae will be teaching a class on collabs at the LDS
Storymakers Conference in 2014 :-D
Jolene wears juvenile T-shirts, worn out chucks and eats too much chocolate. She writes. A lot. She makes up words, drinks Shirley Temples and suffocates a little without her iPod. She writes for Albert Whitman Teen, Entangled Teen and Simon Pulse. Rep'd by Jane Dystel of DYSTEL & GODERICH.
