Chatting with Joyfully Reviewed

Yesterday, we participated in a chat on the Joyfully Reviewed Yahoo!Group. The interview below was part of the Paranormal Writing Duo promotion.


How did you become a writing duo?

Will: Alessia and I knew each other from the Author's Hangout boards at Literotica. She and I had already developed an appreciation for each other's work. Simply put, I was her fan, and I guess she was mine, too. Lit was running a Free Speech contest, and neither of us had submitted anything. With only a week or so left before the deadline, Alessia came to me via e-mail and asked if I would write a story with her. I jumped at it. I'd done some collaborative writing before, but this was a chance to do so with someone I felt I could learn from as well as enjoy the process. So, we started writing "Bleep!" The concept was hers... I just brought a male P.O.V. But she was interested and eager for me to contribute actively. Things flowed between us from the very beginning.

Alessia: I, on the other hand, had not written collaboratively, and I was eager to give it a try. We started simply -- with a ping-pong he-said/she-said style -- and it really seemed to flow. We placed in that contest and decided to enter the next. That was right around the time that I contracted my first work with Phaze. I didn't tell Will that I had plans for our collaborations. *evil grin*

How do you divide the work when writing with a partner?

Will: It changes. Theoretically, we exchange 500 words a day. Realistically, sometimes I send 450 words; on occasion I hit a vein and it's 1500 or more. When I really have things clicking it's more rarely the big or little... it will be 750 or 800 words each day. Continue that for a week or more and the story will have moved forward dramatically. The one thing that does fall much more heavily on Alessia is editing. Alessia is a writer who basically turns out final draft in her first save. She really doesn't do rough draft. I will. And if I have rough draft and it is two a.m., and I know Alessia is getting ready to start her day on the opposite coast? I'll send it rather than not have something for her. A side effect of this is that I have become better at editing, simply by observing her process on a daily basis.

Plotting is something that has happened in a variety of ways. We've done it in person, when we've been lucky enough to have the shared time. We've had twists occur to one of us in nightly writing and just gone with it. Or we've hammered things out by e-mail and IM. Most of the time we have the basic plot in our heads well before we get far into the actual writing. But there have been exceptions.

Alessia: I'm not a scorekeeper in terms of word count. The daily benchmarks are really just to keep us moving. Will's wordier than I am, by far, so it's like comparing apples to oranges when it comes to how many words it takes each of us to move the story along. The endings of our last two books had "finish the chapter" benchmarks as opposed to word count benchmarks. We knew what the chapter needed -- and wrote until we got there, whether it was 500 or 1500 words.

Will: The chapter benchmark was a good idea because of that difference in our styles. Alessia definitely is more attentive to maximizing the impact of each word, while I ramble... kind of like in this interview. I use the numbers to motivate me. Alessia sees progress in the storyline, not word count. With the chapter end as a goal, it helps me stay focused on motion rather than emoting.

How do you handle disagreements about the direction of the story?

Will: Sabres at dawn, first blood gets their way. No, we've always been very respectful of each other's concepts and that helps. We talk it out. It's a very rare event for one of us to "put a foot down." Normally, when that does happen, it is less about plot than about character. It happened during the writing of Double Header, which comes out this month from Phaze. Our female lead, Andrea Spring, is a very strong-willed woman. Alessia identifies with that, for some strange and mysterious reason. It helps give her a great feel for the "rightness" of Andi's actions. There were a couple of times in the book where Alessia just said, "Andi wouldn't do that." I am an argumentative person sometimes, and so I'm inclined to poke at such statements. But she was right. I had the same thing happen with baseball elements in this story, because that is a field of expertise for me. (Will is a sportswriter under a different nom de plume.) Alessia took my knowledge into account, as I did hers.

More difficult was the decision of where to put the break in the story between Double Header and its sequel Spring Training, which comes out next March. In some ways, that was more of a case of finding the right place and in some ways it had to do with the storyline of the sequel. Spring Training is the next step in our character's story arc after the dramatic change in Double Header. Because of that, there was some discussion about the resolution of the first book, and what our staring point was for the sequel. Those discussions stayed open until we actually wrote the ending to Double Header. How did those discussions end? Look up a bit to where I'm talking about strong women. That will give you a clue.

Alessia: Oh, I just ask probing questions until Will suggests what I was angling for all along. It works so much more smoothly when he believes he came up with the idea in the first place. I don't care who takes credit for the brilliant work *wink* as long as it gets written.

What do you think your strong suit is when writing with a partner and what is your co-author's strong suit?

Will: The answers to the two questions are interlocking. I have a gift for metaphor and embellishment. In my solo writing, that can get out of hand. When writing with Alessia, I have someone who will reign me in. Alessia is very driven in her writing. She strives to push the plot along, to move the story forward. Meanwhile, I'm still describing the rain back on page 39. When writing with each other, these counterpoints become complimentary.

It's not a lack one of us has; it's simply the ability to focus on our strengths. Anyone who has read Alessia's poetry and solo work knows that she can be as descriptive as any writer. She has the accolades to prove that readers have already recognized this in her work. Similarly, I can get to breakneck speed with a plot and its twists and turns. I've had an editor describe to me how she was moving and twisting along with the climax of Mixed Blessings from Phaze Fantasies II. I've jumped over sex scenes to write out the next plot point, leaving an "insert sex here" tag in the manuscript. But when we have each other to provide that focus, we can really let loose.

Also, Alessia and I experience the world in different ways, especially when it come to the five senses...

Alessia: Will is right about his gifts, and by working with him, I am growing in that regard. He's rubbing off on me, so to speak. My strong suit is an emotional resonance that gets under your skin and won't let you forget about the characters or the story. It's a depth of character that I often find lacking in short stories and novellas. When you finish one of our books, you can answer damned near any question about how one of our protagonists would respond to a situation. You grew to know them, whether you realized it or not.

Five senses? I'd say six. In addition to the physical senses, we also experience memory in different ways. Will is very visual. He's a cinematic writer. I focus on other forms of sensory input -- scent, sound, touch, taste. The combination makes our work very well rounded.

How do you develop story ideas?

Will: Scotch. Lots of scotch and a notebook. Ideas come from everywhere. I've had story ideas come from a title, from a book cover that Alessia came up with before we had a story to fit it, from my own jotted down description of a pretty girl buying frozen yogurt and from personal experience. I'm a storyteller, anyway. Always have been. It's just that now I'm spinning tall tales on paper and publishing them rather than using them to make frat brothers laugh or amuse my kids.

Alessia: The ideas come out of the blue, and we have far more of them than we have time to develop. Mandy & Bruce, from ArtiFactual (our paranormal book), have more story to tell. Kevin & Cyndi are poised for a third book, and Andi... well, Andi will always have places to go and people to do.

How do you write a sex scene when writing with a partner?

Will: With lots and lots of research. Seriously, sex scenes are probably the most divergent work when it comes to deviating from original concept while actually writing. You go with where things are leading you that evening. That's not to say every direction works every time. We've had times when we've made major revisions. There have been times when one of us was burnt out for the session and we've packed it up and sent it to our partner and what emerged from their taking the scene over was completely different than the original intent. At those times, we've made changes or gone with the new direction, with some very exciting scenes resulting from that experimentation.

Alessia: The same way we write all the other scenes. One word at a time. Our margin notes during a sex scene are worthy of publication themselves, although they might qualify as "TMI." We typically choose a mood or a feel for the scene (e.g., rough, tender) and a dynamic between the characters and then let them lead the way. If we've developed the characters thoroughly, they act and react as needed. Occasionally one of us will have to rely on the other for things that are just completely outside the scope of our experiences. That's what made writing Switch (our gender swap short story) so much fun!

Which do you think is easier, writing alone or together -- and why?

Will: I think they both fulfill different internal needs and that they both have their own set of challenges. So I hesitate to say that one is easier than the other. The only exception to that would be when a deadline is approaching. Although I always respond to deadline pressure, in solo work I'm inclined to get behind and then have to flurry at the last minute. When writing with Alessia, I feel a responsibility. I need to get my contribution to her. That fuels me on a daily basis, not a weekly or monthly basis. Which means I can't put it off. That helps a guy like me. They are both fulfilling in different ways as well. For a long time, I wasn't nearly as confident in my non-collaborative work. I felt like Alessia was responsible for our success and I was just along for the ride, despite her assurances otherwise. So my solo successes have been very pleasant and a boost to my ego.

However, finishing a piece with Alessia has more emotion in it, because it is the creation of a team. It's something she and I did together, and that makes it much more valuable to me.

Alessia: These days, writing together is easier for me. It's the motivation bit, I'm sure. With everything else I have going on (doing cover art & editing), my solo writing has taken a back seat. Plus, I truly believe our joint work is stronger than either of our individual efforts. We really do complement one another, and the sense of accomplishment is greater for me when we wrap up yet another kick-ass book.