Co-Authoring & Editing: Two Heads are Better than One

I know Nikki and I have been telling you about how great the co-authoring process can be & sharing our steps for the process.  And at this very minute, you might be co-NaNo-ing for all I know.  But if you're not...

SERIOUSLY -  what are you waiting for?

I must admit that I'm a little in throes of editing a book that I'm finding myself more and more enamored with, but entrenching ourselves in edits hasn't been the least bit painful.  In fact, it's gotten to the point where I don't want to stop reading my own book.  How often does that happen?

AND HERE'S WHY (I think) -- I only wrote half of it.  And sometimes I can't even tell which parts I wrote and which parts Nikki wrote.  (I mean sure, if I think about it hard enough I can figure it out, but it all seems so fresh & new as I'm going over it again.)  Editing is FUN!  You hear me? FUN!!
 The other part that has been so awesome is seeing the plot twists in the story that work so well and knowing with unwavering certainty that I wouldn't have thought them up myself.  We've both left our mark on the story and it feels great.

Ok - I'm done gushing now.  Thanks for dropping by! 

Co-Authoring: Getting Down to Business

So, now you know how Nikki and I started our co-authoring process: meeting, doing character profiles, and outlining.  This week, we're going to tell you how we shared our writing responsibilities.

Rather than assigning chapters, we took days. Or parts of days.  Since we had a detailed outline, it was easy to say, "ok, you write day 4 and I'll take day 5."  We didn't just assign days since some days have a lot more happen then others.  It was more of an "I'm done with day 4, and I'm feeling inspired to tackle night 6 because I had a great idea for the date."  As we wrote, we'd pass our chapters back and forth.

I think I can speak for Nikki when I say we tried to go in to our own chapters and make them gel with the chapters around them as the manuscript went back and forth.  And Nikki created an ingenious way of labeling the files. It was: Beneath1-[last chapter #][NVK or JLH][date].  That way you can tell from looking at the saved title of the doc that you're working with your latest version or the latest version of your writing partner.

Being cross-coastal from each other actually helped, I think.  Since I'm three hours ahead and we both write at night, I was able to do my writing and pass it to Nikki before she started her writing for the evening. And when I woke up the next morning, Nikki's chapters were waiting for me.  (Although the outline made the chapters blend together pretty well, admittedly it was easier to write the next chapter when I knew exactly what happened just before that.)

Of course, if either of us needed to ease up on the writing schedule, or one of us had a burning desire to tackle a particular chapter, we went with the flow.  In my mind, being flexible and understanding was just as important as being like-minded.

Got any questions?  Any tips to share with us as we dive further into revisions? 

Co-authoring: Getting Started

As promised, I'll be sharing some of the techniques that Nikki and I used to co-author Beneath the Surface. (Nikki's also sharing her tips, so be sure to check out her blog too.)  Our experience is particularly unique because we've never met in person. Nikki lives in California; I live in Florida. We're separated by thousands of miles and three time zones. But we still made it work. Here's how.

Myspace Quotes, Teamwork Quotes at WishAFriend.com

1. I asked Nikki to work with me because I had read her first novel, Shoreline, and felt our writing styles were compatible. My first book is a retelling of a Greek myth; hers draws heavily on mythology, although it's set in present day. So for me, step one was finding someone with similar interests and a comparable writing style. I can thank #YALitChat for allowing us to meet.

2. We researched how other sucessful co-authors (notably Kami Garcia & Margie Stohl) have made the process work for them. The main goal is to have seamless writing- it's imperative that the voice remain the same from chapter to chapter. So our first & most important rule of co-authoring is that either of us can change the other's words, no questions asked. We don't red line and ask the other for permission. That was the primary ground rule we established before we started writing.

3. Our last step before we started writing was to create very detailed character skeches and a pretty thorough outline. When I say detailed, I mean we went online shopping for all of our characters. We picked out outfits & shoes typical of them all. We nailed down their personality quirks, favorite everything, all biographical information. In conjunction, we created a fairly detailed outline. Our characters are working on a set timeline (2 weeks), so we laid out all 14 days and made sure we had a general idea of what needed to happen each day & night. (And yes, we did go back & revamp the outline when we were about 1/2 way through.)

Sheri asked specifically last week: How do you collaborate ideas at the very beginning?
I had the primary idea for BTS when we got started, but I had stalled and didn't know where to go with it. Nikki and I wrote back and forth, exchanging ideas.  Then, we started the outline, again passing it back and forth.  I'd fill in some ideas and e-mail it to Nikki.  She'd add to it and send it back.  We passed in back and forth until we'd created a story line and characters we were happy with.  Along the way, we'd ask each other questions.  How would this work, etc.? And it helped us solidify the mythology in our minds before we started writing.

So that was our getting started process. Next week I'll talk about how we divided work and did the writing. Got any questions? Leave us a comment and we'll be sure to answer.