by Michaela August
"But how do you do it?" other writers ask, often a little skeptically, when they hear about two writers working on the same book or story. "I mean, writing is such a private thing!"
For Karin Welss, it usually begins with a phone call in the evening, after work. Her writing partner, Marian Gibbons is on the line. "Sweetie, you know how we were wondering what to do to our hero in chapter five? I just had the most dreadful idea!" she says, her voice filled with secret glee.
And then they're off, telling each other-- and their readers-- stories spun over the miles of telephone wire that connect them. There's a unique pleasure in telling stories that spring to life in the meeting of two minds.
"When the idea to begin writing occurred to us, we broke the first rule, that writing is a solitary endeavor," says Lori Karayianni, who writes together with her husband Tony as Tori Carrington for Harlequin Temptation. "We've always been armchair critics of books and movies, and it was during one of these compelling discussions that Tony looked at me and said, 'Why don't we try to write a book ourselves?' That was fifteen years ago. The rest is history in the making," she adds, with a laugh.
Because of the empathy that writing partners must share in order to foster creativity, you could argue that a good writing partner is an unexpected gift. The strongest partnerships often come about by accident.
"Jeanne and I became critique partners because we lived so close," says Kathleen Suzanne, who writes with Jeanne Sumerix. "The more we critiqued each other's work, we decided it would be fun to write a book together."
Marian Gibbons agrees. "I knew I wanted to write with Karin when she borrowed a character of mine for a short story and did something totally right for that character--that I would never have thought of."
Up to the point that Karin and Marian began writing together, both had a long history of starting novels that they never finished. "I'd run out of steam after two or three chapters," Karin recalls, ruefully. "But having someone waiting to read my scene or chapter was a terrific motivation to keep going. Somewhere around 80,000 words into our first novel, I realized that we were really going to finish it. It was a great feeling." "And since then, we've finished another," adds Marian.
In addition to the creative synergy that impels the first draft of a novel, partners also have the advantage of bringing two sets of skills to the writing table.
"Jeanne is character-driven and I'm plot driven, so that worked out perfectly," explains Kathleen Suzanne.
Like Jeanne and Kathleen, Marian and Karin have complementary writing skills. Karin is very focused on character, motivation, and use of language--essentially, micro-editing. Marian, who has taken screenwriting classes, has an eye for the "big picture" issues like plot structure and how to rearrange a scene to wring the maximum tension and emotion out of it.
"When you write with someone else, you have two brains working on the same ideas," says Kathleen Suzanne. "And when you get stuck, there is someone there to break the block and get you moving again."
"Two heads are better than one," agrees Marian Gibbons. "I'll get stuck on something and call Karin and whimper: 'Can I borrow your brain?' Often just by defining the problem out loud for her I'm halfway to solving it. Or I'll bounce ideas off her and listen if they go 'clank! or 'gongggg!' Writing alone, you don't get that feedback."
But partnerships aren't always a bed of roses, especially once the excitement of the first draft is finished, and the painstaking--and painful--work of editing and rewriting begins. In fact, edits and rewrites are the place where many partnerships founder.
"You're allowed to scream and weep when your partner edits away your favorite prose, or calls dialogue in a scene "stupid," Marian Gibbons says with a sigh. "But you have to be able to step back and look at what's best for the work as a whole. Besides, if your partner won't prevent purple prose, who will?"
"You have to like the person you work with...really be friends and not have a thin skin," Kathleen Suzanne advises. "Because if you are really going to write together you have to be able to take criticism from the other person.... that goes both ways. And it is a give-and-take thing. You must be able to sit down and work out any differences in a story line or idea."
When asked what caution he would give someone who's contemplating a writing partnership, Tony muses: "There really isn't one.
Karin Welss agrees with Tony's advice. "Discuss and put in writing who does what, and how you're going to divide the work and even discuss whose name comes first on the byline. Agree up-front how to handle expenses. I highly recommend The Writer's Legal Companion by Brad Bunnin and Peter Beren (Addison-Wesley, 1994) as a resource, especially if you're going to be drawing up a formal collaboration agreement."
"You never really know how you're going to mesh until you're well into the process," Lori Karayianni says. "So you want to make sure there's an easy out for both parties lest any possible breakup destroy the entire relationship."
Happily, the writing partnerships profiled in this article are going strong.
Michaela August's first novel, Sweeter Than Wine, a historical romance set in California's wine country on the eve of Prohibition, was published to rave reviews in May 1999, and reissued in 2003 by Awe-Struck eBooks. Kathleen Suzanne and Jeanne Sumerix co-authored From the Ashes, published by Genesis Press. Husband-and-wife team Lori & Tony Karayianni's July '99 novel for Harlequin Temptation, License to Thrill by Tori Carrington, was the first book in their "Magnificent McCoy Men" series.
The Ten Commandments of Collaboration
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Michaela August is a writing team composed of two Northern California authors, Marian Gibbons and Karin Welss. Despite living 90 miles apart, they've been collaborating for over five years, using the phone and the Internet. In fact, they became critique partners--and friends--months before they ever met in person! They're currently writing a historical horror novel in which the many Dreadful Things that happen to their characters are gleefully discussed every night over the phone.
Copyright 1999 by Karin Welss. This article originally appeared in the September 1999 Romantic Times Newbies Notebook, and may not be copied or reposted without written permission.
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