4 Cons to Co-Writing a Story

Sadly, yes, there are cons to co-writing. Maybe not so much cons as possible problems you might encounter. These can be worked around and overcome with humility and determination.

Overstepping the Bounds

I was the first one to do this in our co-writing. Basically, I went on an editing craze, and then Sarah went onto the doc and was like "You just completely re-wrote my chapter!"

Whoops.

I needed to take a step back and realize that what I was changing wasn't wrong or badly-written, it simply wasn't how I personally would have written it. And since it was in a chapter with Sarah's POV character, I should have let it shine in Sarah's writing style.

Thankfully Sarah was very gracious and we set out some more obvious boundaries and moved on.

Different Plans and Desires

I might want one thing to happen in the story. Sarah might think that's ridiculous.

We gotta talk it out and decide how to work in the things we both want to see in the story. One of us might have to give up or give in. We set down the idea we have, and discuss it. But ultimately, we may have to let our idea rest.

It's Not All Your Story

Simply put, this isn't just your story. You are sharing it. You can't claim all the credit. You don't have the final say in what happens to the plot and characters. It may be tough to get used to, especially if you've been writing on your own for years. And you might accidentally anger or annoy your co-writer if you do major (or even minor) changes without discussing things with them first.

Technical Difficulties

Working with another person aside, co-writing has it's own challenges in regards to how in the world you are going to write your story. Do you email a Word Doc back and forth? What if one person prefers Scrivener and the other uses Shaxpir? What if one person uses a different font? What if one prefers handwriting? How are edits going to be addressed?

It's complicated enough to have lots of drafts and Pinterest boards and plot charts and character sheets for one person, but now these all have to be shared with two people. And kept up to date. And yeah, it's a pain.

Still want to try co-writing? Next week I have an exciting announcement, and then I'll be back with some helpful tips and tricks!

5 Pros to Co-Writing a Story

I'm sure y'all know by now that Sarah Rodecker and I are co-writing a book together. And it's SO COOL.

Co-writing may not be for everyone, and it does take a slightly different mind-set then writing all by ourselves. But it can be really enjoyable and rewarding and exciting.

The Writer's Dream of a Story Magically Appearing in the Document

This is one of my favorite "pros" to co-writing. We are working on our story via google docs, and there is nothing so exciting as opening the doc on my phone and seeing that Sarah is currently writing her chapter.

And then I just sit there and read along as my story is being written. Like, it's so awesome y'all. The story is getting written and I get to read along as it's just poured out on the page and ahhhhhh so much fun.

Even if I don't get to sit and watch Sarah type in real-time, when I finally do get to the doc, there is a brand new chapter waiting for me to read it. :)

The Sounding Board

Probably the biggest bonus of co-writing is that you have a partner to work out the plot and characters and themes and scenes with. We all know that two heads are better than one, and Sarah and I build off each other.

Me: Wait, what if we did this?
Sarah: Awesome, that would build on this character and their arc, and maybe we can hint at this thing as well.
Me: Ohhh and we can mention that secret while we're at it.
Sarah: And bring this character into the scene to make things interesting.
Me: And build a catapult!
Sarah: Nope, no catapults.
Me: :(

So it works both ways. We feed off each other's ideas to expand the story...and also keep each other from going too far in the craziness.

High Accountability

We have a pretty solid system set up. For writing the first draft, Sarah writes her chapter in the morning, and I write mine in the evening (unless I'm able to get to it earlier, thanks to being in QT).

If Sarah doesn't finish her chapter, I can't write mine. If I can't get mine done, Sarah can't write hers. (We are gracious, however, if someone is unable to finish because of life events and whatnot.)

While we are editing, we assign tasks/chapters/scenes/etc to each other, and make sure the other person is getting those things done.

Shared Knowledge

While working on a WIP, I often keep the details to myself, even when discussing the story with friends/family. Mostly to keep spoilers, ya know? But even when I do share stuff about the story, I don't tell them everything. That big twist...the shocking reveal...the tragic backstory...those I don't share. I want them enjoy the surprises, after all.

But having a co-writer means I finally have someone to share that with. It's so much fun to talk about how "the readers are going to cry when..." and "I can't wait for people to read about..." and "ahhhhhhh THIS STORY!!!!"

Weaknesses and Strengths

Sarah and I have different writing styles. We have different editing styles. Different things we notice, different things we catch. Where I might fall flat on delivering in a story, Sarah can pick up and make better, and vice versa. Something Sarah might miss will catch my eye, and so on.

This month I'm going to be talking about the joys and hardships of co-writing! Hope you enjoy the little mini-series!

One vs More

So some of y'all may already know this...but I currently only have one horse.

And coming from a girl who loved having 5-7 horses on the property...from a girl who dreams about owning allllllll kinds of different horses...from a girl who has been caring for ~4 horses for a few years now...it's weird to say this, but...

It's kind of nice only having one horse.

For one thing, my vet/farrier/feed costs have gone waaaaaaaaaay down.

Chores take less time.

And, ultimately, I have more time to spend with Pepper.

I no longer have to juggle which horses I need to ride, or beg friends/family to help me get them all ridden. I just...hop on Pepper and go.

It's nice. Less stressful. But at the back of my mind, I miss having all those horses in the pasture. I think of all the horses I could have, and wish I had tons of money to buy and care for them all.

I need to remember...having more horses will not make me happier. Having more horses will not make me a better horsewoman. Having more horses doesn't even make me more "cool" of a person.

What makes me happy is finishing a quick 4 mile ride with Pepper and realizing he was perfectly behaved for the whole trip. What makes me a better horsewoman is seeing how Pepper wasn't so well behaved when I purchased him, and he's only this way after years of me working with him. What makes me "cool" is that I have a well behaved horse that I trained myself.

I feel like this can be applied to writing.

We pride ourselves on all our stories. Our multi-book series WIPs that we are editing. The new idea that just we started fleshing out. That 200,000+ word draft we just completed. We love thinking about and talking about and fangirling about alllllll our stories.

But I think we all could benefit from taking a step back and thinking about something.

I have a friend who half a year ago, owned 9 horses/ponies. She was always begging me to come over and help ride them. She was paying tons of money for shoes and feed and was only riding each horse maybe once or twice on each new set of shoes/hoof trims. And her horses could be a handful because they weren't getting out a lot.

I have another friend who owns one horse. She rides him once or twice a week, and he is super calm and well behaved and is in pretty good shape.

Now think about all your WIPs.

Do you have a ton of them that are begging for your attention? Are you chipping away at all of them, working on each one a page at a time? Maybe some edits on this book here...some drafting another book there...now worldbuilding a third book for a little bit...all the while telling yourself someday these will all be published and it will be awesome!

My friend knew all her horses were good horses...but she just didn't have the time to devote riding all of them.

Currently she has her numbers down to 6, and is probably going to get them down to 4 by the end of spring, leaving her with 2 good horses and 2 good ponies for her kids.

It wasn't easy for her. But she's already happier and less stressed, knowing she can spend more time riding the few she has.

Are you the one ricocheting between all your WIPs, while another person has published one book and is starting on another new story? Are you tired of never reaching the end and having so many projects halfway finished?

I think we can all benefit from sitting back and saying...I will get all of these done someday, but I need to do it one at a time.

I love all my WIPs. My plan is to have them all published someday. But I picked my favorite and I'm pushing it with all I've got. That will soon be finished, and finished completely. Then I can pick back up with the next thing.

I miss 2018, when I had 4 horses. But I am also looking forward to spending all my evenings and Saturdays riding Pepper, or even helping friends get all their horses ridden. It wasn't easy...but I think it's for the best.

I miss the days when I was working on alllll the stories...but I am looking forward to completely wrapping up The Red War Trilogy this year and having that under my belt so I can begin the next adventure.

What about y'all? Do you need to sit back and decide...it may not be easy, but it might be time to put down everything but one story...and begin the long and slow march to finish one book at a time.

Writing only one book at a time does not make you less of a writer. It helps you to be a more focused writer. And it may be the faster path to you being a published writer.

I don't tell people about the 15 unfinished drafts I have. I tell them "I have one published piece of flash fiction, and a fantasy trilogy that is currently out with a few publishing houses."

And that's what I'm working on.

What about y'all? If I asked the dreaded oh, you're a writer? What are you working on? question...what kind of an answer would I get? Drop it below in the comments!

Beginner Writers - Fanfiction and RPGs

So I'll admit. I write fanfiction.

From time to time.

I usually write tiny one-shots. I might watch a movie or read a book and think, hey, it'd be cute to have this thing happen. I don't publish it anywhere, I just keep it to myself in a Scrivener document.

Okay, so I do have a fairly decent sized story of some Blades of Acktar fanfic centered around Harrison Vane pulling a "didn't actually die" move, but besides that, the Scrivener document is mostly one-shots.

But I've seen a lot of folks do this as well, especially with online RPGs being so popular. I think a number of people have gotten their first jump into creative writing by starting out with an RPG. So that's pretty cool.

Last summer I wrote a story with my 6 year old sister (Sister 2), doing it RPG style in a notebook. She decided she was going to write a Princess, so I wrote for the Prince, and we passed the notebook back and forth and scribbled down what our characters would do. (Her Princess captured my Prince and threatened to turn him into a frog if he didn't marry her, and he said he had to ask his parents first, if anyone was interested as to how that story turned out.)

But I think RPGs are a great and fun way to introduce creative writing and practice spelling and grammar. In the above story, Sister 2 got to practice writing and spelling on her own. And she enjoyed it (unlike doing her writing workbooks for school).

Growing up, Sister 1 and I rewrote all The Hobbit movies, complete with a number of added characters, in notebooks. She had always struggled with spelling...but by the end of a couple notebooks, she had gotten waaaaay better, and was also reading more on her own.

I think writing fanfiction (with or without RPGs) is also a good way for people to practice writing different characters (unless they write only one character who is obviously a self-insert, haha).

And even now, when I write my fanfiction, I like to give it a purpose. Maybe write it from a POV that you try to shy away from. Try working on your descriptions or something. Make it a bit of a writing exercise.

But unless you want to have one of the most popular writers on those fanfiction sites (which would be kinda cool, but also kinda weird to have to explain to people), you will eventually have to stop writing fanfic and move on to your own original books.

As a starting point or gateway to writing, fanfic and RPGs aren't that bad. It's a great way to introduce people to writing stories, creating plots, and practice correct spelling and all that jazz. But don't forgot to work on your own stories.

Beginner Writers - Self-Insert Characters

So this month I'm doing another quick little series...this time I'll be talking about the things we do as beginner writers. And I won't just be bashing those things, as I truly believe there are skills to be learned.

But I'd be interested to know how many of y'all also did these things? Did you ever stop, and why? Any advice for beginning writers?

One thing I've noticed a lot of beginner writers do (or my little sisters, when they're telling stories)...is we make the characters after ourselves and friends. I think it comes from a lot of things.

For one, we tend to write what we know. But we're just starting, and we're not familiar with creating characters out of "nowhere" so we fall back to something familiar...ourselves. We want to create a character....well....they're our same gender, same general description (or maybe what we wish we looked like), and probably the same personality (or else what we wish we were like).

The other characters are our best friends. The villain may be that person/sibling we really don't like in real life (he/she is going to be sorry they did that mean thing once they realize they're about to be the bad person in the next bestselling novel, hahaha).

I think it also comes from the reason we're writing. We love reading. We love entering new worlds and going on adventures. So it's only natural that as we begin our own journey as a writer, the main character is "us" and they're going to go on those adventures we always dreamed of doing.

We think "it would be so cool to jump into a puddle and end up in another world" and the character becomes a not-so-subtle copy of ourselves because we're not used to writing from another personality or worldview yet. We're writing how we would see this experience. What things we would notice, enjoy, and fear.

And this is fine. This is good. It's okay to write like this.

Because we're still learning.

Someday we'll get better at describing events, actions, things, places from the POV of a character who sees things different from ourselves. Our creative thinking will have grown with practice, and we'll be able to get into the heads of all kinds of characters.

But for now, leave these beginner writers to their first steps. Let them write for themselves. Let them enjoy that "totally them but with cool powers" character. Let them learn how to describe things and get things down on paper/word doc. Let them enjoy these first books.

Someday they might cringe in horror when they go back to read these first stories. But they'll still smile, because they'll remember the fun they had writing them. Back when writing felt like a superpower, when they didn't have deadlines to meet or certain standards to reach. Back when grammar and correct formatting and character arcs and plots were unheard of. Those were the fun days, yah, my old writing friends?

But make no mistake, beginning writers will have to learn to move on if they want to become published someday. They'll need to learn how to write characters with real problems and flaws. They'll need to learn how to correctly use quotes and when to start a new paragraph.

When I first started writing, all the characters were based off me and my friends. Eventually I realized the fun of making up my own characters, not based off anyone and moved away from copying people. Fast-forward to 5 years later, when I'm letting my mom read the first chapter of Words of Bravery and she puts the papers down and asks, "Now, Marywyn, who is she supposed to be?"

That was kind of humiliating, honestly. Made me so glad I'm no longer doing that, though I suspect some people may still try to read into things and guess "who" the characters are supposed to "be".

I also remember reading an indie book a year or two back, and after reading it, thinking...okay, so the MC in this book reminds me a little too much of those beginning characters my friends and I wrote: she was a little too perfect and powerful, and her chief flaw was like....um, she's awkward and clumsy? And then the villain reminded me of the villain from a movie....and then the characters fall in love. And I put the book down thinking...okay, so the author just wrote a story about "his/herself" convincing the villain from this movie to be good and they fall in love...and the author just changed the names before publishing, haha.

Don't be that person, guys. Because it shows.

Enjoy writing that character that is probably you. Enjoy your beginner writer steps. But do continue to learn and grow and study this writing craft. Become the best writer you can be.

First Drafting Basics - Changes

Stuff's going to change. So be prepared.

*cues that stupid goat song from Hoodwinked*

My rule #1 for writing a draft is don't stop don't stop don't stop.

Change a name? Don't bother going back, just change it in edits and write with the new name.

Change the plot? Ditto.

I used to get stuck in the endless spiral of "rewriting the first two chapters over and over and over and over" so I can't let myself go back.

So what do you do?

Easy. Create an additional document or get a notepad or if you've got a fancy word processor like Scrivener use one of its neat features.

Now, whenever you're knee-deep in a draft and discover something needs to change, you can just open that doc or notebook and scribble it down as a reminder. Then keep writing as if the changes were put into place. Everything previously written can be changed later.

If you jump to Google to search something, you could easily get sucked into Pinterest or YouTube or something. So also create a list of things to look up after the draft is finished.

This is a good plan - to a point.

I'll be honest. There are some things you do need to stop and research. And sometimes you really do have to completely trash a draft and start over at the beginning.

But part of finishing a draft is not getting sucked into endless re-writes of a scene or (even worse) end up distracted on the internet without writing a thing.

And there you have it.

A few quick tips to starting your first draft. Helpful? Anyone else write this way? Tried anything like this? Prefer something better! Let's talk first drafts!

First Drafting Basics - Character Journaling

So we've pretty much gone over the basics, but there are still a few things I want to talk about.

Technically, you could start writing that new story now. You got the spark, you let that spark grow and solidify, and you've battered out what needs to happen with that super fun synopsis.

But there's one more thing I like to do: character journaling.

Or something akin to that, anyway. *shrugs*

I looooooove filling out character charts. Or any kind of form (yeah, I do enjoy doing the taxes, haha) where I just throw answers in blank fields.

But I'm going to be honest, once I start writing that rough draft, I probably look at those charts like...once? And not because I've memorized everything about the characters (far from it), but when I start writing...I don't care what the MC's favorite food is or favorite childhood memory.

So what I do is simple:

-Give them a name and a vague age (I haaaaaate pin-pointing ages, and let's be honest, I don't know the ages of most of my characters)
-Maybe find a picture on Pinterest (I don't know the eye color of characters either, though I do usually know hair color)
-Jot down what they want
-Jot down what they fear
-Anything about their history that I know

And then I write a page of two in their POV (even if they're not a POV character in the draft). I just want to see how they think about things and how they view the world. This not only gives me a chance to know the character and their voice, but I can even do a little worldbuilding.

For The Red War, I wrote the same scene from 5 POVs: the royal parade. There was Marywyn, watching it for the first time, falling in love with all the colors and finery. There was Princess Connaven, wishing everyone would stop staring at her and trying to act like her slippers didn't pinch. There was Duren, totally not even noticing what was going on. Jaran, supposed to be guarding, but loving every minute of the excitement. And Wisdom, deep in a book and missing out on the entire thing.

Character sheets are important, especially for beginning writers. They help us get the important information (fears, weaknesses, descriptions, etc) that we need for our characters.

But I think too much time can be spent filling them out. And then you still have to figure out the character voice once you actually start writing.

Character journaling does both at once. :)

There you have it! Next week should wrap up this little mini-series. Hope you've been enjoying it.

First Drafting Basics - The Synopsis

I'm going to be honest: I absolutely love having a synopsis. So please pardon the lengthy post, haha.

The first time I used one as writing prep, I wasn't even intending to write a Synopsis (probably didn't even know the word, haha).

I had wrapped up the Stars of Darkness Saga and grabbed my next idea that had been sitting and waiting. By now, this idea had grown from a vague "use these old RPG characters and retell an obscure fairy-tale" to a conglomeration of random characters, scene ideas, dreams that I thought would be interesting to write, and a few fairy tales I liked.

Because I was sorting through so many ideas, I started typing out what I knew was going to happen. Then, for fun, I broke it into 3 paragraphs for the beginning, middle, and ending of the book. And, ta-da, my first synopsis was born.

After doing some brief character journaling (which I will talk about later), I dove into the draft. The rough outline-of-a-synopsis helped me keep the book moving in the direction it needed to go, but the continuing-the-whole story aspect gave me room to wing a good bit and just enjoy creating and exploring the story.

And yeah, writing with a synopsis as your chief guide may not work for everyone, but there's an added bonus to making one:

I started doing this back in 2015 with a WIP titled Bards and Bravery: Words of Gold. Fast-forward to 2019, when I'm getting ready to pitch this book (now renamed The Red War: Words of Bravery). One of the things I needed was to write a synopsis.

*snaps fingers*

Already done.

Okay, so I needed to change some things, since the book had been through a lot of changes since writing that 3 paragraph synopsis in 2015. But you get my point.

You have to write a synopsis eventually.

No need to make it super long and detailed. Just add in what you know. The synopsis for the first book in my trilogy was 521 words. If you want to check it out, I have it on this post, complete with sarcastic commentary.

The synopsis for the third book was waaaaaaaay long. An epic 5,033 words (7 pages) of material jotted down. Because there was a space of three or so years between the first writing of book one and the first writing of book three, I had kinda complied everything that needed to happen.

But once you've made your synopsis...you can start writing (though I'd advise checking out the last two steps first). Or maybe, if you prefer doing more prep, you can go ahead and start doing your character sheets, plot arcs, chapter outlines, all that fun stuff.

Anyways, if you're keeping track...my All Important Steps to Writing a First Draft are (so far):

-Get the idea
-Let the idea sit
-Write a synopsis
-Character journaling (coming up)
-Write the thing (also coming up)