Sharing a Voice

A common remark about our work is that it feels seamless. Our fellow writers express surprise at being unable to pick out which parts Kent wrote and which parts Jen wrote. This is an important element of our partnership, and it’s not something that happens by accident.

Maintaining this common voice requires attention at all stages of the process. It falls out more naturally in the early steps, because we typically work together when developing story concepts and outlining a plot. Once we have the scene list, we break that down so that we each get approximately half, and for the next little while we tend to be working individually more often than not.

Composing separately allows us to generate a draft in half the time, but if we’re not careful it could also allow us to run into big problems. If our interpretations of the target voice aren’t alike, the scenes might not mesh. So we keep each other updated on our progress, and we critique the scenes as they’re written. This keeps us from straying in different stylistic directions, although after working as a team for a few years we can “do the voice” automatically at this point.

Revision is when we do most of the blending. Jen works the scenes that are a little too Kent, and vice-versa, so we don’t leave any loose edges for the reader to trip on. The objective isn’t to take out each partner’s individual flair, but to make sure the combined effect is fluid and harmonious throughout. Sometimes that does require toning certain things down, but only if they were genuinely overdone in the first place.

For example, Kent has a proclivity for ostentatious word usage. Not just trotting out the expensive words like “proclivity,” but also a perverse drive to exploit the most arcane connotations of familiar words. A useful skill for an author, but also a really effective way to limit readership if it’s not managed. And, if it cropped up at seemingly random times it could easily feel like another story invading. Rather than removing all of the fancy verbiage, we make sure it’s evenly represented (at a reasonable level) throughout.

There’s a lot more we could say about this aspect of a writing partnership. After all, being able to work well with each other doesn’t matter if your results feel cobbled-together. So we’ll be revisiting this in future posts.