Sharing the Load with A Writing Partner

Last night was an interesting case in our collaboration workflow.

We’re revising the first draft of our third novel, after poring over all the marked-up copies from our critique group and also doing a fresh read-through of our own. The result is that we have about one hundred significant notes marked throughout the manuscript (Along with another couple hundred picky mechanical things).

This book is the last of a trilogy, which means it relies on knowledge from the first two. In an ideal world it would stand on its own, but this is not an ideal world. The need for recap and reminders about previous events applies somewhat in any sizable work, but it’s especially important to manage it well when the information spans more than one volume. Due to the somewhat unusual structure to our trilogy, this problem did not arise in volume 2, which makes this the first time we’ve had to attempt this delicate balance. Too much recap and the reader gets bored, too little and the reader gets lost.

So after flagging all the notes as “recap” or “other,” we discussed how to divvy up the load. One of the main advantages to working with a writing partner is that many hands make light work. With both collaborators working at the same time you can get done sooner. I proposed that I could take all the recaps, because it looked like roughly half of the work and it felt like there would be a mode to get into with it. My writing partner would tackle all the “other” stuff. My theory was there would be less shifting gears if all the recap-type stuff was given to the same person.

My partner was reluctant to embrace the idea, largely because this recapping is new territory for our collaboration. She was concerned that if I started out headed in the wrong direction I might get lost in some backwoods swamp of info-dumps and “as you know Bob.” We talked about it a bit more and came up with a plan that addressed the concerns. Because we don’t have an established model to follow, we agreed that I’d only do one to start off, and then we’d look it over and make sure we both liked the approach.

That first discussion did lead to some minor alterations, and the same thing happened with the next one. We’re finding the right groove, and soon I’ll be able to cook up batches of three or four at a time. Or, if she gets tired of hunting down minor plot inconsistencies and describing settings and character clothing in greater detail, we will be able to trade off assignments and maintain the level of stylistic consistency we need.