Tagged: aloud

Our Kids Should Probably Not Read This Post

r-avatarRune Skelley novels contain sex, most of it on the unsavory end of the scale. It’s not that our happy, well-adjusted couples don’t have sex. They do. We just don’t talk about it because it’s boring. And also, we don’t often choose to write about happy, well-adjusted couples. When I say that the sex is boring, I only mean that it’s boring for us to write about and would, therefor, probably be boring to read about. The happy, well-adjusted couples having the sex find it pleasurable and satisfying, which is part of what makes them happy, well-adjusted couples.

There are authors that can make that kind of sex exciting to read, but Rune Skelley is not interested in being that kind of author. Rune Skelley is interested in being a big ol’ pervert. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the prompts here on the Skelleyverse that have the sex tag. But don’t say you weren’t warned. It’s a heap of unsavoriness.

At the end of 2013 when we did our blog-tidying, we were a little surprised to discover how many of the posts got slapped with the sex tag. I mean, we know we’re both perverts. We’ve been married forever. We know each other pretty well. We just didn’t realize how often our dirty minds bubbled to the surface. It was, shall we say, educational.

Another way that our prompted writing differs from the writing we do for our novels, is that in our novels, the happy well-adjusted couples have sex, they just do it off camera. We let them have their privacy so that we can go peep through the blinds at what the more morally challenged characters are doing to each other. In the prompts, there doesn’t seem to be any vanilla sex at all. It’s either kinky and disturbing, or non-existent.

And to think there was a period of time when we read these aloud to our critique group on a weekly basis. Yes, including the ones featuring the Loch Ness Monster, the explosives, and even the whorehouse and the balloon full of live bees.

Bedtime Story

r-avatarAs you write you become fully engrossed in your scenes, whether you write solo or with a collaborator. You know why you chose the words you did, and why you left certain things unsaid. You have an innate understanding of the work because you created it. When you are working with a writing partner, it can be a challenge to fully absorb what your other half has composed, to gain that same level of understanding. But for a novel to feel like a cohesive whole, and not merely the sum of its parts, both you and your co-author must find a way to gain that intimate knowledge.

One of our nightly rituals is to read aloud the new pages that were written that day. It really helps to bond us both to the work, and we both get it imprinted in our brains. After the reading, we discuss. We talk about what we liked in each other’s piece, and what we think needs work. We share why we handled things in a particular way, and talk about whether it was the best way. This is a great time to iron out little inconsistencies, too. It can be tricky to make everything line up seamlessly when we’re working simultaneously on scenes that lead one into the other. Some changes get made immediately, others get a note that will be addressed during the first editing pass.

Even if you work by yourself, you should routinely read your stuff out loud. It’s a very useful method for spotting awkward construction, and repeated or dropped words. Read to your sweetie or your pet if you feel silly reading aloud to an empty room. Or marry your writing partner and spend your life crafting your own favorite bedtime stories.

Verbal Interaction

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is actually facing the empty page.

Sometimes sitting at the keyboard doesn’t trigger your creativity.

One way of dealing with those problems is dictation. Many writers speak into a recorder for later transcription, or use speech recognition software to capture their words directly into text.

Hearing my fellow writers talk about such tactics, I’m struck by the ways in which a collaborative writing arrangement offers the same benefits automatically. It’s natural to read fresh passages aloud to your partner, and hearing things aloud is one of the fastest ways to identify areas for improvement. (You could also treat your partner like a secretary on Mad Men, but that’s getting a bit personal.)

Kidding aside, we routinely give each other dictation. We work on two separate copies of the text, each on our own machine, and then sync up the changes. If the passage is long, we’ll usually swap files around to accomplish synchronization. But our revision process often consists of small edits, and these we trade verbally. It keeps the process a conversation, literally.

This conversation begins in the brainstorming and outlining stage, continues through the composition stage, and on through all the stages of editing. In future posts we’ll talk in more detail about our joint approach to the various stages, and how having an ally can make all the difference.