The Shoemaker’s Elves

We’ve stressed repeatedly the importance of having the right partner in a collaboration. Kent can attest to that. In fact, it’s absolutely magical.

Jen takes longer to fall asleep each night, and often when Kent checks his email in the morning there’s a shining literary gem awaiting him there. This is most likely to occur when we’re in the outlining or brainstorming stages, as we are right now. The other common scenario comes up during revisions, if there’s a thorny spot that we hadn’t quite decided how to handle. Come the light of day, a viable solution has materialized!

Kent tends to be the source of the more conceptual stuff, which has been known to appear to him in dreams (rarely). He’s got more of a knack for premise than plot, sometimes. Once the big, overarching idea is on the table, we work together on figuring out an actual story that can use it. Jen’s focus on getting all the details to line up is essential. (Aside: this description of our writing workflow is exactly the reverse of how we do crossword puzzles. A blank puzzle stymies Kent utterly, but those last couple of stubborn spaces are where he comes into his own.)

It might not be necessary to discuss sleeping habits with a prospective co-author, but you never can tell what will prove vital to your collaboration.