At the many writing conferences and workshops I’ve attended over the years, I’ve heard about writers who collaborate on a variety of projects, and I always wondered how it worked. It seemed to be a rare, hushed process that took place under mysterious, obscure conditions. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d have the opportunity to work with another gifted writer and produce something that was the pairing of two separate, creative minds.
Would It Work?
Every writer faces challenges with the writing process, their own style and structure, or getting stuck somewhere and struggling to find the way forward. If I battled those obstacles on my own, how would adding a co-author to the mix affect our combined efforts? What would happen if we disagreed on the direction our story should go?
Perhaps more of a challenge (in my mind) was the fact that I’d never met my co-author (Paul V. Hunter) in person, and he lived halfway across the world, in Scotland. And yet, there was something there — a warm, reassuring voice that told me it would work, and it would be an amazing, creative experience. After several text conversations, we decided to write a historical romantic adventure series set in Medieval Scotland. With that decision, our Scotland’s Knight series was born.
What It Wasn’t
Before we started, my mind tossed around various scenarios about how our writing collaboration process would unfold. Several possibilities came to mind: Paul would write the male character, and I would write the female. We could alternate chapters or write the chapters where our characters had the most influence or had the more prominent role. One of us would start the story, and the other would finish it. As it turns out, it was none of these.
What It Was
Turns out, it was magic — a magic we pledged to keep to ourselves and not share with anyone. The magic we found works for us and may not work for anyone else. So, while we treasure what we found and guard it vigilantly, we encourage other collaborators to find their own writing magic. It won’t be like ours; it will be uniquely yours, however it evolves for you. What we discovered is that our writing partnership is not a series of steps or a set of instructions. It can’t be defined or explained in easy terms. It has a life and a spirit all its own.
Our extraordinary collaboration produced three, amazing novellas, and we are finishing the fourth in our Scotland’s Knight series.
Oh, one more thing. On a magical, memorable day in October we met in person. In Scotland.
