Two Pieces of the Puzzle

Back many many years ago… like three and a half or so, I was taking a creative writing class. In this class, I had to write a short story.

I had an idea floating around, about the United States selling off land in order to get money. The question came up though, how would a dying country be able to sell to other dying countries? Writing mostly in the fantasy genre, the thought came that maybe supernatural creatures were the ones buying the land. Once the idea was there it led to multiple possibilities. Most of which, would likely end up more than the twenty-page limit. The one idea though, was a human attending an all vampire school.

My fellow classmate, Kayla, liked the idea and we convinced our teacher to let us write a story that showed both the vampire and the human side of this story. And thus, Double-Edged War, was born.

Unlike many people who write together though, we wrote one story, two books. Why? Because each story has two sides and each side by itself is important, but together, it makes a whole.

I can’t say that writing with a partner has been all unicorns and roses. Unless you see unicorn and roses and find the shit and thorns with the beauty.

First, Kayla and I write two different ways. I am very character driven. Meaning my stories go where the characters tell me to take them. Sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a pain in the ass.

Kayla on the other hand is very plot driven. She has the plot pathed out and she makes her characters go down that path. Now that’s not to say either is wrong and nine times out of ten it worked great because she could help me figure out my plot details and I could help her figure out her characters details.

But that tenth time… sometimes got into heated debates. Plot in her head would go one way and my character wouldn’t want to take the path down. For the most part we worked it out and usually it made the story better with whatever choice we ended up with.

The great part of writing with a partner though is knowing someone else is going to kick your ass and make you write. Ok, yes, sometimes I didn’t feel like writing, and sometimes she didn’t. (Me more than her in most cases). But most of the time we were that extra kick to the other to get stuff done.

So would I recommend writing with a partner to others?

Yes.

If you can find someone you trust, someone to make your work better, and someone who will support and encourage you.