Fast forward to the present moment, and it’s way harder to arrive
at my writing desk with the same amount of zeal as I did last fall. The
honeymoon period is definitely over.
As you all know, I had a summer full of all kinds of
adventures, very few of them having anything to do with sitting at a desk and writing
a novel. Towards the end of the summer, I was complaining to a writer friend about
how little progress I made on my novel.
“My gears are creaky,” I told her. “I can’t get into it.”
It seemed liked everything I wrote was dry and forced, and I
couldn’t seem to get into a groove. (I wanted my strange writing groove from last
fall to magically reappear!) She was in the same position with her novel—re-working
a full draft—and we decided to schedule a writing date to move forward on our respective
projects. She would come to my house and we would hold each other accountable
to write for several hours. And write we did, dammit.
Since that initial writing date, all of the progress that I have
made on my novel has been with her in the room. Once or twice a week, she comes
over with some snacks and we chat for a while before setting the timer for one
hour. And every time that alarm goes off, we’re surprised by how fast the time
flew by. And every time she leaves my house several hours later, neither of us can
wipe the silly grins off our faces. We’re doing it. Slowly but surely, these novels
are getting written. It’s taking a lot of time and elbow grease, but it’s
happening.
When I told her how different my writing process was for
this draft than the first one, she laughed and made a really good point.
“We’re at places in the revision process that are not the
most fun,” she said.
We’re not just dreaming up characters and fun situations to
put them in. We’re sweating and toiling to turn those whimsies into
masterpieces. (Or at least into some kind of finished product. Whether it’s any
good or not remains to be seen.)
I still love my characters, but I see how complicated crafting
a compelling story actually is. You cannot simply string together a few curious
incidents and call it a novel. Readers need so much more than that to connect
to a story in a meaningful way.
The storyline I mapped out over the summer is in constant
flux. Every time I sit down to write, my perfect plot is in danger of taking an
unexpected turn. Characters act out in unpredictable ways. What I thought was
the climax has shifted. Characters that I thought were minor have become major,
and vice versa. Things come up that I didn’t prepare for, like hurricanes and
broken arms. And then what?
The truth is, I’m dealing with a living, breathing animal
with a mind of its own. For the first time, I am beginning to understand the fiction
writer’s dilemma of striking the delicate balance between controlling the narrative
and letting the story take the reins. It’s an amazing and beautiful and scary
process.
All the confidence that I had in my novel when I first
started has leaked out of my brain, which makes it hard to return to the
manuscript with the same gusto I once had. But luckily, I don’t have to feel
like I’m in it all by myself. Although I’ve shared work with many writers over
the years, I’ve never had an active writing partnership like this one. I’ve
heard of other writers who always write together, but I had never
seen the value in it until now. I’m grateful for my writing partner who knows
when to talk shop and when to get down to business.
So much of writing has to be done all by our lonesome. So why not try to make it into a team activity? It's not as if I can't write on my own, but it's just more fun this way!
Remember! Always use the buddy system!!
Speaking of which, check out my BUST interview with my friend and client, Thelsuice Gonzalez, as we discuss the process of working on her memoir as a team.
