Recently my
writing buddy Talina and I hit a bump in our writing partnership. I should say or so we thought. It seems we both got a little worried that we
are now writing the same genre. Well of
course we talked about this at some length yesterday both at a loss for what to
do. I mean how could we both write the
same genre and discuss it with one another without giving up our greatest twist
and turns?
To make a very
long conversation short, we called in who we like to call the experts. Some in the form of Google and others well-closer
to us-our husbands. We know that they
are experts on the matter for two reasons.
One, they are both highly intelligent individuals who shoot straight
from the hip. In other words if you
don’t want to know the truth, for heaven sake don’t ask one of them if you
don’t want an honest answer. The second reason is they both have seen this
relationship blossom first hand and know that more than our writing would suffer
from this new turn of events.
For those of you
that don’t know, Talina and I have been joined at the hip since we met. Our friendship was sealed first when we both
realized we shared a love of writing and the passion of wanting to be published
authors.
That paragraph
doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the relationship that we
share. Not only do we encourage one
another when the other feels that their writing is going nowhere. We will sit for hours on a subject that our
story line contains but we haven’t figured out how exactly it’s going to work
in the land of make believe that we spin daily.
And yes, then there are times when our brains are mush from being mom’s
all day and the last thing we can try to do is work on our current WIP. It is during those times our friendship
really shines. We know instantly when
the other one is having a bad day without saying a word or isn’t motivated in
the least to write, so we do what any good friend will do and that’s sinking
down into the abyss and grab each other’s hand no questions asked and sweetly
smile and say “Hey chica, I got your back and we’ll get through this together.” And oh, by the way did I mention we do every
single bit of this online sight unseen?
Don’t ask me how we know these things about one another through our
comps. We just do, thank goodness!
So back to the
topic on how we can possibly continue all that we have going on with our own
WIP and not cross over in the ideas department.
Well, as I said earlier our husband’s came up with the solution we were
diligently looking for. Although one husband
actually found it, the other whole heartedly agreed and it is as follows:
Top Ten Reasons to
Write with a Partner
10. It’s a
dog-eat-dog business-and vice versa- but when you write with a partner,
there’s always one person in town looking
out for your interest.
9. Writing is
lonely. It doesn’t have to be (and it isn’t if you write with a partner).
8. Two imagination
really are better than one.
7. Collaboration
leads to better brain storming.
6. A writing
workout partner helps you stay focused and productive.
5. Complementing
(and complementing) each other leads to stronger ideas.
4. Writing with a
partner improves mental health (and it’s cheaper then
antidepressants).
3. A partner can
help you conquer writer’s block.
2. Collaborating
makes you a better writer (and maybe a better person).
1. Carpool Lane. (You ride to the finish
line together.
I do want to add
that these ten reasons must be mixed with the right measure of total trust, value
for a friendship that is everlasting, and the most important one, a heaping
measure of your gut feeling. That last ingredient allows you to revel in the
fact that you can whisper those magical twist and turns to your writing buddy
and they will only be revealed when your precious current WIP that has you
wearing your heart on your sleeve because you’re so passionate about it but you
just knew when you met, that those kind of secrets would not be revealed until
that WIP has made it to the bookshelf for all the world to discover. I have found that in my writing partner. I
could have never handed over that trust if Talina hadn’t first became my
friend.
The moral of this
story, if you are considering a writing buddy you must find the one that will
tell you that line stinks, will not allow you to cry alone over those beloved
characters you’ll choose to cut out but most important when it’s all said and
done and you become a published author she will be in the front row cheering
the loudest because your dreams are coming true. If you have been blessed to
find a unique person like that then you have my word you have found a forever writing buddy and
friend.
Its Friday need I say more! Here at the Fitzgerald home we cherish the weekends. It starts when everyone finally comes home usually with big smiles on their faces because it’s whatever you want to do time. The boys usually play the guitars, watch a movie and yes most Fridays its pizza night!
