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Writing by the Pair
Have you ever wondered why shoes come in identical pairs? Wouldn’t it be more interesting to mix things up a bit? Granted, heel height has to match to avoid that annoying monster-lurch as you walk, but why must your right foot be clad in the same color, style, and material as your left?
We’re HL Carpenter, the mother/daughter writing duo of Helen and Lorri, and no, we don’t generally think about shoes much, unless they pinch. We do think about writing quite a bit, and that’s what led to the question of shoes. Specifically, we were tiptoeing around the topic of this post, which was supposed to be about our experience writing as a team. While we were thinking on our feet, we started contemplating the characters we create, and how to keep them from wearing our shoes - that is, from being too much like us.
You know where we’re going with this metaphor, of course, so here it is: As writers, we get to cobble shoes for our characters. Within the metaphor, there’s also the rub - who do the shoes fit? Our character? Or us, the writers?
For example, in our young adult novel, The SkyHorse, there are two pairs of mother/daughter characters in the forefront and one in the background. Of the main characters, Gramma wears pink socks, Mom favors sandals, and the young heroine, Tovi, likes sneakers. We can easily step into in any of those, and have.
Yet if the shoes fit us too well, different characters end up in identical footwear, figuratively speaking. The characters become interchangeable because they’re all like us. Conformity is okay for shoes, but not so much for the people who populate books.
Fortunately, we found a solution we think is a shoe-in. In our opinion, part of the pleasure of writing fiction is the opportunity to learn about our characters by walking in their shoes. So we slide into those puppies, and set off, merrily hopping, skipping, and jumping through the twists and turns of the story. The goal is not to make the shoes our own, but to understand the people who actually wear them.
By the final page, our feet are sore, the shoes are scuffed, and we’re where we want to be - in step with our characters.
So far, none of our characters have taken a walk on the wild side and donned mismatched shoes. Still, they all dance to their own tune. We’re comfortable with that. You know what they say. If the shoe fits...let your character wear it.
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About the authors:
The SkyHorse is their debut novel.
About The SkyHorse:
When fourteen year-old Tovi Taggert moves to Honeysuckle Hollow to take care of her grandmother, she has a hard time fitting in. For one thing, she’s been tagged with the hated nickname Too-Tall Tovi. For another, everyone at Honeysuckle Hollow High believes Tovi played the Choking Game with someone else’s boyfriend – and made out with him besides.
As if she doesn’t have enough problems, after the latest stand-off in the school hallway, Tovi finds a gorgeous speckled egg nestled in a feather lined nest.
She takes the egg home – and mysterious visitors begin appearing almost immediately. Even more worrisome, whatever is inside the egg starts chipping its way out.
When the egg hatches, revealing a winged horse, Tovi’s troubles multiply.
As she struggles to return the horse to the magical land where he belongs, Tovi must make a courageous decision – and accept what that decision will cost her.
Find The SkyHorse on:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
GoodReads
Musa Publishing (includes excerpt!)
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Thanks so much for being with us today, ladies!
Happy writing,
~Lydia
Sounds like a neat book!
ReplyDeleteThe shoe analogy is pretty cool in creating characters different from each other and different enough from ourselves. Though I'm still curious though about how you march in step as a writing team. My husband is working with me on one of my stories: the first book of a projected trilogy. I'm doing nearly all the words on paper part ("You're the writer, not me," as he says), but he created the world setting in the first place, goes over plot with me, making sure I stay consistent in people's abilities and motivations, and numerous other details. (He's really good with his part, even if he refuses to claim as much credit for it as I'd give him.) So our balance works really well for us in this part of the drafting stage. But I'm always curious how other partners divvy up the work.
Interesting analogy. I often worry that my characters may be too much an extension of myself. I try to watch for that, but perhaps I should keep your ideas in mind to help in the future. Thanks so much, and best of luck with your writing endeavors.
ReplyDelete@Jaleh - thanks for the comment. As for writing together, it sounds like you and your husband figured out a good way to work together. A combination of the collaborative/cooperative style is our choice. We decide on the overall story, write out a general outline from start to finish (leaving plenty of room for individual side excursions), and then take turns writing chapters, in chronological order. After the whole book is finished, we both go over the complete manuscript until we're satisfied with it.
ReplyDeleteHey, Cordelia! Thanks, and best of luck to you, too!
Helen & Lorri
Great post, guys! You must be really close to write together. I love the title The Sky Horse btw.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shanta! We have the standard mother/daughter relationship - which is to say, it has standard-issue rocky days. ;) We muddle through.
ReplyDeleteWe want to give a big shout-out to Lydia, for the opportunity to post here, and also for the great job making our words look pretty -- and for going the extra mile to look up and add the links we forgot! THANKS, LYDIA!!
Helen & Lorri
You're very welcome, it was my pleasure! Thanks again for taking the time to write this for our benefit. :-)
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