The importance of having a weapons cabinet. (Or, how to write with someone else).

I recently launched a new book, co-authored with my sister Madeleine Purslow. (The Field of Reeds: In Shadows, out now on Amazon)

Her friend, the writer, Sally Jenkins was greatly intrigued. She was having trouble picturing what it was like to work with another writer. In so far as she could picture it at all, she imagined it as a riot of creative fun, with ideas and banter zinging happily back and forth.

Well, that’s sort of how it goes, you know, a bit, some of the time, occasionally. Then, there are those other times…

Sally asked Maddy if we could give her five hundred or so words on the subject, for a little guest spot on her blog.

We duly obliged and here it is…

The importance of having a weapons cabinet. (Or, how to write with someone else).

So, co-authoring a novel. How does that work? Hmmm, let me introduce you to the weapons cabinet…

Picture, if you will, an antique cabinet in the corner of the room, ornate and a bit dusty. Now, open the doors. They protest a little, they groan, they could do with a spot of oil. Inside though… now, that’s unexpected, every kind of weapon you can think of, softly shining in the half-light. The weapons are all in perfect order and ready for use at a moment’s notice.

Got it? Great, hold that thought, we’ll come back to it in a minute.

So, writing is a solitary thing, isn’t it? You take yourself away from other human beings for hours on end. Go deep inside your own head and stay there.

Stephen King said, writing is actually a form of telepathy. You take words, images, emotions and transfer them from one mind to another. Well, if that works between a writer and a reader, there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t work between two writers.

Well, perhaps not absolutely no reason…

Unless you really, get on well with your potential co-author, don’t even think about it. It has been said, that the best way to break up a friendship, is for two people to go on holiday together. I have a better one, try writing together.

If you are writing with someone else and you are both convinced that you have just come up with the best possible way to express what you are trying to say, who’s words do you use?

That’s where the weapons cabinet comes in…

You have to fight it out. Maybe with twin swords? Or, sneaky, ninja, throwing stars? Even a ball point pen can be lethal in the right hands…

Eventually, a compromise, the best of both worlds. Two brains really can be better than one. They had better be brains that genuinely like each other though. Whatever wounds you inflict in the heat of battle, you have to be able to live with afterwards.

So, what about the nuts and bolts? Well, it starts with huge brain storming sessions, lots of notes and a lot of laughing. You build the world, the shared playground and agree on a writing style.

Then, it may be that we take a chapter each, go away and write it. Or, if we are really unsure about how a chapter should go, then we both write the same chapter and ‘swap papers,’ like doing a test at school. Then we… Did you hear the creak, as the weapons cabinet doors opened?

Boundaries are also important, recognising who does what best. If you know your co-author is better at dialogue, or spooky atmospheres, or has a real feel for a particular character, then, you do what serves the story. After a trip to the weapons cabinet, obviously.

So, there you are. This blog has been brought to you after a short but vicious fight, by the gestalt brain that is Madrob, or possibly Robeleine. We have to decide which. Excuse us for a moment, we are just going to the weapons cabinet…



The Field of Reeds in Shadows