Sharing the Load, Sharing the Blame – by Leia Shaw

Sharing the load, Sharing the blame – how three authors work together to make magic, by Cari Silverwood, Sorcha Black, and Leia Shaw.

As co-authors of a new book series, the Badass Brats, we’re often asked how we managed to write one book with three authors. Since there were three main characters in the first book, The Dom with a Safeword, and so three different character voices and points of view, we each wrote one character and the POV’s rotated throughout the book. That’s on a logistical level. Here, in our own words, were some ups and downs in working as a team.

Cari: People assume that writing with two other authors must be difficult and fraught with danger. If working with pets and children is bad, you must need Kevlar to work with authors. Although I agree in a way – authors do resemble both animals and children at certain times, mostly suffering from low caffeine blood-levels, I also would have to say that The Dom with a Safeword was great fun to write.

One of the joys I discovered was opening up the doc for the story and finding that the story had moved on without me. The quirks of the people we wrote slowly unfurled without me doing much at all. It was like opening a birthday present most days and added to the whole experience of writing. It helped a lot that we knew exactly who these people were that we were writing. We knew how they ticked and what they’d do when faced by different dilemmas.

I always have bumps and mind tangles that get in the way of me writing my stories but knowing that others needed me to do my part helped enormously. You don’t get writers block when you co-write. If you try to they throw something at you. Did we have arguments? For sure. Sometimes one of us would dig our toes in (mostly Leia lol) but generally it worked out fine.

 

Sorcha: For me, as an unpublished writer (and also new to the genre, as I usually write fantasy), working with two established authors was both nerve wracking and reassuring. It was nerve wracking because I knew that I had a lot to live up to. I didn’t want either of them to regret working with me, so the pressure was on. At first I was shy and a bit intimidated about speaking up for Q during plot discussions, but I quickly realized that her character arc was in my hands. If I didn’t speak for her, who would?  On several occasions I had to save her from saying dorky things at the pens of my co-writers – and at one point even from sucking her thumb!

Being able to work with Leia and Cari was reassuring, though, because when it came to advice about my writing style, they were there for me with gently worded help. They also talked me down a few times when – in moments of frustration – I decided that maybe I should give up writing entirely. When it came time to publish, I had the luxury of watching and learning instead of trying to muddle through the process alone.

The best part of the entire experience was how much fun it was watching the book develop as well as getting to read chapters the other two wrote! I’d write a chapter and get two in return – a very satisfying arrangement. I was checking my chat and e-mail a million times a day, hoping for more book discussion and/or a new chapter.

As we get the sequel started, I’m looking forward to another wild ride!

 

Leia: Since I’m pasting this together, I get to defend myself from my co-author’s accusations. I am NOT the most stubborn and thumb sucking was NOT my idea.

There. Now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to take a different angle. Yes, it was fun and exciting to read what the others wrote, their take on the characters, etc. But since I’m pretty lazy, what I really liked was help plotting. Sometimes it was frustrating because we all had different ideas and we’re all pretty opinionated. I don’t know if you know this, but we authors like having control of our work and don’t always play well with others. But after we finished throwing writer tantrums, we figured out how to compromise. Sorcha and Cari have excellent ideas – sometimes even better than mine, if you can imagine that And we all have opposing strengths and weaknesses. So together, we’re a complete package.

It was also nice having someone who understood the book and characters critiquing my work. I think I grew as an author, learning from two other authors who’s strengths balance my weaknesses. Everything just went faster. Writing, rewriting, editing. And it was so much fun the time moved quickly. I’m really glad I joined the project, even during the most frustrating parts, because it was worth it in the end. I believe in our book. I think it’s a fabulous combination of humor, emotional agony, heartwarming love, and super sexy, kinky romance.

 

Now we’re well into the middle of the second full-length Badass Brats book, The Dom with the Perfect Brats. It’s a little rougher this time around but we’re hoping we ironed out the bumps in the beginning and it’s smooth sailing until the end.

What do you think about writing teams? Is it something you’d be interested in if you found the right people?

Filed under: romance