It's rather simple really...but then again, not so simple. Because as it turns out, most simple things tend to turn out to be pretty complicated...(just like how this intro is going to sound when i read it back to myself)
I'll just say: "We were at a bar."
It's funny because that's such a cliche thing to say- "We were at a bar.", because so many stories, yarns, tomes, even just complete bullshit start with the whole bar scene scenario that it actually seems like the beginning of bad, to mediocre fictitious beginnings- but it's the truth.
My co-author DENNIS O'BRIEN and I were at a bar, both of us just having recently graduated college, and itching to get back in the ROUTINE of writing. We really missed the daily writer's grind. Meaning: that "feeling" you have when you're all set to come to school, everyday, like clockwork, and write. That feeling becomes very comfortable, and believe me, once you're out of the school setting, and no one is breathing down your neck to perform, or hitting the dance-monkey-dance drum on assignments that need to be turned in by deadline- that "feeling, that motivation can wane.
It gets hard to find the sparks you need to ignite to write, especially directly after college (I think we were a year out, each of us when we started this venture) because you're suddenly thrust out into the "real world" and the environment changes so much- that it actually ends up fucking with your creative "Chi" and that routine you're so used to gets shocked directly out of your system.
But we said "fuck shock", we didn't want to just drop off...get lazy, and not continue to be collaborators.
We both had been editors for our college newspaper (Dennis was the Sports Section editor, and I was the Arts and Entertainment Section editor) and we missed that discipline that the college setting affords you, becaue believe me, you can get lethargic without someone telling you to write anything, or being assigned something to write about.
In college, as a the writers we were, we were enclosed in this little comfy nook of a writer's bubble, where there was always material present and really good peer-to-peer contact to ping ideas off to bounce back on you to feed the creative process- and we liked that discipline <-----this was the BIG THING.
So we wanted to stay disciplined.
So, back to the bar...I came in with an idea I had sketched out that I approached Dennis with. Basically, I had an outline. Well, more like a diagram. For people who know me, and who know the way I write, I'm always drawing diagrams and like these little character time lines and event synopses on crappy pieces of paper, napkins, or my personal fave- the back of those shitty place mats you get at restaurant with all the local advertising on them.
I drew up what I wanted the story to be "about" in what could possibly be the shittiest way anyone had ever drawn up an outline for a story. I was using pictures, and characters names, and jotting in themes, and locations all over the place- and to many- that all may have been the most confusing fucking thing ever. But you see, all throughout college Dennis and I had been like kindred writing spirits, so when I started to put the pedal to the metal, and really get my point across, he instantly understood what I was going for. (This I what happens when you work with a good partner.) It's not a forced tango- things just fall into place- and they did. And when they did, Dennis instantly started to add really awesome little bits to the story, too and it grew into something we both knew we could do as a tandem.
But we needed order. So, we agreed on a few things that would have to be set in stone. Because without agreeing on what to set in stone, with two writers working on a piece, with an ensemble of characters,.different motifs, voices, tones, themes, etc etc. things could have gotten really shitty, really quickly.
We set the story up backwards. We knew, already just from that conversation, where it was going to end. I feel like if you don't know your ending, when you're writing a story, it's like getting into a car and hopping on the road without a destination. And I don't like that feeling. I like knowing where I am going to end up, I like knowing where the story and the characters are going to end up as well because there's a guiding sense of control knowing EXACTLY what the ending is going to be and working towards it. So does Dennis. So knowing exactly where we wanted this story to go, from the very first meeting, with my crazy diagrams and character ideas, was a huge plus.
Next, was figuring out, who was going to write whom? And what? And where? and all that stuff...and what perspective this endeavor was going to be written in as a whole. After a few drinks, and some pondering and some more drinks and some pondering, we basically said: "Fuck it" let the perspective of the narrative shift. We just felt it would be more fun, and give the story a very sinewy type feel because we had already agreed that we definitely did not want to write a completely linear narrative- we wanted to play with structure and free form it in a buck the norm post structuralist type of way, without coming off like two assholes who seemed like they did not have a handle on the material itself.
Matching our "voices" as individual authors was another big thing we discussed- because Dennis and I do have stylistic differences. And from that, questions came up like: Did we want to know which one of us wrote which piece of the story? Or, did we want to keep it unknown? Really, that worked itself out a we moved on with it as we both glossed, and polished and added and took away from each installment. The perspectives of the narrative may shift- but the voice is relative through out, and became easier as we got to really know our characters own voices.
Then came the big question: How will you know what to write after I add something or take something away? To keep the answer to that question simple- we played it like it a choose your own adventure novel in some ways (obviously we would correspond with ideas about each story o we each had some clue a to where it was going and contact and communication is paramount) but neither of us wanted to be painted into a corner, and the only real rule we went by, was if someone was going to get killed off, give a brother some head's up, so neither of us would start writing something that did not make sense because a character was DEAD and not in the story anymore. (But even with that, there's ways around it, and if The Bible could bring people back to life, we figured so could we.)
Other than that, we followed a: "You write an installment, I'll write an installment" regiment and we went from there, then we each looked over the work- and kept writing from where the other author left off, like a relay race passing the baton.
The work was all about making the characters pop...seeing where we could take them...seeing what we could put them through...what kind of genre we could bend...what two genres, or even three or four, we could mix together to create a cocktail that would simply be FUN TO READ.
Because when it stops being fun, then I'll/We'll stop doing it- and that goes with, and, to, for anything in BOTH OUR LIVES.
So, we hope we gain some readers as we post- and we hope you all enjoy it.
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