SHE WROTE: How We Write

So how do we communicate?

Badly. I didn’t even know he blogged yesterday. And I thought it was going to be tough to get him to do it once a week, bless his camouflaged little heart. Go, Bob, that’s what I say.

Where was I? Right, how we communicate. That would be e-mail. If we’re pedal to the metal on a book, it’s sixty to seventy a day. If it’s just business, getting organized to start a book, not writing, it’s closer to forty. Of course, half of Bob’s are “Huh?” “OK,” or “Book done yet?” It’s the last one that’s going to make me drive six hundred miles one day and beat him senseless with the keyboard.

But rather than tell you how we did it, I’ll show you. All e-mails quoted in this blog post are exactly the way they were sent, except for the places I’ve used X’s and Y’s to keep from spoiling the plot of DLD.


1. First we negotiated the rules of the partnership, which were essentially that we each had the last word on our characters’ voices and actions, and that we’d rewrite each other’s scenes, but the person who wrote it originally had the last word. We were both good with the rewrites, although Bob did say:

To: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Hey
Date: December 14, 2004
From: Bob Mayer
Actually, I would prefer if you would consider what I've written like the word of God-- inviolable and absolute. To be worshipped. Ok, now off to gym.


2. Then we discussed in depth the themes and motifs we’d be working with:

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Sex and Money
To: Bob Mayer
So DLD happens because X wants sex and Finnegan wants money, and hires Y who wants sex and money and can't walk away from either, which draws in Wilder who wants sex and money (laid and paid) but who walks away from Z and the CIA for Lucy, and LaFavre who wants sex and money but who turns away from Z because of the kidnap plot (yeah, I rewrote that part). So keeping Letsky from getting the jade, and Finnegan from getting the money and X from getting anything means Love triumphs over Sex.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: Sex and Money
Ok

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: Sex and Money
I love these long, rich, thematic discussions we have.
I think they bring us closer together, don't you?

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: Sex and Money
Yep


3. Okay, sometimes he wrote whole sentences, for example, when we discussed our different approaches to writing, like our use of exposition. I like to fold it into dialogue, avoiding the awful “as you know” stuff. Bob likes to bomb the reader with it as infodump. When I tried to cut it from his stuff, he wrote:

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: Exposition
Chill on the exposition a little. We do have more plot here than you're used to. We can cut it later.

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: Exposition
You know, if Crawford is telling Wilder stuff he needs to know, I'm fine with it. It's the stuff where the story stops and the author steps in to explain the Gatling Gun that I'm going to get snitty about.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: Exposition
Fuck. I just did the Gatling gun scene.
I am learning from the master. Instead of dumping it, I'm putting it in witty and snappy dialogue between Crawford and Wilder. Then I'm going to do witty and snappy dialogue between Sniper and the tour guide who will tell him the history of the bridge. Quite fascinating.


4. When we did have a disagreement, we discussed it like adults.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: Agnes
Okay. Agnes is done with the game. She's getting ready to quit after her last article comes out. About the lousy Four Stars. And bad guy paid her editor off to re-write her article to say Four Stars is the greatest thing.

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: Agnes
Yeah, but then what is she going to do? She must have a back-up plan. She's going to write a book, maybe. She's got a book contract . . . nah, they wouldn't give her one if she were going to quit. She's not going to quit. She stuck. She's got drywall to pay for.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: Agnes
I like the symmetry-- she's quitting because she's so powerful and doesn't like it, but she's going to get whacked because she's so powerful.

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: Agnes
I don't think she's quitting. But she may be hitting the wall. Getting ready to scream. And then in walks this Zen-calm hitman.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: Agnes
We invent a national Sunday magazine that runs in all major cities. We'll call it BOBSTER. Everyone who is anyone reads it. And her column is a big hit because it's snarky and about restaurants. And this one is going to be the biggest of all because it's her LAST because she’s quitting and no one knows what she's going to do next.

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: Agnes
No, Bob.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: NO
Did you just say no to me?
Hmm.
I quit.

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: NO
You'll be back. They always come back.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: NO
It's her last article for BOBSTER. Everyone knows she's on to something bigger and better, which means she'll be even more famous, which bugs her, but really torques bad guy out as everyone will be talking about her article slamming Four Stars then, because it's a really great snarky negative review, which of course, you, are going to have to write.

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: NO
Writing the review is not a problem. She says, knowing she doesn't have to do it for months yet. Last article. Fuck. How about a truce and we come back to this? I love THE BOBSTER. Can't help it. I crack up every time I read it.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: NO
Hell, I don't care. I'm easy.

From: Jenny Crusie
Subject: Re: NO
EXCUSE ME???? Look at the subject line on this e-mail. You all-capsed me.

From: Bob Mayer
Subject: Re: NO
All yours now. YEC time. I did the plot. Now write the book.
Return of the King is on. I want to see how it ends. Do the good guys win or does Sauron rule Middle Earth? Bobster wants to know.


Like I said, I’m not sure six hundred miles is far enough.

(YEC stands for "Yucky Emotional Crap" which comes from one of the first things Bob said to me after we agreed to write DLD: "I don't do that Yucky Emotional Crap." So I do the YEC.)

Once we have a plan, we write the scenes and put them into act files (act one, act two, etc.) and swap them back and forth, keeping track of who has the master and relabeling them with dates so we know what’s what. And we keep doing that until the book is done. Okay, it’s a little more complicated than that, given our vastly different writing processes, but this blog entry is long enough. Oh, and all of that stuff about Agnes? It’s not a plot spoiler. All of that disappeared months ago as we worked out the plot. It’s a real shame, too. I loved that magazine called The Bobster.

Over to you, Bobster.