SHE WROTE: The Joy of Collaborating

So Bob gives me the master copy of Agnes and I’m reading through it, skimming my scenes because I know what they say, and reading a great scene he’s written where the Big Bad shoots at Shane, Our Hero, in the swamp and Shane goes after him, wonderful stuff, Bob’s actions scenes just crackle. And I think, “I can make my scene better, more like Bob’s, get Agnes moving,” so I go back and it turns out Bob already added action to one of Agnes’s scenes where she’s arguing with Shane and his uncle, Joey. There’s now a line that reads, “Agnes stomped her foot.”

AGNES STOMPED HER FOOT?

And then she threw a hissy fit because she had PMS and went shopping.

What kind of dumbbutt heroine stomps her foot when she gets mad?

But I know Bob was only trying to help, so I helped him, too. I went back to the action scene and just as Shane is about to catch the Big Bad, he sees a fluffy little kitten being menaced by a one-eyed gator. What would a hero do? Rescue the kitten, of course. And then the kitten looks up at Shane with big kitten eyes, and Shane says, “I’m gonna call you Bubbles.”

And in the next scene Shane crochets a tiny sweater for little Bubbles.

Stomped her foot, my ass.