{"id":11468,"date":"2016-11-11T08:25:24","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T21:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=11468"},"modified":"2016-11-14T11:47:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T00:47:27","slug":"how-alanbaxter-and-davidwoodweb-co-wrote-primordial-bloodcodex-and-darkrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/how-alanbaxter-and-davidwoodweb-co-wrote-primordial-bloodcodex-and-darkrite\/","title":{"rendered":"How @AlanBaxter and @davidwoodweb co-wrote #Primordial, #BloodCodex and #DarkRite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover-primordial\"As many of you know, I recently co-wrote a book with nine(!) authors (“Into Tordon<\/a>” by Z.F. Kingbolt<\/a>), so am particularly fascinated by collaborative writing at the moment. A few weeks ago, Alan Baxter<\/a> and David Wood<\/a> released the cover for their upcoming collaborative novel, “Primordial”. It looks amazing! Here’s the blurb:<\/p>\n

When eccentric billionaire Ellis Holloway hires renegade marine biologist Sam Aston to investigate the legend of a monster in a remote Finnish lake, Aston envisions an easy paycheck and a chance to clear his gambling debts. But he gets much more. Something terrible lives beneath the dark waters of Lake Kaarme, and it\u2019s hungry. As the death toll mounts, Aston faces superstitious locals, a power-hungry police chief, and a benefactor\u2019s descent into madness as he races to find the legendary beast of the lake<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So how did David and Alan go about collaborating over the writing of their awesome books? To find out, I asked them…<\/p>\n

When you write collaboratively, how do you make the decisions? Do you both have an equal say? What happens when there\u2019s a stalemate?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan:<\/strong> We\u2019ve done it differently for different projects, but fundamentally we work out an outline first, knock that back and forth, then get into the actual writing. There\u2019s not really been a stalemate yet, as we\u2019re both fairly flexible when it comes to making the story work. It does tend to be Dave putting in more work on the initial outline.<\/p>\n

David: <\/strong>When issues come up, we go back-and-forth until we figure it out. Sometimes it\u2019s a simple matter of an email exchange. Other times we\u2019ll have a Skype chat if we need to think something through. As Al said, we work fairly well together and both have a pretty good feel for what makes a story work.<\/p>\n

Did you agree that was how things were going be before you started writing, or did your working relationship evolve into that system, and were there any hurdles with that?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan:<\/strong> It just kind of grew naturally that way. To be honest, the whole thing has been fairly hurdle-free thus far!<\/p>\n

David: <\/strong>For whatever reason, we work well together and are pretty good at working in a way that emphasizes our respective strengths. Now that we\u2019ve written three books together, we\u2019ve evolved to a point at which I do most of the heavy lifting in terms of plot, Al does most of the prose, and we share equally in other aspects.<\/p>\n

With the collaborative writing I\u2019ve done, it\u2019s my job to ensure the story has a consistent voice and tone. With yours, does one person do a \u2018voice\u2019 or \u2018tone\u2019 edit, or do you write so similarly that a consistent voice and\/or tone comes naturally, and have you experienced any hurdles with that?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"dark-rite-new\"Alan:<\/strong> We edit what the other wrote, then write our bit and so on. The tone tends to settle down naturally that way. Our styles are similar enough that it works, which is partially why we\u2019ve continued to collaborate. Although, when it comes to regional stuff, Dave does all the last pass on the US dialogue and I do all the British and Australian to get that right.<\/p>\n

How do you cope emotionally with working collaboratively, where egos and ideas must remain subservient to \u2018the story\u2019?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan:<\/strong> We are without ego and live to serve the story.<\/p>\n

David: <\/strong>Something we preach on our podcast is to not be \u201cprecious\u201d about your work, and we do a pretty good job of living by that rule. We each respect what the other brings to the table.<\/p>\n

Which is the hardest part of collaborative writing for you \u2013 conceptual, writing, editing, production or marketing \u2013 and why?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan:<\/strong> It\u2019s all hard in different ways. I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s any one part that\u2019s the hardest except for the part that\u2019s hardest with all writing \u2013 getting it noticed!<\/p>\n

David: <\/strong> Living on opposite sides of the world poses a challenge. If I\u2019m working in the morning and need to discuss something with Al, I have to wait eight hours or so until he wakes up. Otherwise, it\u2019s pretty smooth.<\/p>\n

What would be your biggest tip for anyone thinking of writing collaboratively?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"blood-codex\"<\/em>Alan:<\/strong> Don\u2019t. But seriously, only work with someone you know you can match in terms of time, style, content, and so on. And make sure there are no egos in the way. It\u2019s not easy to find someone like that.<\/p>\n

David: <\/strong>Collaboration isn\u2019t for everyone. You\u2019re marrying your ideas, styles, and work habits, and just like any marriage, there has to be mutual respect, give-and-take, and compromise. That\u2019s difficult for many authors.<\/p>\n

How do you manage to present such a united front when talking about your collaborative writing to the reading public? Do you agreed on what\u2019s best to say or not say, such as protecting spoilers and being respectful of each other as co-authors?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

David: <\/strong>When in doubt, I just do whatever I want because I know Al\u2019s not going to spend the money on an airline ticket just to come over here and punch me. More seriously, because we\u2019ve been podcasting together for years, we\u2019ve literally spent hundreds of hours exchanging ideas about writing, publishing, and professionalism, so we\u2019re of like minds on most issues, and we check in whenever we\u2019re uncertain about something.<\/p>\n

Alan:<\/strong> Actually, you make a good point there about the podcast. I hadn\u2019t really thought about it, but we have spent so long talking this stuff through that we\u2019re on the same page on pretty much every aspect of the business. Maybe that\u2019s the secret to collaboration \u2013 do 100 hours of podcasting together first!<\/p>\n

Thank you so much David and Alan! “Blood Codex”<\/a> and “Dark Rite<\/a>” are available from all good bookstores right now! “Primordial” is due for release through Cohesion Press<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n

Interested in what other authors have to say about collaborative writing? I’ve also interviewed Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti about their collaboration with Scott Westerfeld<\/a>, and the ‘Alice Campion’ authors: Jenny Crocker, Jane Richards, Jane St Vincent Welch and Denise Tart<\/a>. Click to read those interviews!<\/p>\n

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As many of you know, I recently co-wrote a book with nine(!) authors (“Into Tordon” by Z.F. Kingbolt), so am particularly fascinated by collaborative writing at the moment. A few weeks ago, Alan Baxter and David Wood released the cover for their upcoming collaborative novel, “Primordial”. It looks amazing! Here’s\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[29,1664,1658,1659,1607,1656,1655,163,1660,1022,1662,1661,1663,400,1657,555,1591],"class_list":["post-11468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australian-authors","category-writer-advice","tag-alan-baxter","tag-alice-campion","tag-blood-codex","tag-cohesion-press","tag-collaborative","tag-dark-rite","tag-david-wood","tag-deborah-biancotti","tag-denise-tart","tag-into-tordon","tag-jane-richards","tag-jane-st-vincent-welch","tag-jenny-crocker","tag-margo-lanagan","tag-primordial","tag-scott-westerfeld","tag-z-f-kingbolt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11468"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11500,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11468\/revisions\/11500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}