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Although the Demontange Saga is fiction, St. Lucia is a real place with a wonderful story of its own. We are psychotherapists with an intimate knowledge of psychological processes and motivations. The columns in this section provide insight into the settings, culture and characters in our works as well as perceptions about the writing process... We want to share this material and our perceptions with other authors but believe that many of our readers will find these columns of interest as well.
Recently we took back all our rights to A Dream Across Time and are now self publishing the Demontagne Saga. It is very gratifying to have the entire publishing process under our control.
If you would like to see what we have been up to and to see some of what we are dealing with as we move to self publish, go to our blog at http://letmedigress.blogspot.com. We want it to be interactive so join in. The columns from the Author to Author section will also appear in the blog.
At the end of the latest column, you'll find clicks for past columns.
Column 10 -
How does our writing partnership work?
It begins with the fact that we love a project! And that means a project we can do together. Tearing out a wall at home, splitting firewood or writing books. They all qualify. Picking ticks off the dogs at night does not qualify as a project so Roger gets to do that.
Then, some years back we were sitting on a plane heading for St. Lucia. Roger was reading what he considered to be a not very good book and asked Mala if the author sold lots of books. Her answer was fundamentally, "gobs". We sighted a project in the making and decided we could do better.
The question became a matter of what kind of a book would we like to write. What might hold our interest and be fun. Being mental health people we thought about psychological thrillers but neither of us felt much enthusiasm for the genre. We shared our enthusiasm for marital partnership and family. The obvious choice was some form of mainstream romance. Bodice rippers were out of the question.
Roger was soon making a family oriented trip to California and went to Barnes and Noble to load up on romances to further his education on the plane trip. People in the romance section of the bookstore eyed him suspiciously as he sat on the floor browsing through books. He selected a wide variety of types of books including bodice rippers which he read on the plane although he got more strange looks. By the time he got back as far as Kansas City on the return trip he ran to a store for a thriller.
Then began the process of focusing on the story line, setting, and characters. We wanted an "exotic" setting. St. Lucia was perfect since we had already "researched" it. We had some clear preferences about characters. No abusive types. No victims. Our heroine had to be gutsy and capable. And especially no poor communicators. How could a couple of mental health people bear to write about people who could not communicate? It could be done but we didn't want to do it. And so on until we had our ideas roughed out.
Until that point there wasn't much of an issue related to partnership. Beating your gums and speculating is not challenging especially as far as partnership is concerned. The next step was actualization and this is where our experience together really counted.
Creative endeavors involve putting egos on the line and all kinds of ego related issues. It's probably an excellent way to kill off a relationship or a marriage. So, we called on our long history of working together.
Instinctively we sought out our own spheres of influence in the project. Writing is not just writing. There are many components and plenty of work to go around. We knew from the outset that there needed to be one voice in the writing and it didn't take much to determine that the voice needed to be Mala's. Roger tends to write what we call "Germanic prose". That means long run on sentences with the verb stuck on the end. Mala has good instincts and produces something much more interesting and readable.
But Roger is an organizer and good at pulling together the overall framework or template for the work. So, after we work up the ideas together then it is his job to begin the formulation of an outline. Neither of us believes in the creative muse who alights on your shoulder and helps you pour forth the work whole cloth. So, an outline is produced and we refine it together.
Mala can begin writing with little threat of writer's cramp. Having an outline also keeps her from working herself into an impossible corner in a story. She knows at least generally where she is going.
Then she passes the work back to Roger who begins something of an editing process. He does some rewriting, looks at issues of continuity and consistency, evaluates the work in terms of the outline, etc.
Part way through it is usually clear that the outline is not working as well as it did at the beginning and the revision of the outline begins. Together we rework the direction of the story and the development of the characters.
In short, there is a fairly stable direction, delineation of areas of responsibility and a pretty good chance of not ending up in divorce court or being at each others throats.
Key elements involve recognizing that people have different talents and strengths. There is not just one way to tell a story or one solution to a problem. Compromise helps and willingness to let go of a pet idea. But above all, we love a project and we love a project we can do together.
Past Columns
Column 1 - St. Lucia
Column 2 - Jamie Elliott
Column 3 - Andre Demontagne
Column 4 - Paul and Danielle
Column 5 - Marcus Deroche
Column 6 - Bertille Deroche
Column 7 - What It's Like Living in the Tropics, Part 1
Column 8 - What It's Like Living in the Tropics, Part 2
Column 9 - Taylor, Clarisse and Barbara
Column 10 - How Does Our Writing Partnership Work?
Column 11 - Goal, Motivation, Conflict and Creativity
Column 12 - Family Life is a Saga
Column 13 - Toward A Circle of Dreams; I don't believe in ghosts.
Column 14 - A Book Walked in the Door
Column 15 - Every Woman Knows This Story
Column 16 - The Bridge
Column 17 - Why the Mystical Element in A Dream Across Time?
Column 18 - Gaia and myth in the Demontagne Saga
Column 19 - Carl Jung, Mythology and the Demontagne Saga
Column 20 - Carl Jung's Concepts in the Demontagne Saga
Column 21 - Martinique
Column 22 – Janine-Yvette Demontange (Yvie)
Column 23 – Anne-Clarisse Demontagne (Lissa)
Column 24 - Philippe Diamant Demontagne (Philippe)
Copyright© 1987-2006 Annie Rogers LLC dba Bivens and Jensen Publishing. All rights reserved |
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