WITHOUT KILLING EACH OTHER

(Especially when writing a series!)

Two authors, two military officers, two different personalities writing a mystery series about murder, mystery, thrills, and mayhem – We asked how they worked together.

Two years ago, we knew nothing about how to produce an audiobook. But after reading Dead Man’s Pose to each other about 50 times, we knew we wanted to try and create a quality audiobook. It’s almost undefinable what drove us to start this new and complex project. Our passion is telling a good story wrapped in the best art of the storytelling.  But getting an audiobook together and produced? Well, now that’s a different story.

Blending two styles. Let’s start by saying we are two completely opposite personalities. We met in Officers Candidate School in the US military. In the military everything is alphabetized, hence with similar last names we were in constant proximity.  Usually at attention.  John is a tall, long-distance runner and a person good at predicting future events. Susan is a slender, brunette firecracker, full of action and a long list of things that must be done yesterday. We see things differently, and our ways of expression are a stark contrast. 

So how could we come together and write as one voice? By necessity, we’ve had a lot of practice. Through our wide-ranging occupations and projects over the years in multiple countries, we’ve learned to blend our styles to craft a unified approach in life. For example, John cooks, and Susan says how great it is. Works for both of us.

Classic Plus Cozy. Our books focus on classic literary fiction but with a heavy infusion of the ‘cozy-mystery-suspense-thriller’ approach. We spend a considerable amount of time working on the plot of one book, while we may be writing others in the series. As the characters, plots and activities may overlap, it is essential that we track our storylines. We tend to develop our own systems which includes spreadsheets, tables and lists.

Plots as Coat Hangers. The plots are paramount to us since they become the coat hangers on which we fashion our story and characterizations. However, we may also have a specific issue or flaw that our characters work on during each book. As we have two main characters, we alternate who is the ‘lead’ or protagonist for each book.

Occasionally, some of the sub-characters feature with different issues to solve and, and down the track line, they will have a book of their own.

For us, it is hard to choose one scene over another as our favorites, because our writing is very layered. Working separately and then together as a team, then apart again, we tend to go back and forth on the various scenes within each book. This includes reading the book ourselves, and then reading to each other.

Action Scenes. When an action scene occurs, we often take time to create a replica of the scene. Sometimes we do this spontaneously, as our creative streak might happen right when we are having breakfast. So, whatever is available is used during that moment.

Character Smorgasbord. The challenge of course, is to make each character seem authentic and multi-faceted. This includes various characters who may have quirky characteristics which allow them to be visualized in the reader’s mind. We also rely on the readers’ imagination to mold our characters to the people they might know or think about. It’s part of the partnership of willing participation between us and the readers.

Our wordsmithing plays an integral part in this. Writers have the delicious opportunity to use a smorgasbord of options at their fingertips when building a character. Like any artist, they can dabble in one method and then switch to another if that isn’t working.

Knowing the right balance can be a method of trial and error where we work at something repeatedly until it reads and sounds right. Sometimes the character comes to life with little or no effort like they are ready to jump out from the computer keys onto the page. Those are the extraordinary moments every writer loves.

Many of our characterizations are based on people we have met and interacted with over the years. One slender thread of the writing shows John as using the books as a form of therapy, while Susan is practicing her English Major (including the classics, Latin and Victorian poets) background. All writers have multiple strands that surface in their writing.

Audiobook Creation. But an audiobook creation requires, first, a story that sounds ‘fantastic’ when it is heard out loud. This involves the recipe of a compelling plot and complex characters. So, as we created Dead Man’s Pose, we purposely built it in ways where we could emphasize the ‘performance’ side of the story. 

For example, Agatha Christie is known for her 66 detective novels and various short story collections. She sometimes has a scene in which all the essential characters are in a room, on a boat, or on a train, and the detective works through the known information. By the end of that section, the person or persons that committed the crime is revealed.  We wanted ‘to play’ with that in Dead Man’s Pose. 

12 Characters in One Room. In the chapter, The Crime Solver’s Potluck, we have 12 characters in a room with various interests and backgrounds. This includes: a blind man whose nose is tour de force; an outback detective who hopes nothing is revealed in this informal setting; two homeless men, one of whom resembles a Shakespeare’s Falstaff; and Professor Scott and his TackiNotes and Tabasco sauce. Of course, the hosts of the Potluck are our main characters in the entire series: Elaina (our solicitor / lawyer turned Yoga studio owner) and Ric (our mysterious dark horse photojournalist).

These twelve individuals are crowded into Ric’s small apartment. This was a coup de grâce for our voice actor narrator Rupert Degas, since all the voices must be unique during the lengthy dialogue. This alone took weeks in listening to voices across the planet. Did we want a Hugh Jackman voice for our Ric? And a Cate Blanchett voice for our Elaina? And what do we do about Alfred, the key homeless character? We knew we wanted Alfred to reflect that deep Chris Hemsworth voice that is both gravelly and understandable. The voice you want to listen to no matter what he is saying. We listened to voice after voice trying to bring together the ‘performance’ model of we had in our heads.

Acting it out. And when we got stuck on how the characters would respond, we acted out what we wanted each character to do and say.

You can imagine what occurred when someone came to our front door, and we were dressed in an array of clothing and hats to quickly go from one character to another. Naturally, we didn’t bother explaining.

But we will say that we have purposely acted out how Ric would kiss Elaina in a few scenes. Susan insists we had to do that particular action with many retakes to get everything right. John has questioned whether it will take at least until Series 5 or 6 of the Yoga Mat Mysteries before the method is perfected. 

Focus on the Outcome.  Writing is hard work. Production of an audiobook takes it to a whole new level. And no amount of effort guarantees anything. 

When we started writing together, we aimed to have fun, focused on creating quality fiction and overall enjoy the outcome. Before Yoga Mat Mysteries (YMM), we published three books. With our new YMM series, we published Dead Man’s Pose as an ebook and Cobra Pose as an eBook. This year both Dead Man’s Pose and Cobra Pose are Audiobooks which takes the stories to a ‘whole new level. We admit though, we are learning all the time.

Have we had fun in all this writing and producing? You bet! We most surely have met that goal. And while there are moments of tension and frustration, Susan suddenly stands up, signaling we have to practice the kissing scene again. John is happy to give it another go.