Today, Sheryl R. Hayes and Truly Bellamy tell me what it is like to co-write a novel when you live in different states. It’s more than just about the writing.
Truly: Sheryl and I met a couple decades ago, while writing X-Files fan fiction. That later led us to working on a vampire-centric spin-off story that we both fell in love with. Many, many chapters later, it was hard to let the characters go. Then, one night, I had a detailed dream. The set up was so similar to the story we’d previously written that it would make a great original manuscript. I excitedly wrote Sheryl an email, pitching the idea.
Sheryl: The timing was perfect. I had sent off my latest novel for edits when I got Truly’s email. As much as I wanted to clean the fanfic up for publishing, it had so many structural problems that we never bothered. This was the perfect chance to create something new. I immediately said yes, and we started building characters, plot, and settings.
Truly: Living in separate states makes writing a challenge. It helps that we are both on the west coast, but coordinating our schedules took time. There were days when one or both of us was too tired to work and we had to be patient with each other. We also had to learn not only our own characters, but also how to write responses, in character, for each other’s part. For example, I mainly wrote Emma and Sheryl mainly wrote Micah, but we took turns writing the chapters from each point of view. It was messy at first, but became second nature.
Sheryl: Part of the reason that we decided on Seattle for a setting is that Truly lives in the area. I had visited a few times and had a feel for the location. She had more familiarity with both the layout of the city and the history of it. It made it easier for her to point out parts the setting would play.
Truly: Sheryl was published before, but this was my first ever serious attempt at creating a novel. To our delight, our natural rhythm came back instantly. Once we figured out the plot, the first draft sort of flew by.
Sheryl: That’s not to say we didn’t have our disagreements. There were times where we would argue about the next plot point, if what was said was in character, and other bumps-in-the-road that any project has. When things started to get heated, we would call it off for the night, agreeing that we’d discuss it the next day. Usually that followed by me waking up at 2:00 AM thinking “Damnit! Truly’s right!” and shooting off an apology.
Truly: Then came the part I was dreading—the edit. I’d written the first draft of a manuscript before, but the editing process was brand new to me and I wasn’t ready for the emotions that came with it. Sheryl was able to keep me sane when the editor’s comments came back, even if I did drive her nuts by whining during the corrections. It took forever to process all of the changes, and I was ready to give up more than once. Luckily we persevered.
Sheryl: While we waited for our edits, we did something we should have done earlier in the process. We made things official by writing up a contract. We talked during writing about the business side—were we self-publishing or looking for a small press or an agent? Who would be paying for what? How were we going to handle promotions? What would happen if one of us died, or worse, decided we would no longer be friends? We knew the answers already, but it was better to formalize them in a document instead of relying on emails, chat logs, and memory.
Truly: Things started to become real as soon as the second round of edits came back. We had a cover, a mostly finished product, and we decided on a release date. My nerves went haywire. As a person with social anxiety, I had to consider how to start marketing the book. Taking small steps outside of my comfort zone and doing my best to make connections in the romance world.
Sheryl: Meanwhile in the background I’m handling a lot of the administrative work—copyright, generating files, uploading for distribution—since I had that already in place for my solo novels. Now we are finally ready to share our story with you. We hope that you enjoy it as much as we did writing it.
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Sheryl R. Hayes (she/her) can be found untangling plot threads or the yarn her cat has been playing with. She is equally likely to be shooing one of them off the keyboard as she is working on her novels and short stories. In addition to writing, she is a cosplayer focusing on knit and crochet costumes. Her crafty creativity has earned her recognition BayCon, Westercon, Worldcon, and Costume-Con.
Truly Bellamy lives in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys all things paranormal, especially vampires. She is a Certified Peer Counselor in Washington State. When not writing, she can usually be found sipping a Bigfoot Java mocha and cuddled with her cats while watching X-Files, reading horror, or romance novels.
