Friday, January 10, 2020

Collaboration Is the Way to Go by Michael Stanley

Today the Reds are so pleased to have Michael Stanley, aka the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, talking about the art of collaboration. Take it away, Michael...er...Stanley...um Michael Stanley!

Michael Stanley: The question we are asked most often at book events by both authors and readers is ‘How can two people write fiction together?’
At first, we were puzzled by the question because both of us, in our professional lives as university professors, had been collaborators. Stanley had co-authored multiple non-fiction books and Michael many academic papers. So, when we decided to write our first mystery, A Carrion Death, we never even discussed whether it was a good idea. It seemed the natural thing to do. It was only later that we realized that it was quite uncommon.
So why do we like collaboration so much? 
First, we have the benefit of having a totally involved person to brainstorm with, to bounce ideas off, and to give truly critical feedback. A single writer has only himself or herself to interact with. How depressing! How lonely! Second, we have the benefit of having someone to share a glass of wine with while discussing the intricacies of plot or character – a solo writer can’t do that, because no one else would be totally involved.
Unlike some collaborations where responsibilities are split up, we both do everything. We brainstorm together, follow up on research, travel to little known parts of Botswana, write, and edit. 
Our process is that one of us does the first draft of a piece. Sometimes that is part of a chapter; other times a chapter or two. He then sends it by email to the other, and receives a response, which is often a highly commented and edited version. The originator responds, then back and forth in that way, as many as twenty times or even more. What we have both learned from this is that there is no one, perfect way to write something, much as each of us likes to believe we have done just that. It turns out that words, sentences, and even plots are flexible.
Eventually the piece is not written by Michael or by Stanley, but rather by some gestalt, called Michael Stanley, who sits in cyberspace somewhere between the United States and South Africa. Readers tell us the product is seamless; our friends tell us they can identify who wrote what, but they are wrong about half the time!
There are many benefits to collaboration. We can brainstorm plot and character, which we think results in a more cohesive final product. When one of us flags, the other is there to nag and take up the slack. Best of all we get immediate and interested feedback on anything we write. But there are some caveats. One must be willing to take harsh criticism, knowing that it’s directed at the product rather than the person and that the only aim is to improve the work. There must be trust and an ability to see the other person’s point of view. It helps if you have similar writing styles. And it probably takes longer than writing alone. But all that is outweighed by the biggest advantage: it is great fun! And, after all, almost all people who write do it for the enjoyment.
So now, when we are asked ‘How can two people write fiction together?’, we respond that this is the wrong question! A better question is ‘How can a person write alone?’ 
What about you, Reds and Readers, do you think it is easier to work together or alone? 

On Sale Now!

FACETS OF DEATH
Diamonds can be deadly…
David Bengu has always stood out from the crowd. His personality and his physique match his nickname, Kubu—Setswana for “hippopotamus”—a seemingly docile creature, but one of the deadliest in Africa. His keen mind and famous persistence have seen him rise in the Botswana CID. But how did he get his start?

Inauspiciously. His resentful new colleagues are suspicious of a detective who has entered the CID straight from university, skipping the usual beat cop phase. Nearly broke, with no car or wife, Kubu has the support of his parents, but success will depend on self-reliance. He is immediately plunged into investigations at two airports.

One takes him to the airport near Gaborone where something criminal is going on in baggage claim.

The other begins at Jwaneng Airport, where a plane bursts into flames. It’s the opening move in a brutal heist of stones from the world’s richest diamond mine. The robbers die in a shoot-out, but the diamonds remain missing. So who masterminded the crime? Rumors of a witch doctor’s involvement send the detectives down a dark path. Ultimately, new recruit Kubu finds himself engineering a risky trap. Will his first major case prove his worth—or kill his career?
About the Author:
Michael Stanley is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip.
Both are retired professors who have worked in academia and business. Sears is a mathematician, specializing in geological remote sensing. Trollip is an educational psychologist, specializing in the application of computers to teaching and learning, and a pilot. They were both born in South Africa.

59 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your newest book, Michael and Stanley. You make working together sound so easy, so natural . . . and I’d never guess which one of you wrote which part of your books . . . .

    I think the choice of working alone or working together depends largely on what you are doing and what you hope to accomplish. Generally, I think I’d always prefer working together . . . .

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    1. Thank you! Some of our close friends say that they can tell which of us wrote what. We check, and they are right about fifty percent of the time...

      As we said, collaboration isn't for everyone. There has to be give and take, and the acceptance that any criticism is directed at improving the book and never personal. But we find it great fun!

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  2. I never did well at group projects in school, so I would be cautious about writing with a partner.

    However, it sounds like it really works for the two of you, and the result is stronger for it. Congrats on the new book!

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    1. Thanks very much!
      Group projects, of course, are often thrust upon you rather than chosen. A bad team member can make it a horrible experience for everyone.

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  3. Congratulations on the new release and on having a successful collaboration. How long does it take you to write a typical (is there one?) chapter? The back and forth of writing, commenting, and polishing sounds daunting. Not in terms of quality - that's fabulous - but in terms of knowing when you are done. There is always something else.

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    1. Another excellent question. As to the time it takes, it varies a great deal. Sometimes a chapter takes only two or three iterations, others it can take twenty-five. If we reach an impasse - usually over the choice of a word or two - the person who first wrote it gets to keep it, and the consolation prize is that "the editor can change it." The editor never has!

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  4. What a fascinating take on collaboration. I can see this working provided you have the right partnership, which you obviously do. Congrats on a highly successful partnership AND on the new book!

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  5. I find it easier to work alone. I need people at my job to get everything done but if I could do it by myself, I'd prefer that. Just my contrarian nature.

    I also love that today's post features Michael and Stanley because I got to read FACETS OF DEATH in advance in order to provide a review for Mystery Scene! I won't say much about what I wrote but *spoiler alert* I liked the book a lot.

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    1. Thanks so much for that *spoiler alert*! Indeed, some people work better alone. As you say, there is always some collaboration necessary - the editor, cover designer, copy editor, agent etc. etc. But some writers won't even show anyone else their manuscripts until they are happy with the finished product.

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  6. I definitely can see how sharing the burden would make writing a better experience in many ways. How lucky you found someone you feel comfortable writing with!

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    1. Spot on, Amy. You have to find someone you feel comfortable with. And there are a lot more collaborations than appears on the surface - great writing teams like PJ Tracy, Charles Todd, Nicci French. Ellery Queen!

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  7. I write alone and prefer it that way, but congratulations on finding each other to collaborate with. Question: why the Botswana setting? Do you live there now?

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    1. It's quite a long story. We love Botswana and have spent a lot of time there is various capacities, but we don't live there. For our first book, we needed to have a murderer attempt to dispose of a body by throwing it out for hyenas to consume. (They eat everything - bones as well - and it seemed like the perfect murder.) That's really not possible in South Africa where wildlife area are quite strictly controlled.
      With our later books we've enjoyed the fact that we can explore contemporary southern African issues without always doing so in the aftermath of the South African apartheid regime. We believe they make interesting backstories for what we hope are entertaining mysteries. These have included blood diamonds, the plight of the Bushman (San) peoples, the aftermath of the Rhodesian civil war, the growing Chinese influence in southern Africa.

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    2. Thanks, Michael. Very interesting I was in grad school (linguistics) with a lot of Africans and former Africa Peace Corps volunteers when Zimbabwe became independent. Wow, did we have a party! Since then I've lived in Mali and Burkina Faso, but have never been to southern Africa - except through books.

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    3. One day you should try to come. You'll love it!

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  8. I also teach at a university and have always enjoyed collaboration with my fellow faculty to plan classes, develop curriculum, and work on projects. But when it comes to writing I have always preferred to work alone.

    Somehow I’ve missed your books before now, which I will immediately remedy! This sounds great.

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  9. So wonderful to see you both here! How did you two meet and decide to write together?

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    1. We met originally in South Africa at the university Michael was teaching at in Johannesburg - also my alma mater. We were introduced by a mutual friend. I was teaching at the University of Minnesota at the time and Michael used to do sabbaticals there, so we advanced the friendship discovering we shared many likes. I used to take flying safaris to Botswana and Zimbabwe (I'm a private pilot) and had friends like Michael along as passengers. StanAir, as we called these trips, went on for quite a time - and what a time we had each time! Cheers, Stan

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    2. Thanks for having us!
      We had the idea of writing together when we saw the hyenas hunt, kill, and completely consume a wildebeest. The perfect murder - no body, no case. Being academics, it took us about fifteen years to actually start writing it, though!

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    3. Oh, that's fantastic! Quite the origin story. First, get a hyena. Train the hyena. Then..

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    4. They don't need training! Anything dead or alive is food!

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  10. There are many things I love about the Jungle Reds blog, but it would be worth following if only for the regular introductions to wonderful authors I have overlooked. I have somehow missed your Detective Kubu series, but am now looking forward to finding them and catching up.

    I'm sure you have encountered comparisons to PJ Tracy, the mother-daughter collaborators behind the wonderful Monkeewrench series. They pretty much convinced me that at least sometimes, collaboration can be a beautiful thing. (Sadly one of those collaborators has died, with the other carrying on the series.) Based on both interviews I have read about them and this one, I think it all comes down to the working relationship between the partners.

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    1. Indeed, PJ Tracy was a wonderful team. It's interesting that most writing partnerships develop their own particular way of handling aspects of the work. We both do everything, but some teams have one partner write a draft and another do a detailed fleshing out. Some do alternative chapters and even write different characters! It is absolutely all about developing the working relationship that suits the partnership.

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  11. All that polishing along between you two , does it mean that you don't have to write many drafts before publishing ?
    You write about sharing wine and emailing each other, do you live nearby of each other ?

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    1. I think the best way to describe what we do is that we do mini-drafts as we go along. Only a couple of times did we tie ourselves into such complicated knots that we had to abandon large chunks of writing. Typically when we type THE END, the manuscript is in good shape - other than for editorial comments. That is, we are happy with it at that stage. We usually try to be together when we are brainstorming ideas for a new book. That is the time for wine both both comradeship as well as inspiration! We also visit every place we write about in Botswana - another excuse for wine. But we are often on different continents when writing. Then we Skype, WhatsApp, and email.

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  12. If you polish each chapter as you write, how many revisions do you do at the end? And do you outline before you start writing or is it more of a collaborative exploration of what comes next?

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    1. Hi Margaret: we tend to due few revisions at the end, particularly copy edits. Since we don't outline and write by the seat of our pants, we do occasionally run into dead ends. We say that it is unfair that readers have to wait until near the end in order to find out who dun it. By pantsing the plot, we too have to wait! Sometimes we don't really know who the antagonist is or how s/he did it until the end. In Deadly Harvest, we were three weeks away from deadline and we couldn't figure out how to catch the bad guy. Then two weeks away.... Eventually, we found basically a single sentence that allowed Kubu to figure it out. Of course, we were in a bit of a mess by then. Cheers

      Stan

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  13. Professionally I have worked in groups and alone, everything from writing policy and procedure to developing presentations. I always thought I could get on with the project and get it done while everyone else was still talking about it. I guess I'm not a great team player. But perhaps working with just one person wouldn't be so difficult for me.

    I'm intrigued with South Africa, know a few people from there. Are all your books set there? Do you write in English or Afrikaans?

    Thanks for coming here today. I'm off to Amazon to check out your books.

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    1. Hi Ann: there is no doubt that writing together takes more time, which sometimes make one anxious to push ahead. We believe that it is worth the extra time because the product is better. Our Detective Kubu series is set in Botswana, a country the size of France next to South Africa. Our thriller about rhino poaching (Shoot the Bastards) is set in South Africa and Vietnam. Finally, we wrote most of the books in American (not trying to be funny here), then translated them ourselves into English for our UK publisher. This is much more difficult than it seems - much more than spelling and changing trunk to boot, etc. Stan

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    2. So much is about the idiom?

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    3. Interesting! Does that mean that British authors get translated into "American" for us?
      Reader Kay

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    4. Sometimes. But I think Brits are more persnickety about writing than Americans.

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    5. Context is important too. For example, if you have a character climb out of a first floor window and jump to the ground, that's no big deal in the US. In the UK there is a ground floor below the first, so he may break a leg!
      Publishers are split about this, as are readers. Some feel that the original language adds to the character to the novel and they leave it that way. Others feel it will make the book feel foreign to the reader. Facets of Death is in UK English, which is basically what is used in South Africa and Botswana.
      What would you prefer?

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    6. I don't recall being put off by UK English in books. Much easier to understand than some British television shows. I find myself turning up the volume.
      Reader Kay

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    7. Even though I speak English, sometimes I feel I need an interpreter for some English TV series, especially if the characters are from the North or Scotland! Welsh and Irish, I have no problem.

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    8. New Zealand accents can be pretty impenetrable, too!

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  14. Congrats on the new book!

    Although I write by myself, I have a critique group that I couldn't do it without to provide that harsh criticism and encouragement. I think I could write in collaboration, but it would definitely have to be with the "right" person.

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    1. I am also in a writing group for the same reasons as you. Michael joins when he can. I think the most important characteristics for being a good collaborator are trust (trust that the other person is as invested in having as good a product as you are) and a realisation that there are more than one way to accomplish what you want. We all like to think we have the best words to turn a phrase or describe a scene or a person. The reality is that your collaborator may have a better way! That is sometimes hard to swallow, but if you have trust, it works.

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  15. I've written with a co-author (we had complementary skills) and it was definitely easier than writing alone... but ultimately less satisfying. Having said that, I'm forever grateful to my co-author for giving me a leg up. I'm a long time Michael Stanley fan - LOVE the new book cover and I'm wondering if there's a story behind it.

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    1. I think we also have somewhat different skills, but quite similar writing styles. That's important.
      As to the cover, we don't have a lot of say in the covers of our books, but we also really like this one. It continues the African border pattern theme of the previous two Kubu books, and the security vehicle in the dust is a stylized representation of one of the pivotal scenes in the book. We do hope you enjoy it!

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  16. FACETS OF DEATH sounds like another fascinating Detective Kubu mystery. I still have a first edition of A CARRION DEATH from the Bouchercon when your publisher was handing them out and everyone was buzzing about the exotic (if you'll pardon the term) setting.

    I know you're published in the US and the UK; do you have a separate publisher for South Africa? I've never known if the UK publishers cover English-speaking Africa and Southeast Asia, or if they have their own imprints.

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    1. Julia: Our US publisher, Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, covers North America and our UK publisher, Orenda Books, covers the rest of the world. In English, of course.

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    1. Yes, it's all a matter of personal style. And what works for you!

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  18. No, our UK publisher, Orenda Books, is represented in SA by Jonathan Ball Publishers. So the books on sale here in South Africa are the UK editions.

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  19. Hi Stan and Michael! I find the different ways that writing partners collaborate fascinating. I've discussed this a good bit with the Todds, and I can't imagine that the collaboration doesn't result in a richer book. But although I have writing buddies who are invaluable in brainstorming and reading rough drafts, I can't quite imagine not having the final say. Love the insight into your having to rewrite the books in "English" for your UK publisher!

    Love the cover, and congrats on the new book! Can't wait to read this one!

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  20. Welcome to Jungle Reds!

    Congratulations on your new novel. I have seen several team authors write novels together. Off the top of my head, Charles Todd is a mother-son team writing Bess Crawford mysteries and Ian Rutledge mysteries. And I think Liv Constantine is another team of two writers writing a novel. There are more dual authors writing novels.

    Did you grow up in South Africa during apartheid?

    Diana

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    1. Hi Diana,
      Yes, both of us grew up here. I left with my parents to live in Kenya in 1960, and after that we moved to Australia where I went to college. I came back to take a position at one of South Africa's liberal universities later. We did what we could from inside the system, but it wasn't nearly enough.
      Michael.

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    2. Hi Michael,
      Thank you. When I was a teenager, I read something written by a white teenager in South Africa during apartheid and it sounded like it was a police state! My voice teacher was born in Kenya because her parents were in the Peace Corps. Hope things are better in South Africa now.
      Diana

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    3. I grew up throughout apartheid - at least until 1971. It was a police state, democratic only of you were white, free only if you didn't effectively say things against the government, and totally unwilling to give anyone who was not white any say in how the government was run. If you were black, education was denied you, and you were not allowed to hold any skilled jobs. Any social interaction was either forbidden or strongly discouraged. Imprisonment or house arrest without trial was acceptable. Not good!

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    4. Stan, thank you for sharing.
      The white teenager was thrown in jail because she picked up a flyer about anti apartheid meeting? So it sounded like a police state to me. This was just before the end of apartheid. Just before Nelson Mandala was freed from jail.

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  21. I love the idea of collaboration. It certainly works for TV scripts and I can imagine how it might help clear the trees from forest when a novelist is stuck. I look forward to reading your newest work. Congratulations!

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  22. As someone who works alone and is a complete control freak, this absolutely fascinates me! I saw that BookPage gave Facets of Death a starred review. Bravo! Can't wait to read it!

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  23. Thanks, Jean. Writers always hope for starred reviews, don't they?

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