Whose Muse?
...On the Art of
Collaborative Writing
By Moira
Richards
I've enjoyed the
recent proliferation of South African fiction written by S'african writers and,
being a long-time whodunnit addict, I pounced particularly eagerly when Out
To Score hit our bookshelves. Its cover blurb promised all the best
ingredients of that genre, wrapped newly in a local setting and did not
disappoint. It intrigued me too, to notice that two writers had collaborated in
the creation of this novel and so I invited one of the book's authors, Joanne
Hichens, for a chat.
Joanne-- writing a book with someone else. I think most
writers would prefer to share a toothbrush?
Writers would definitely prefer not to share their royalties! The view remains
that writing is something that defines the writer as an individual, that it's
something magical in some way, that only the gifted few can do it, and then only
if left in peace in a secluded room of their own. Well, it can happen
differently. Sure, you are defined to a certain extent by your writing style and
the material you choose to explore, but you can share the process.
Sure, there's the question of voice, but many people do successful collaborative
projects. Much like producing a movie script. Sometimes there's a list of
credits at the end of a flick and you can just imagine this group of animated
people all brainstorming plot twists. For me, the exciting thing about writing
in partnership is that each partner brings a unique perspective to the story.
And when your partner comes up with something you wouldn't have wrung from your
grey matter, that makes the work stronger; it all adds to a more complex novel.
It's really that old adage that two heads can be better than one.
Family and best friends often turn out to be the most
pitfall-laden choice of business partner. What sort of thing does one need to
consider when choosing a partner for the business of writing a novel?
You're right, partnership can be difficult. As writing partners, you have to get
on, you have to put your ego in your pocket and compromise on various writing
issues, you have to understand that what you write may be changed or rewritten,
sections may be left out altogether, your partner may do something with a
character-- an action you hadn't intended… so ideally you should choose to work
with someone you can trust on many levels. Each partner must have the ability,
and the will, to settle differences of opinion, but most important is to trust
that your partner's unique creative vision is intrinsically connected to your
own. Shared writing is beyond your control, and a little out of control. For me,
the process was ultimately satisfying and rewarding.
On a practical level, you have to rely on each other to share the workload and
never loose sight of the fact that you're working on a product you want to sell.
That's the way we considered our book. We were clear about wanting to write a
commercial crime novel. And clear too that we wanted the craft of it to be as
good as we could get it. "Partners in crime" have to think a little off the
wall, be unafraid of taking risks. You have to be prepared to go places in your
head you might not have dared to go otherwise.
You collaborated with Mike Nicol in Out To Score.
How did you go about finding yourself a writing partner, finding Mike?
Mike and I have been friends for years, since we worked together at
Leadership Magazine. In 2003, Mike was my supervisor in the creative writing
masters program at UCT, and our writing partnership grew from that. Of course,
when he mentioned doing a book together, I jumped at the chance. For some
authors, writing is an intensely personal experience and there's no way they
could or would want to share that process. For us though, this collaboration was
an experiment, a project to indulge in, be challenged by, and have a helluva lot
of fun with. For me, it was also an opportunity to learn more by working with
Mike, whom I considered a great mentor. I was determined to make it work. The
partnership was a business deal and I didn't spend much time entertaining the
notion that it wouldn't turn out well. And our common interest in crime fiction
was a bonding factor.
The plot of Out To Score is complex, fast-paced,
and full of herrings in all colors. As reader, I raced along breathlessly
through the pages. How did the two of you go about devising all this without
getting into a huge tangle of storylines?
Mike had decapitated street-kids in the dunes, I had this perlemoen poaching
angle. Mike brought Mad Mullet Mendes, I had Vince Saldana enmeshed with his mom
and her Chinese takeout. We swapped a lot of e-mail, about whether for instance,
our guys should be cops or PI's. This mattered 'cause if we chose police they'd
be establishment, and we're rebels at heart! Early choices influence what's
gonna happen later. Then we had to decide if our guys had wives, girlfriends;
Amber and Rae-Anne were created, and so too the villains. What I remember is
Mike brought Tommy with his emerald in his front tooth, I added Adonis
and Delmont to complete the gang. We had to link our stories and plot around
this growing list of characters. We kept on adding and building and saying what
about this, and that, and grinning about all the crazy stuff our people were
doing-- it's a bit of a blur exactly who did what, but it worked out okay,
didn't it?
The more comfortable I grew writing with Mike as an equal, rather than being
limited in the roles of student/teacher, the better we worked together. Mike was
generous with his expertise, and encouraging, and he'd offer lengthy
explanations to any queries I had. I hope too, that I challenged him to look at
things differently, by writing material that he may not otherwise have worked
with. As an avid crime reader most of my life, I hope I offered insights into
the genre. I brought my preference for dark stuff to this collaboration, and
have an instinct for what a crime reader wants in a satisfying yarn. Then after
we got off to a rollicking start, Mike suggested we concentrate on a plot or
we'd be sending pieces back and forth and going nowhere slowly. He set strong
boundaries by creating the tight structure of the book. So after the initial
burst of birthing characters and sending each other scenes with a lot of killing
and mayhem, the sequence of how the story would unfold became clearer, as well
as how we'd progress with the workload. I would write a first draft of a couple
of chapters according to a more organized plot, which Mike would then write into
and I would edit and so forth. Sometimes it would work the other way around. I
wrote whatever detail came to mind; I didn't censor myself at all, so that we
could choose from as much material as possible. Mike groaned and sighed quite a
bit! There were various surprise convolutions along the way, too, and Mike,
lucky guy, was the one who'd generally go back and adjust the text.
Some wonderfully rounded characters in this novel! Many
of them keep the reader guessing, many of them end up bloodily dead. A difficult
aspect to collaborate on? So many writers develop a relationship with their
characters and perhaps 'tis not easy to share their development, even less to
concede their (usually untimely) demises?
We agreed early on that we wouldn't take ownership of any characters so this
gave us the freedom to do what we wanted with characters initially created and
named by us individually. A name immediately sets the tone for a character,
gives clues to background, station in life. Judith and Roger Oxford for example,
couldn't have been better named by Mike as the chi-chi Constantia couple. The
names Mullet Mendes and Vincent Saldana both allude to immigrant ancestry, but
not to the mainstream stock, the Dutch or British, and this makes space to
include their heritage at some stage. Adonis and Delmont I picked up in the
death notices, great place to find names! But to go back to your question, the
reader has to be invested in the characters. What use is an intriguing plot if
the characters aren't believable? So we focused on creating protagonists that
would resonate with readers, and the bad guys too are as human as we could
possibly make them. Every gangster made his mommy proud, once! And if it's their
time, then they have to be bumped off! Doesn't help to get too attached to any
character.
When I picked this book up, I was ready to be able to
detect (wink) which sections had been written by author A and which by B.
But I couldn't. How did you manage to maintain a consistent narrative voice
throughout the work?
It was important to us that readers shouldn't distinguish one narrative style
from the other. Once we got to grips with our characters, how they think, how
they talk, their interests, some back-story, then the narrative voice followed
naturally and was easier to maintain. We jointly decided on and established the
style, that short-sentence, clipped, dialogue-strong way of writing,
"hard-boiled" if it's to be classified. In the same way you get to know your
characters, style is an element chosen consciously; you construct a story and
write in a particular way that is in itself a reflection of the story. Mike did
a final rewrite to make sure of this consistency. We actually did a helluva lot
of editing as we went along, for consistency in not only voice and style, but
dialogue, characterization, cars, guns, you name it, SA Oxford spelling. I
reckon I've read the book fifty times!
One of the aspects that I enjoy most in Out To Score
is the portrayal of South African dialogue. One or both of you has an
exceptionally fine ear but also, you managed to convey the ways we speak without
exaggerating them or making parody of the speakers.
A good exchange can show so much of what's in people, and it's entertaining
reading. I prefer the words like a straight scotch. I like eliminating the
inessentials from a conversation, honing down, getting rid of hellos and
goodbyes, repetition; making sure the slang is right, the feel of the talk is
right.
Tommy and his gang had to have in-your-face sort of speech; the Oxfords needed
to be a little stilted, a bit stiff-upper-lip which comes through in the way
they "converse." So it's always about listening to nuance, knowing your
characters and how they would speak and what they'd talk about. The content of
the dialogue is as important as the way the words are expressed. We continually
had to ask, is this what our characters would say to each other? And would they
say it in this way? Dialogue is my strong suit, but we both enjoy playing around
with conversation.
And then the hard part-- finding an agent and getting
your book published.
We did try to find an agent in London. I've survived a stash of rejection slips.
But when we heard that Annari Van Der Merwe and Stephen Johnson were starting
Umuzi, the SA imprint with Random House, we reckoned we'd skip hunting for an
agent, and sent Annari the manuscript. I'd heard of Annari's fantastic
reputation as a publisher so when she agreed to publish, I popped the sparkling
vino! I'm glad we did it here. Having Out To Score published as part of
the first batch of Umuzi books was a tremendous experience. The imprint had a
Cape Town launch at the Mount Nelson, then the seven authors involved were flown
to Joburg for another launch, so it was all very overwhelming for me I realize
now. I bought an evening dress for the occasion. My uniform is denim. I never
even wear a skirt! Maybe a bit too much of a shock! Being outted in this way!
Well, I hope Out To Score is the herald of a
boom in the South African whodunnit genre. I had great fun reading the novel and
'specially enjoyed talking with you about its creation. Thank you so much,
Joanne!
-
Out To Score
By Mike Nicol and Joanne Hichens
ISBN: 1-4152-0002-5
Published by Umuzi, an imprint of Random House
Fiction
Reviewed by Moira Richards
-
Google "Moira
Richards" to find links to her essays on Women Abuse, her reviews of
woman-authored books as well as to other writing and editing work she does for
various print and e-publications. She can often be found lounging about the
staff rooms of
womenwriters.net,
AbsoluteWrite.com and
moondance.org-- usually sipping tea, sometimes Jack Daniels.
Off-line, she teaches accounting and other numberly subjects to students at the
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa. And writes a poem or
two.
-
Joanne
Hichens lives in Muizenberg, South Africa with her husband and three
children. She has degrees in art and psychology and worked as an artist,
lecturer, and group facilitator at a psychiatric clinic before completing a
Master's degree in creative writing at the University of Cape Town. Joanne and
Mike Nicol co-authored a crime-thriller, Out To Score, published by Umuzi
in 2006. Her unpublished youth novel, Stained, was short-listed for the
Sanlam Literature award in 2005. She has written a number of short stories and
articles and is currently working on a crime novel. She is interested in
exploring the fractured nature of society.
