Cate Kendall - How Two Such Very Different People Write Together

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Many people ask us how two such very different people write together. I believe it’s our differences that make our end product so good.

We sit down together at the beginning of the process and brainstorm. Who is our main character? What’s her location, her feeling about herself and most importantly, what is her journey? Her challenge?

You will notice in your favourite books, films or plays the hero has this seemingly insurmountable challenge to overcome while possessing ineffective tools to conquer this enormous white whale. The more useless the hero’s tools, the more we barrack for the hero. Yet we need to maintain a believable premise at all times.

Michelle and I have a tremendous time plying the weight of the world on our hero’s shoulders then digging her out of the pickle we got her in. So we brainstorm for approximately eight to ten hours together. Then I go away and spend about four to six hours writing out an intricate chapter plan based on those meetings. Each chapter has a detailed plan so that we know exactly where to go when we start writing. There can’t be any surprises.

Then comes the character development. This takes weeks. Hours and hours and hours. Each character has to be treated as if I’d just met them and they were about to become my flat-mate. They’re given hobbies, starsigns, addresses, children – a detailed profile on each character is crucial so that when we ‘write’ them, they ring true. It’s like impersonating a friend. When you do it exactly right, you get a laugh. So having each character with their own personality foibles and sayings, traits and mannerisms just gives them so much richness. I am very proud of our characters and many people compliment me on them so I think we must be doing a pretty good job.

Then the actual story-telling starts and I write a chapter and send it to Michelle who sends it back as soon as she is physically able. Then I can see which direction the novel should head. It makes it so wonderful to write a novel this way, when we’re working as a team, back and forth, like a lively game of tennis. I’d hate to do it solo. That’d be just awful. So much more difficult. So then we go on our merry way till the end. It’s a very good system.

See you later. Lisa Blundell (AKA ½ Cate Kendall).

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