Writing Together

We, Charlene Ball and Libby Ware, both love to read mystery novels. We also love collecting and selling antiquarian and rare books. We exhibit at Antiquarian Book Fairs and have gotten to know book dealers, among them some interesting characters.

When we decided to write a mystery together, we both wanted it to be a bibliomystery—a mystery in which a book or books would be central to the story. We have now written one bibliomystery (MURDER AT THE ESTATE SALE, published by Black Opal Books on August 15, 2020), and we’re completing our second (MURDER AT THE BOOK FAIR). They are part of the Molly and Emma Booksellers Mystery Series.

When we say that we write mystery novels together, often the first question people ask is—how do we write? What’s our process? 

Authors who write together have different approaches. Some write alternating chapters. Marge Piercy and her husband Ira Wood did this in Storm Warning, with Piercy writing a chapter from the woman character’s point of view, and her husband writing from the man’s. Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly used the same technique in The Tilted World. Other authors—and we’re among them—create what we hope is a seamless narrative, so that readers can’t tell which part was written by which author.  

Neither of us plots everything out with a detailed outline. Our writing is character driven. Charlene likes to create settings. Her style is more atmospheric and detailed. Libby’s style is more spare, using short, quick descriptors. We both like creating and developing characters. We enjoy getting them to talk to each other and then eavesdropping on what they say. 

We started our first book by one of us writing a chapter, then sending it to the other. That one would read and edit the first chapter, then write the second chapter and send it back to the other one. Generally, Libby wrote from Molly’s point of view, and Charlene wrote the Emma chapters. We started our chapters by setting a scene and then following our characters to see what they would do. But then we hit a snag. When one of our protagonists got trapped in a locked room with a dead body and no way to get out, we decided to rethink our procedure.

We stayed at a B&B in the Georgia Mountains when we were writing early chapters. Charlene would get up early, write a chapter, and wake Libby up for breakfast. After eating, we took our dogs to a pasture where they could run free. We’d walk around the pasture developing the plot. Back home, since we don’t live together, even though we have been married for four years, we started meeting at coffeehouses to plan what would happen next. For example, we would decide what our two protagonists would do, who they would meet, what would happen in the next few chapters. Then we would take turns writing chapters and sending them to the other one. Each of us would revise, often adding descriptions and dialogue to fill out the chapter, and start the next.

We would continue in this way until we needed to confer again, when we would once more meet at a coffeehouse to hash out what we had just written, maybe make changes, and then plot what would happen next. In the meantime, some interesting characters may have appeared, without either of us knowing ahead of time that they were going to show up. Then the decision had to be made: to keep them (we usually do), how to use them, or what plot twist they introduce. Some of our favorite characters were unplanned. We don’t want to spoil the story, so we won’t tell you about the characters who have just appeared unannounced.

Once our first drafts were completed, we often had to fill in plot holes or take out extraneous scenes that don’t advance the plot, maybe introduce the killer earlier, add scenes for major characters, and just clean things up. So the whole process is a joint effort, and it’s much more fun to write with another author than writing by one’s self.

MURDER AT THE ESTATE SALE, Lily Charles

When Molly O’Donnell, longtime antiquarian bookseller, and Emma Clarke, new to bookselling, meet at an estate sale, they are both there for the books. But Emma hears a cry, ignores a “Do Not Enter” sign, and discovers the dead body of notorious book thief Buck Hubbell in the basement. Molly follows and finds a slip of paper with a warning written in Elizabethan scriptthat hints at black magic.

Cautious Emma follows adventurous Molly as the two seek to discover who murdered Buck and to unlock the meaning of the mysterious note. Their search leads them to a hidden library full of occult books. Suspects abound among booksellers and practitioners of the black arts. Attracted to each other yet wary of involvement, Molly and Emma create an alliance to get to the bottom of the warning note, find a missing book of spells—and solve a murder.

BUY THE BOOK HERE

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips