The First 12 Days of Wild Ride: The Prequel
Aug152008
Well, I’m feeling shame-faced here. I’ve been blundering around in this blog without a plan for months, and you still stick up for me. I am not worthy. (No, Bob, not you, I’m worthy of you.) And I shouldn’t have hung Mollie out to dry; she just ADVISED me that it was a bad idea to post in the comments, she didn’t actually shriek at me. She wanted to shriek, but she’s a lady. Unlike her mother. So I’m going to try to keep this a little more focused and a little less rambling and see if I can’t do better by you all. There may be some long blank stretches in the future, but not for the next twelve days, because tomorrow at 11 AM PT, 1 PM ET, Bob and I will be meeting in Campfire to begin a new experiment–well, new for us– on focused collaboration. Or “Pedal To The Metal and Don’t Look Down, for Two.”
But first a word about Campfire (http://www.campfirenow.com/). Campfire is basically a private chat room service, IMing for groups. You create a room, invite only the people in your group (that would be Bob and I), and set a time to meet. It allows you to upload images to illustrate what you’re talking about, share files (wonderful for trading drafts), and keep a transcript of all your talks. I use it a lot, so I pay the monthly fee for more space and no ads, but you can use it for free if you don’t mind the ads popping up. If you’re collaborating or discussing anything in a group, you should check out Campfire.
But back to faster-than-a-speeding-bullet collaboration. Krissie, Lani, and I tried it last November and December for D&G and it worked out well although by the end of it we were sick of the book and sick of each other. Fortunately a couple of weeks later the feeling had passed, but while you’re in the middle of it, writing frantically on a collaboration just makes everybody feel driven and toward the end, hostile. So of course, Bob and I are going to try it. Because we don’t have enough things to fight about already. This morning (Friday) we sent each other our outlines for the book along with other notes, just to make sure we were both still writing the same book. Evidently we weren’t since there weren’t a lot of similarities, but Bob says, “We can work this out.” Which usually means, “I’ll pretend to agree with you and then shift the plot back where I want it when you’re not looking,” but after two books, I’ve got his number. And I’ve already written scenes. That makes my plot real while his is theoretical.
So tomorrow will be Day One of Wild Ride (even though we’ve been working on it sporadically all along) and we’ll go to Campfire and fight out our differences in the plot, and I’ll scrap my third version of the first scene and start all over again, but that’s all right because I know where I’m going. For once in my life, I have a book planned out. Well, my half of it. I’ll let you know tomorrow if Bob survives his first Campfire. He refuses to IM with me because he says he needs time to think, but I can’t take another 46 e-mails a day, all with “Hey” in the subject line followed by a two word message. We’re going to Campfire.
Bob will be complaining about that on his blog next Tuesday.
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16 Comments to 'The First 12 Days of Wild Ride: The Prequel'
On August 15, 2008 at 10:11 pm DownUnderGal said...
Oh phew! We convinced you. All is right with the world. Well cyberspace anyway.
Love your 12 days of blogs.
On August 15, 2008 at 10:56 pm Cherry Honey said...
I think 11am PT is actually 2pm ET, just so you aren’t hangin’ out in Campfire screaming at Bob for an hour for not showing up yet. And so Bob doesn’t have something else to complain about on Tuesday.
Also, I didn’t get around to commenting on your last post (visiting grandparents with my toddler), but wanted to add my resounding, “What they said!” I’ve been reading your books for at least ten years. That brought me to your blog(s), which brought me to HWSW, which brought me to the Forums, which helped me start writing again and got me to Cherry Con, where I met a fabulous group of people, some of whom went home to form a fabulous critique group based on the guidelines you set out here on your blog (please don’t judge me by that run on sentence). I want to take this opportunity to thank you.
And the stuff above is just the practical stuff I’ve gleaned from your blog – I also just plain love your voice and will listen to it in any form available to me. Of course you need to do what’s right for you and long blank stretches are fine, but I am glad you’re not giving up the blog completely. I’d miss your voice and insights while waiting for your next novel.
On August 15, 2008 at 11:02 pm Jenny said...
Right, right, Bob said 10AM. I think I just blocked it out because I couldn’t imagine discussing anything at 10AM.
Hard to believe I used to teach at 7:30 AM. Well, I was upright and dressed at 7:30; god knows if I was teaching or not.
And I thank you all for your support. Really.
On August 15, 2008 at 11:33 pm RfP said...
I just finished Bob’s Synbat, in which a dog saves the day. You two will do fine.
On August 15, 2008 at 11:36 pm robena grant said...
Ha ha ha hah. You and Bob in Campfire? This I gotta see. Oh geez, this is gonna be fun with a capital F. Yeah the F-bombs will be flying. Thank goodness that deep down you both like and respect each other, otherwise I’d have to say Wild Ride is doomed. So, have fun swear a bit, write a lot, eventually we know you’ll work it out and we’ll have another masterpiece to read. Can’t wait.
On August 16, 2008 at 1:22 am Louis said...
Wild Ride
Maybe a few “wild” posts here and there.
Definitely looking forward to the next post…and the book!
On August 16, 2008 at 1:58 am sharon w. said...
Thanks, Jenny. And, have a great, busy time with Wild Ride, and Bob.
On August 16, 2008 at 4:35 am LilyBlues said...
Oh, wow. 12 Days of Bob and Jenny in Campfire; this is like a gift to your loyal cherrybombs, right? HWSH lite? Thank you for the warning. I’ll have to remember to drink my coffee _before_ I check in with you two; I damaged enough keyboards already with spit takes while following your Living the Dream tour.
This is going to be good.
On August 16, 2008 at 6:21 am Kate said...
I am buckled up and ready for a great ride!
On August 16, 2008 at 8:01 am Chelle said...
Uhhh, did you just write “outline” and “my” in the same sentence?
As to the Other Blog: What they all said. (Every time I logged in, someone had already made my point.) So: Blog if you want, but not if it makes you feel guilty and drained of creativity. That’s no fun, and we’re all about the fun. And the humor, and the insight, and even the snark. Because everyone who shows up here (and JCF and the Forums) is here because these are her people and this is her tribe. You started it, sure, and we hang around because of you, but you’re one of us (like it or not ~:-0) and we want you to be happy because we want everyone in the tribe to be happy and succeed. (We want you to write too, but you knew that.)
So yay you’re going to keep blogging, but even more so: YAY because you’re happy about it. (And if you’re not, DON’T)
Lots of Cherry Hugs
On August 16, 2008 at 8:42 am Chelle said...
And HIS people. His too, for Tim and all the other guys brave enough to show up.
Sorry, didn’t mean to leave anyone out!
On August 16, 2008 at 4:12 pm JulieB said...
Hi!
In my effort to be brief — important when you are 106 or so in line
— I may have sounded unfair to Molly, which was not my meaning. My question was actually serious. I figured she had a thought-out reason that she thought you should not respond in the comments, and I just wondered what it was.
Not responding seems to make a blog more of a bulletin board, which is OK, but different. And, I’d argue that this, Argh Ink, is actually not a “blog” in the sense of a web-diary either. I think it’s more, and we just don’t have a word for it yet.
I think the comment section is a vital part of this, and I’m glad you come here. I don’t read comments on most of the other, few blogs I check regularly, but I almost always read the ones here.
Anyway, I’m glad you’re not packing it in for the moment.
On August 16, 2008 at 6:26 pm Sheri said...
Glad to hear you decided to give it another shot Jenny. We would have missed you and your pearls of wisdom and quirky humor…
On August 16, 2008 at 9:33 pm talpianna said...
Jenny, be gentle with Bob. He must be suffering:
Aniston, Mayer Do the Inevitable: Split
Aniston Not So Broken Up About Mayer
On August 16, 2008 at 11:26 pm Jenny said...
Well, Bob has a lot of work to do, so I’m assuming he’s not that broken up, either.
I think Mollie’s point was that commenting makes a blogger more vulnerable to disappointing people and being attacked as a result, in the sense that if you get close enough to connect with people, they can punch you in the nose. And I think she’s right. But I burned that bridge a while ago and I don’t think there’s any going back.
She said in the comments.
On August 16, 2008 at 11:52 pm Susan D said...
Breathing deep sighs of relief you’re still there to serve up one of my 3 morning fixes of insight and joy. Gonna have enough withdrawal symptoms when we lose For Better or For Worse in a few weeks.