Plotz -- the collaboration effort

From Elbert's perspective:

With a partial outline (up to about Chapter 16) in front of me, I began with my vision of Emerson Butler Chadwick. After reading what I had written, my wife told me, "It sounds just like you." No way. You were kidding, weren't you? Many moons ago, I read somewhere that a new author pours fragments of himself into his work -- whether writing about events or describing a character. In looking back at Emerson, I guess some of him is me, but only the good parts.

Sandy and I communicated daily via e-mail. Once I finished my version of the opening chapters, off it went through Cyberspace to Sandy's e-mail folder. She could be brutal at times, especially when I wrote about Emerson's mirrored labyrinth and sent her a copy of a drawing I did back in 1993. I wanted it to be Emerson's cover page to "Escape from Reality." Sandy e-mailed me a detailed definition, even caricatures, of a labyrinth and a maze, neither of which fit my labyrinth's drawing. That could've been a deal breaker, but we negotiated and negotiated some more. We finally compromised. Emerson's labyrinth would be described as being one in which there was no way in and, if you were already in the center, there was no way out. The "mirrored labyrinth" has become "Plotz-the Novel" 's cover page. Our brand, so to speak.

Now, I'm a sensitive person. Okay, I have an ego that needs to be stroked every now and then. I take things too personal. But that is the way I am. Collaborating with Sandy taught me the true meaning of give-and-take. In her defense, if she especially liked a chapter, a passage or a sentence, she would tell me so. If she didn't like it, she told me so.

Anyhow, I wondered if I should seek revenge when she sent me her chapters that introduced Sally and Phae. She's an excellent writer but prone to be too passive. I'm more dynamic and willing to step outside the box. We played off each other's emotions and ideas, compromised some more and came up with plausible characterizations in Emerson, Sally and Phae. I soon realized that we were Marshall Bruney, and that there is no "i" in TEAM. I needn't exact revenge on Sandy because that would've been on me, too.

At some point in our writing, communicating via e-mail had run its course. We met several times for coffee and a ham biscuit at either Burger King or McDonald's. Once, at Bojangles for breakfast, I had my laptop with me. I sat with my back to the line of customers waqiting for their breakfast order and the laptop open to the mirrored labyrinth cover. I knew people were looking over my shoulder at the online sketch and wondering, "Who are these people? And what are they doing?"

Our face-to-face meetings were quite rewarding. If we had encountered a deadend in a chapter, we were able to work it out by bouncing ideas (some crazy ones) off each other. When Phae snapped that photograph of Sally dragging Emerson to the lakeshore, I suggested using a Polaroid (plot alert!) camera. Sandy's response, "Oh, that is so twentieth century!" We went with a digital camera (so twenty-first century!).

I know I joke about Sandy being so "tough" on me; but, overall, I feel our 20-year friendship figured prominently into the collaboration equation.The end result, in my opinion, is a readable and enjoyable tale.

From Sandy's perspective: How we collaborated on "Plotz" from two separate homes and computer desks.

Next: Sandy's rebuttal -- er, perspective