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I collaborate on many manuscripts. Some I take credit for and others I simply add my name to the legal section as a collaborator. I do this when I believe my services were more editor and less writer. As an editor I am often a cheerleader and something of a life coach. I hassle, console, threaten, and argue with the writer until they get off their collective butts and get to work. 

Writers are a sensitive breed. They don’t like criticism or anyone to tell them what to do. To most, the process is a mystical art form not to be tampered with. I disagree but for now we will table such a digression and move back onto track with collaboration.

I am a main contributor to the Cheyenne series. Allison, Willie, and I have divided the series up into working parts we can each perform until the final compilation. Allison works on the main plot. That part of the book where Cheyenne tells a story from her past. Willie handles the present day parts and most of the supernatural details. I handle the compilation, the structure, and the creation of the story’s location and certain key plot points. 

I created Cheyenne and most of the series stories. I create the original plot line and the others take it from there. Often changing the plot into something entirely different. And Better. Mucho Grande Better.

It seems to work. When I have all the parts, I compile them together and send them back out as a whole to both authors. We go back and for the until we have a working copy then continue until we have it cleaned up, polished, with no plot holes we can find and a flowing storyline. Afterwards, it is off to the Beta readers for their critique and inputs.

I like collaborating. It can be frustrating as all authors have their own ideas, remember my post about imagination, of what and how a story should be. That’s the first thing we three do before we start the actual process of writing a story. Allison, Willie, and I flesh out the plots.

I serve up a working idea about what I want to happen. They stew on it for a while and send it back. Normally with a whole host of questions. Harsh questions and critiques. They dig into the idea and the timelines and the details needed for the story to become a flowing storyline. 

Remember now, we at this point haven’t even written a single word. All we are doing is making the plots into an outline of what the story should be. Stories since Cheyenne’s books always have two stories. The main plot and the subplot. If these two don’t blend together, well then, all we did was waste our time. Worse, if the new stories don’t jive with the ones already published or the ones we will create in the future, then once again all we did was waste our time. 

This is book three for Cheyenne. I, once upon a time, sat down and made a list of the stories that would be written for the Cheyenne series. I have ten I want written. Ten stories open to interpretation by me, Allison, and Willie. 

In this third one I wanted to tell the story of how Cheyenne came to work for Monique Brown. What happened to her that made her a willing accomplice to one of the country’s ultra-covert spy masters.

This part of the story happens long before Cheyenne gets her gift of “listening.” Happens as a teenage girl full of conflicting emotions and concerns. Happiness as she exits the wilderness and joins civilization only to find civilization isn’t what she thought it would be. It is full of things like bills and the need for money to eat.

We hammered out a working outline for this part of the book and Allison took off with it. Her drafts are looking good and Willie and I have added some input but for the most part it is Allison’s’ story. 

Willie and I worked on the outline for the present day story. This one I wanted to reintroduce the character of the Entity. The Entity became a late addition to the Trouble in Nunya. Willie had a brilliant bit of imagination when she thought there should be some other supernatural power in Cheyenne’s life other than the Maelstrom. 

Mal is female and the author of creation. So, who is the other half of the equation? God doesn’t build in single entities and he certainly doesn’t build in straight lines. If there is a Mal, then there needs to be? Well, Willie created the Entity. 

What about Neelix I hear someone asking. Well, what about him? Neelix is the odd man out driving most of the stories from the background. He is an excellent innovation of Willie’s. I originally created the character, but she has done so much more with him then I could ever have imagined. Collaboration at its best.

I was left the task of deciding where this story should take place. I decided on three main locations. Colorado’s ski resort areas, the northern most parts of Washington state not far from the Canadian border, and Yosemite. Why? I have no idea. They sounded the best when I was researching out where to place the story.

Now all Cheyenne needed was someplace to call home and a place to work. And trouble. Cheyenne breeds trouble which is where this story gets its drive. Cheyenne’s need to get out of trouble. A classic “out of the frying pan and into the fire” type of story. 

The ladies asked me to provide them with character sheets on the locations and some of the minor characters I added to the story so they could take that information and run with it. Something I provided happily. Being the odd man out sometimes is a good thing in a collaboration. Especially since I will compile the stories and craft the final product.

I am looking forward to continuing the collaboration necessary to create the Cheyenne Series. I really do like the character both Allison and Willie have created. 

I’m Ross, The Editor-in-Chief at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.