Cooperative Working: Writing a Continuity With Other Authors

Ruthy here, introducing an author who needs no introduction! Cheryl St. John is the author of many books in multiple genres, and one of the ladies I run to when I want to hear advice and hear it straight! Cheryl is working with two other amazing authors on a historical continuity for Love Inspired Historicals, and with all the fun going on at Love Inspired Historicals right now, I knew you'd love to hear more about this! 

Take it away, Cheryl!

Cowboy Creek is Love Inspired Historical’s Spring continuity series set in a Kansas boomtown and featuring brides who come west to marry following the Civil War.

April: Want Ad Wedding, Cheryl St.John

May: Special Delivery Baby, Sherri Shackelford

June: Bride By Arrangement, by Karen Kirst

I truly enjoy writing these series books, working with other fabulous authors and following guidelines set up by the editors.

When the author is given a brief synopsis and character outlines to work from, their job entails making the story their own, through characterization, backstory and internal conflict, while staying on track with the outline and working with the other authors’ characters and ideas. It’s a challenge. There are hundreds of details to work out as well as facts, names, places, dates to stay accountable to, and all the stories must flow together.

I might seem pretty seat-of-the-pants, but I’m truly a detail person in this regard, so having the first deadline in the series, I drew a map of Cowboy Creek and enlisted Sherri and Karen’s help in placing businesses and homes. We shared a Pinterest board, so we could easily describe and identify characters we were sharing. You can see our board here.

https://www.pinterest.com/cheryl_stjohn/cowboy-creek-love-inspired-historial-trilogy/

There were so many characters to keep track of that this definitely helped our process.

For each story I write, I create a Pinterest board, which is handy for several reasons. It’s great reference when you want to remember what a character looks like or describe their clothing. As a group, we added to this board, so we had each other’s characters to reference as well. As soon as the book is finished (and often before the book is finished if it’s scheduled) the author is asked to fill out Art Fact Sheets. Having all of these character photos, plus scenery and cover ideas in one place is extremely helpful at this stage. LIH asks for the photos in a Word document, so you can gather them all on your board, then download and insert them in Word docs to send the art department. The better photos you send, the better cover you’re likely to get. It’s a good idea to find other comparable covers or photos you like to assure the cover you’d like to see.

To stay coordinated on a project like this, the authors must constantly update secondary character information, names, traits, businesses, jobs, etc.. This can be done with file sharing, like yahoo groups or google docs. We had a yahoogroup, where we asked questions of each other and kept track. A google calendar can also be valuable for keeping track of the months your story takes place. The key to a multi-author project is communication.

Like planning any other book, the author finds something that excites her within the period in history, has in mind the tone she wants to set, creates backstory and builds conflict and emotion to sustain the book to its end. I kept in mind the emotional wounds of the people and our country during this time. I wanted to show the bravery of the women who traveled to an unknown land in hope of a new and better life—sometimes out of sheer desperation. To keep a historical authentic it’s important to know and understand the political and social climates of our setting and time period. There are so many resources to help with this. We can read journals, diaries, cookbooks, travel logs, find photographs, study the politics, art and music of not only the year the story happens, but the formative years of our characters’ lives. People are a result of their history and upbringings. Events change people. War changes people and countries.

And because I write romance, I wanted to give my characters a new beginning and a second chance at happiness. Themes of forgiveness and second chances consistently run through my stories, because that’s what life is all about. That’s what Jesus is all about. I’ve had the pleasure of reading them all, and I believe you’re going to thoroughly enjoy these three stories.

I’ll draw from the comments for three copies of Want Ad Wedding. Mention whether you’d like a print copy or if you’d prefer a .mobi mailed to your Kindle address. 

NEWSFLASH VIA SHERRI SHACKELFORD! Sherri is also offering three copies of Special Delivery Baby either print (when they arrive) or a .mobi file mailed to your Kindle! Thank you, ladies!

And exciting news: Sherri and I are currently writing yet another Cowboy Creek installment, Christmas in Cowboy Creek for the Love Inspired Historical western Christmas anthology. Two more stories set in Cowboy Creek!

 Ruthy again! Cheryl, I'm so glad you were here, thank you!!!

I've got flapjacks on the griddle and a pot of fresh, strong coffee, some sweet tea, and some of my cousin's maple syrup from back East! Come on in, let's chat writing historicals and writing together... What do you think the toughest aspect of writing with a group would be?

I can't wait to hear what you say!