I’ve never written with another person before. See, my best friend came up with this great idea for the two of us to write together. Sort of The Stand, with zombies. (Okay, so I guess it’s kind of a cross between The Stand and Cell. Go figure.) Although we’ve just started on the project, I can tell it’s going to be a learning experience for both of us.

First obstacle: She hasn’t done much writing in years (but she has the most wonderful daughter in the world, so I know why she hasn’t had much time or energy for it). Me, on the other hand, I’ve been writing all along. Much more regularly over the last 2 ½ years. I know I’ve learned a lot, and that’s made my writing stronger than it was (thank God). So she has to get back in the habit of writing, and I get to add another story to my juggling act (I love to multi-task).

Second obstacle: Staying away from familiar territory. Which means doing away with as many as possible of the similarities to The Stand (Yes, we’ve both read it and loved it. Multiple times.) I think we’re overcoming that. No old ladies in rocking chairs having visions from God, and no Walking Dude in boots has appeared yet. Which is a really good thing, because he totally creeped me out. Also, no zombie-raising necromancers, and no sacrificing of animals.

Third obstacle: How to go about the whole two-people-writing thing. We settled on this: She’s writing the female MC’s chapters, and I’m writing the male’s. Of course, we may kill him off, so then I’ll be writing someone else. Sounds like a case of schizophrenia waiting in the wings.

I think it will actually go really well. She’s got some great ideas, and things I’ve never thought of. Then she gets stuck and asks me for help, and I usually can come up with something to get the ball rolling again. We actually balance out each other’s strengths and weaknesses quite well. Now the real question is, what are we going to call it?