The Best Reason to be Part of a Mother-Daughter Writing Team

Note: Helen and Lorri are a mother/daughter writing team. How unique is that? I had to ask them how they make this unique writing relationship work. Below are their answers to my questions. —Colleen

How did you both come to be writers? In other words, what were your individual journeys to writing?

Helen: For me, the spark to become a writer came in childhood, courtesy of a big red dog named Irish. He followed me everywhere and I just had to put him in a story.

Lorri: In middle school and high school, I wrote poetry and nature essays in a small journal. One of my teachers encouraged me to expand into stories.

When did you decide to write together? What prompted that decision?

Helen: I was writing and had some success with short stories, poems, and essays published in magazines. I grew tired of working by myself and mentioned that I was thinking of quitting.

Lorri: I was working in a boring job and thought working together would give us both a creative outlet and the support to pursue it. So we set up a desk in a spare room and began a novel.

How many books have you produced together?

To date, we’ve published ten works; six novels, two novellas, one novelette, and one short story.

Can you describe your process of team writing—who does what, when?

One of us spots a sentence, an image, or a word that sparks an idea. We talk about the direction the story might take and whether the journey is interesting to both of us. If so, the one who had the idea writes up a synopsis and an outline by chapter, and starts the story. Then we swap the work back and forth until THE END.

What would you say is the biggest strength you have as a writing team that you wouldn’t have as solo writers?

A huge strength is built-in support for those days when the story seems to be going nowhere, or when another form rejection arrives in the inbox.

What is the biggest challenge of writing as a team and how do you overcome it?

One challenge is to avoid making corrections to each other’s work. Instead, we take turns writing scenes and keep the story moving forward. Once the story is in rough form from first scene to last, we go back to the beginning and blend our words together.

Are there additional challenges involved because you’re mother and daughter?

The editing process can be an issue. As writers, we get attached to our words. Generally a few days (or more!) have to pass before we’re ready to hear criticism.

So when we’re doing a rough draft, we don’t edit the other person’s part, only our own. Once we finish a project, we let the work cool off for a period of time before we go back to edit or suggest changes.

What is the biggest reward you experience from writing as a team?

The biggest reward is having a built-in appreciator of the experience of finding the exact words to communicate the story we are envisioning. Those words have to fit the character, fit the scene, fit the way the story must unfold. Discovering them—and sometimes inventing them—is double the fun with a partner.

If two other people wanted to work together as writers, what advice would you give them?

Be sure you’re okay with letting another person criticize your children, because that’s what allowing a partner access to your creative process is akin to.

Sure, you know your kids aren’t perfect. They’re still your kids. For a writing partnership to be successful, you have to be willing to accept your partner’s views and comments about your book-kids.

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HL Carpenter is a mother/daughter duo who write from their studios in Carpenter Country, a magical place that, like their stories, is unreal but not untrue. When they’re not writing, the Carpenters enjoy exploring the Land of What-If and practicing the fine art of Curiosity.

Please see their website to enjoy gift reads and excerpts and to find out what’s happening in Carpenter Country. You can also connect with them on Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.

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A Cause for Murder: Septuagenarian sleuth Emma Twiggs thinks her neighbor’s death was an accident—until her friend Arnie says he suspects murder.

Arnie is convinced he knows the killer’s identity. He wants Emma to prove it.

Is Arnie right? And is he right in his belief that Emma’s best friend is the killer’s next target?

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The question is, who has a cause for murder?

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Murder by the Books: Certified public accountant Fae Childers is not an embezzler, despite the belief of the accounting firm that fires her for stealing. But proving her innocence is harder than convincing an IRS agent to allow a deduction. She’s lost her mother, her job, her fiancé, and her self-respect. She’s running out of money and the lease is about to expire on her apartment.

Then the fortune-telling grandmother Fae never knew existed, whose name and psychic abilities she now learns are also hers, issues a challenge from beyond the grave—a challenge that brings Fae face to face with murder, embezzlement, romance, and a hidden family legacy.

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