Writing can be a very lonely existence, especially when the only people who ‘get you’ don’t live close by. I am very lucky in that I am part of a great online community, but each of the few times I meet up with other writers in RL it brings home what I’m missing.

Being able to chat face to face makes a big difference in reminding me why I’m doing this, and why I can’t not do this.

This month I had a writer friend, Gillian St. Kevern, stay with me for four days. On our way home from the airport we stopped off at the library so Gillian could meet Maurice the Moa, an awesome crocheted moa that was visiting the library courtesy of Sam from Wonky Stitches.

Gillian and I are planning to co-write together so it was great to be able to discuss our project in person, and work out the overall world building and series. We also worked the important stuff about co-writing like what happens to the project if one of us gets hit by a bus tomorrow. It sounds morbid, but it is one of those things that need to be worked out before starting a project.

On the subject of co-writing I’d highly recommend Co-writing a Book by Joanna Penn. Her advice is very practical, and not only suggests what we discussed above, but has great ideas of the mechanics of how to co-write, especially when you’re co-writing from a distance as we are. Gillian lives in Christchurch and I live in Wellington so we only meet in person once or twice a year.

When I’ve co-written before my co author—Lou Sylvre—and I sent a word doc back and forth, saving it each time with the date we sent it. That worked very well for us, and it meant the manuscript, in all its iterations was safely backed up.

This time, with Gillian, I’m trying a different approach. We’re writing this one on google docs, and have also set up series bible, housekeeping, and communications docs. We’ll be using next meet up to plot our series in more detail and work out character arcs etc with the aim to start writing in September.

As a side note re google docs, I was having major issues trying to edit on my android devices. When I accessed it through the drive app all the docs were pdfs so I couldn’t edit them. Googling android forums brought no joy at all. Someone at work suggested I try it in a browser, and when I did so, it prompted me to install google docs, which apparently is a different app on android to drive. Who knew? Definitely none of those forums. So problem solved, which will make taking my tablet and keyboard travelling so I don’t have to lug a laptop on an airplane so much easier. I will be loading my current WIP onto google doc as well before I head down to Christchurch next month.

Gillian and I had a great visit, which was unfortunately over far too soon. As well as discussing loads of write type stuff, we also fitted in a SF meeting, a trip to Writers Plot bookshop in Upper Hutt, and watched a really terrible 1950s movie called The Maze. It’s out of copyright so is on Youtube if you feel the urge to inflict this wonderfully tropey—and not in a good way—movie on yourself and/or others. The final scenes were totally….you need to see it to believe it. Definitely one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something.

Another highlight of the week was meeting another Kiwi MM author in person as Gillian was heading up to stay a few days with her after she left Wellington. The three of us had lunch together at Gotham Café, tried their chocolate Sweet As drink, Pennyworth, and talked writing. Emma, who lives about a two hour drive from me, are now aiming to meet in person once a month, as we both noticed the huge advantage and buzz in being able to catch up with another writer in person.

So, in all, the week was a total win win.