I met the Bree half of Moira Rogers several months ago in a multi-fandom community, and from there it was like some kind of synergy had taken place. Our taste in books, particularly romance, is frighteningly similar, and so when the first Moira Rogers books came out, I became an instant fan. Now, with Crux, the dynamic duo of Bree and Donna have taken a leap into urban fantasy that Sandy and I both love. In celebration of the release of Crux, Bree and Donna, the two halves of Moira Rogers, stopped by the pond to talk to us about their writing process. Stay tuned at the end of this post for a contest!
And now, please welcome Moira Rogers!
When Shannon gave me a long leash to come up with my own topic for a guest blog post, my first thought was, “Oh, she’s going to regret this.” Before we get started, I feel like I should issue a disclaimer up front so no one can say they weren’t warned:
I, the Bree half of Moira Rogers, am an enormous geek.
There, I said it. No take backs. I’m a dorky McDork pants geek princess, and on most days my partner in crime is no better. Donna and I love gizmos and gadgets, comic books and computers, and we really, really like RPGs. We met our husbands in a table top role playing game at the local comic book store in a true romantic comedy tale too geeky for publication. We played dozens of games over the years, and we always had one thing in common: we drove everyone crazy with our elaborate back stories and highly flawed characters who were more likely to get the party blown up than actually kill the bad guy.
What can I say? We love a good redemption storyline.
Donna and I are a comparatively rare oddity in the writing world. We’re two people who share a single penname, and that penname is our career. We’re not two authors who have joined forces to write works together; we’re two writers who have joined forces to become one author. There’s a Captain Planet joke in there I’m dying to make, but I don’t want Shannon to beat me too severely when this is over, so I’ll refrain.
We get a lot of questions about how we write and what our process is. People are always fascinated that we have taken this seemingly terrifying leap of faith together, that we do something so intensely personal as telling a story together and somehow at the end of the day are still friends.
The first thing I tell everyone who asks is this: it is not for everyone. We have our epic battles and fights, our spats and our disagreements. We have hurt feelings when someone says, “Oh, okay, so what you’re saying is you want them to name that baby Deus ex machina.” (Ouch, I’m still smarting from that, Donna. More so because you had to be right.)
There are a hundred ways to write a story, and I don’t think any of the methods are the one true way. What I do know is that I can’t imagine working with someone who didn’t prioritize the story elements in the same way I do. Donna and I have our gamer roots to thank for this agreement, I think, because our number one concern is always the characters. Every character in every book we write has a complex history, family, a personality, trouble and triumphs. Every character. That guy who showed up for 3 minutes on the telephone? Him too. We love creating characters. We stash facts and tidbits about them in a top secret wiki—facts that might look a little like a character sheet.
At the end of the day, we almost never have a story idea before we have characters. Our characters shape our stories because each one is the story we think we want to tell for this character. It also means killing them feels like the loss of a person with so many potential stories left to tell, but when you’re writing dangerous books, sometimes you lose people. (Sob.)
Now the nitty gritty: how do we do it?
We each have our stable of characters, and we are the boss of them. All their words, actions, reactions and feelings are ours to decide. We do not have fights over what a character “should” do, we discuss what a character “would” do and how the heck we’re going to fix the repercussions of any given action. We literally write around each other. We don’t each write a chapter, or a POV scene, or anything like that. We write…paragraphs. Or sentences. Or sometimes words. Sometimes those words go in each other’s sentences.
Our husbands are used to listening to us hash out plots. “What would Joe do if…” “But how would Keith react if…” We don’t get to wing it, or we might be writing two different scenes. Even with careful planning sometimes the story can feel a bit like wrestling something into place, because while Donna and I think almost the same…well, almost is still not completely. Sometimes she’ll write a character saying something that would have never in a million years occurred to me, something I never would have written on my own.
And that’s when it feels a little bit like magic.
I could talk all day about the little details, but sometimes it’s hard to tell just what parts of this people really want to know about. So if you have a burning question about life as one half of Moira Rogers, ask! Nothing is sacred…well, a few things are sacred. Like the true location of the Bat Cave. But other than that, ask away!
CONTEST! Three winners will be chosen to win copies of anything from Moira Rogers’ backlist But you have to work for it! Leave a comment on this post with your questions about Bree and Donna’s writing process and you’ll be entered into the contest!
Thanks to Bree and Donna for stopping by and quacking with us!
OH, SIGN ME UP TO WIN! THIS IS SO EASY AND I DON’T HAVE TO REMEMBER MY BLOG NAME AND PASSWORD!!
GOOD LUCK ALL OY YOU!
have you eve threaten to kill the other? 🙂
If there is only one piece of chocolate left, and no husbands to go fetch more, who gets the bigger part if you divide it?
Do you guys meet often or you do just talk on the phone, im, email…?
I’d love to win.
I can’t tell who writes what. It’s pretty seamless. I’m about half way through Crux and would like to kick that Council and what they do to Michelle, hope her story will happen.
Just love the alphas you create in all your books. Will there be more Last Call books after Tequila Sunset?
Great post! Is there a genre you haven’t written in but would like to?
I am a gamer myself and I love role playing games. Have played all the Final Fantasy series and the Dragon Quest series. You mentioned that your gamer background plays an important part in how you write your books. However, if you don’t already have a story plot, how do you write write and develop your characters?
Do you role up your character ‘s? Or is it anything goes?
Wow, I had all these questions in mind, but since I didn’t want to ask something someone already asked, I scrolled through and read all the posts. Now I’ve run out of questions, because they’ve all been answered!
Here’s one I don’t think has been answered yet. 🙂 How do you find the time to do all the writing, especially with busy lives outside of writing? It amazes me how quickly and seamlessly you are able to write together. I would think it would take forever since “real life” would intrude.
Oh, sorry I missed all the fun today! But great to see you guys here. Keep those stories comin’!!
Very interesting two different style of writing collide. That’s the meaning of versatility.
It’s too hard to coordinate vacation plans with someone else long distance…can’t imagine trying to write that way. You two must really be in sync and have a great system of communicating. Just keep it up! Can’t wait to read your latest urb rom.
I love what I’ve read of your books so far, but have been lacking money to buy any lately. I know that anything you two write has to be good.
How hard was it to submit the first draft to a publisher? I’ve always thought of writing a book, but am afraid that no one would want to read what I write.
@Channon
Do you two ever argue over who get to do want in a scene? And how long have you two know each other??
We argue sometimes, but it’s more about what the POINT of the scene is. We try really hard to make sure that every scene has a reason for existing, and if we can’t both agree on what it is, we sometimes have to start it over–or get rid of it.
And we’ve known each other since 2000, so nine years now. 🙂
@Kim S.
have you ever written something in a book that at a later date you wished you could/had change(d)
Not necessarily with plot or events, but the craft of writing is something I’m always learning. It means sometimes I go back and look at old stuff and think I would have phrased something a different way, or written about it differently… or maybe told more/less of a story. But the plot… nah. I never wish the plot had changed. 🙂
@tasha
have you eve threaten to kill the other?
At least twice a week. LOL
@molli
If there is only one piece of chocolate left, and no husbands to go fetch more, who gets the bigger part if you divide it?
Donna. Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I’m scared of her.
@Lexee
Do you guys meet often or you do just talk on the phone, im, email…?
We usually get together once or twice a week at least, and talk on the phone and IM all the time in between.
@Sandra
Will there be more Last Call books after Tequila Sunset?
Actually, if all goes well there will be quite a few more, we just won’t be the only ones writing them! We’re working with our fellow Changeling authors to have a multi-author series set in a new Last Call bar in Europe. Plenty of fun from lots of different authors!
@Amy S.
Great post! Is there a genre you haven’t written in but would like to?
I think we both love the idea of historical. It just isn’t something that has worked out quite right yet. I’d love to write a full length post-apocalyptic book, too… I love books set after the end of the world!
@Tamsyn
However, if you don’t already have a story plot, how do you write write and develop your characters?
The same way you would if you were gaming! Make a character who is interesting to you, and hope the GM doesn’t kill them off too fast. 😉
No, that really is how we do it. We come up with a couple of characters, figure out how they’d interact, and then decide what kind of story would be the most interesting one to tell about them.
@Sarah
Do you role up your character ‘s? Or is it anything goes?
We don’t roll characters, but we are very careful that we retain a little bit of that balance. If a character is going to have lots of power, they need some disadvantages to balance it out. And if they’re 21, they’re probably not going to be an expert on too many things yet. I don’t like characters with nothing to learn–they’re boring to read about because, well, they have nothing to learn!
@Andrea
How do you find the time to do all the writing, especially with busy lives outside of writing?
This is where the fact that we are a well balanced partnership saves us. We are brilliant multi-taskers. We could be trading a story back and forth while Donna cooks dinner and plays with her kids and I clean my office and answer work e-mail. We never write for big chunks of time, but we do a few lines every 10 or 15 minutes all day long. Eventually it adds up!
@Shirley
You two must really be in sync and have a great system of communicating
T-Mobile’s Fave Five. 😀 Some days we just wander around and do our chores and daily work with our bluetooth headsets on and chatting at each other. The number of minutes we blow through in a month just talking to each other numbers in multiples of 1000.
@Roxanne
How hard was it to submit the first draft to a publisher?
It is always hard! I think it always will be hard. We have two editors we work with for the majority of our work now, and even though we love them both, we’re still terrified every time we send them something. 😀 But sometimes you just have to do it!
I think the best thing to do is to find an honest friend to read it first. Donna and I have a few people who act as beta readers for our finished stuff, but it would be hard to find a critique partner to be as brutally honest with us as we are with each other. And sometimes it stings–but I’d rather hear it from Donna when I can still fix it than from an editor who is wondering what I was smoking when I came up with my “brilliant” idea. LOL
do you ever want kill off each other’s characters?
D you sometimes what do do a different book first and how do you solve
I don’t know if this has already been asked – Do you think it is easier or harder to write with someone else instead of by yourself?
I would love to win – I’m getting ready to read Crux.
I am so hungry for a new book!