Humans have engaged in sport since the beginning of our time. Around the world people compete in camel racing and hot chili eating, ping-pong and cheese rolling, yo-yoing, bullfighting, war games and team sports of all kinds. Reasons for participation include practicing discipline, seeking challenge, a quest for perfection, notoriety, and of course, fun. While new games are invented and traditional sports are rewritten and refined, those of us not so blessed with physical talents often redefine entirely what counts as sport … because we want to play, too.
As authors we have faced times in our pursuit of publishing when we each felt like a marathoner struggling to find the right pace, a tennis pro worried about covering the span of the court, a chess player unable to anticipate a winning strategy. What we realized, respectively, is that we prefer to be in the company of a teammate than engaged in individual exercise. Having found our competitive soulmate in each other we, as an author duo, approach writing as a sport. Thankfully, luck struck; our duo is dynamic. We enjoy the discipline of meeting deadlines, the challenge of developing new ideas, the joy of a finished product, improving in our craft, the anticipation of readers smiling, and of course we have a lot of fun. Our lit sport is a jollity we call “Writer’s Leapfrog”.
We begin work sessions with what might be considered the warmup, dealing with any “business of the books”. This time includes everything from following up with our PR agent if we are in book launch mode, meeting deadlines with our editor if we are finalizing a manuscript, and finding ways to continue promoting our novels already on the shelves. Social media and collaborating closely with our literary agent who is in New York while we are in the West, make posting content and timing meetings tricky. The ordinariness of administrative duties inevitably leads to us chopping it up about life outside the margins. During these work chats we share stories that help create our characters, recall funny moments that make their way into our writing, and laugh with abandon, strengthening our artistic relationship.
The scope of our work is dictated by where we are in each book’s progress. We have three work formats: shoulder-to-shoulder, FaceTime, and solo. When kicking off a new book we have already brainstormed and loosely outlined together, Alli begins by emailing three rough chapters to Asha with a ton of notes attached. The storyline is there but the cast, so far, is bare.
Asha takes those chapters and brings the characters to life with authentic dialogue, inner thoughts, empathetic emotion, and believability. Alli gets the next three chapters down on paper, tackling twists and turns as she structures the story. We are, at this stage of the game, deep in our divided work yet in constant touch for support and spark.
If we get stuck on the story we rarely call a timeout. Instead, we rely on teamwork to build the next chapter together. Usually when this happens Alli freaks out that the story is impossible to rework, our books have been flukes, we are doomed, it’s all over. Asha tolerates the episode, but always with a slightly raised eyebrow, and they calmly move the chapter forward. Miraculously, words get down on paper, we survive another day of writing and Asha is always right, we’ve got skills, we can do this.
After Alli’s world-building and Asha’s character creation, it’s time to read out loud. Asha is always the voice as her dramatic intonation brings the book to life. Alli is the scribe who also keeps all electronic files in order. We negotiate and agree upon Every. Single. Word. Most times we are on the same page. Sometimes, because we are writing about race, religion, class, privilege, love, heartache, and parenting through it all, our conversations are difficult and we must give our work the time and deep discussion it deserves. Neither of us yields, pushing our partner to their limits, because our goal is alliance on everything we write, this is our non-negotiable. Finally, we read our books out loud several times, beginning to end. It may sound tedious, but it’s our training method for good storytelling.
As proud members of the human nerd herd, we acknowledge that most folks won’t consider writing an actual sport. But we were the kids who begged for science kits, the teens who drifted into bookstores when mall crawling with friends, the young women fiercely focused on education who became educators ourselves. Academics was where we competed and in this unique partnership, we have each other to tag out when the work is tough and someone to high-five when a great line lands. We are a team and, leapfrogging along, we have more book hits to score.
