Annotated Chapter 19 Cover
“…and besides, everyone knows we plant willows for death, not oaks.”
On top of the tensions Phil and I experienced producing Chapter 18, we were having a rough time of it at conventions, too. Sales were fair, but our in-person dynamic was as volatile as our on-telephone-and-internet creative one: long periods of smooth professionalism or low-key bromance punctuated by shorter but intense angry flashes. One particularly nasty blowup left me entertaining doubts, for the first time, about whether we could even finish.
That was enough of a jolt to motivate Phil to make some changes. Instead of being all up in each other’s business, we’d work more independently for a little while (pages 2-13 of this chapter are mine, the others are Phil’s). And since it’s largely about trying to find internal peace in the aftermath of a war, it probably takes some of its emotional energy from the aftermath of our own conflict.
Sounds like a stressful situation, both of you must have been feeling a great deal of pressure to do it “right”. With both of you writing it, there must have been a lot of worry about the other guy messing it up, and just as much about being the one to somehow kill this thing you’ve been working so hard on. I’ve found, in my limited experience, that creative partnerships run smoother when you know what the roles are. With both of you being the writing team, not as much elbow room, very easy to step on each others toes (and feelings).