Thursday Thirteen – Things I love about working with Emily

November 19, 2009 on 11:37 am | In Uncategorized | 9 Comments

She totally doesn’t know I’m doing this. But sometimes you just have to go with your gut and do the praise thing. So, here it is.

1. She’s honest. Feedback I get from Em is invaluable because of this.

2. I get to read her stuff! Em can be absolutely brilliant – Thumbelina, for example, is completely amazing. Even in rough form, her stuff is good.

3. Experience. She’s been at this longer than I have, and her experience has helped me a lot.

4. Brainstorming. Our brainstorming sessions are priceless. People should pay money to watch us brainstorm. It’s truly a thing of beauty and terror.

5. She’s skilled. Em isn’t just talented – she’s got the  skills to back it up. She works hard to improve her craft, and it shows.

6. Her sense of humor.  We don’t match in this area, but we do overlap. Em has a lovely droll sense of humor with flashes of slapstick. It’s quite entertaining. I’m sure you’d all be surprised to learn she’s a prankster.

7. She has the most astonishing ideas. This is part and parcel of the brainstorming and the brilliance, but she comes up with the most amazing ideas. Little bits of world-building that leave my jaw hanging.

8. She pushes me. Not in a heavy-handed way, but with gentle (and not so gentle) pokes. It helps.

9. Our strengths complement each other. Where she excels, I tend to be weaker. Where she’s weak, I excel. Together, at the risk of sounding a bit arrogant, we are pretty freaking awesome.

10. Her writing style and mine work well together. I’m not talking here about words on the page and voice, I’m talking about working style. We work really well together because when we do a joint project, we mesh. And that, people, is a rare and beautiful thing.

11. She keeps me grounded. I tend to go off on tangents, particularly when nailing down the particulars of world building or chasing the tail of a plot element. She brings me back with a simple “Is that really important?” – which is good, since otherwise I’d research until Doomsday and not finish things.

12. She’s fun. We’ll be working through a plot line for Mercy or some other project and  she’ll just throw something in there that makes the process more fun. I appreciate that.

13. She’s my friend. All of the above are wrapped into this, but it doesn’t cover it all. Em’s awesome. And I do love working with her.