The Olympians of Bloggers
We are the beach volleyball team of the blogosphere. The Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings of writers, if you will.
Okay, eyes up here. By the grace of Neptune we wish we were bragging about our abs resembling their epic washboards, but alas, our metaphor goes deeper than that. Almost as deep as you would have to spelunk to find our own mythological six packs.
No, we have a team approach, like script writers, to our writing. How to answer when asked if we record and transcribe our conversations? Um, no, hell no, and you’re welcome.
Topics for posts are buried in our conversations like treasures lost on a beach. We diligently mine for them like metal detector toting geriatric bounty hunters. For example, this was shouted during a recent conversation, “Wait! Remember an hour ago, when we were talking about how you bunched everyone’s panties by ferociously proclaiming your hate for Andy Griffith? That’s our next post!”
There’s the serve.
“Well, it’s your bright idea, how are we going to start it?”
Bump.
“I’ll text you when I get a framework on the site.”
Ball hangs in air. For this piece you don’t need a suspension of disbelief, you need a suspension of gravity.
‹Droid› emanates from a phone at 6:00am heralding the message, “I started it and wrote in placeholder parts where I heard your voice. Tag you’re it.” But really it’s not a phone, it’s Ellen’s phone Droid-ing. Erin is Miss Rise-and-Shine-Grab-the-Worm-by-the-Tail-Work-at-the-Crack-of-Ass Morning Person.
So squeezing in writing around life, Ellen writes in her parts and bounces it back. At 11:30pm.
Dig, ball hangs in air again, gravity be damned. By 9pm, Erin winds down like a doped athlete who’s lost her dealer.
Ellen knows a 6:00am “Droid” is coming…
“Loved it. Polished it. Can you picture it up because I have three separate soccer camps to shuttle to today?”
Set.
We Dub This One “Accurate”
“It has pictures, it is proofed, and it is scheduled to publish for next week.”
Spike and score!
Okay, we seriously pulled the visors over your eyes on that one. We generally finish posts about 30 minutes before our self-imposed publishing deadlines; just part of our rhythm of cooperation.
If you’re keeping score, that’s about 60 hours of bouncing back and forth, editing, and haggling over dialogue like seagulls squawking over sandwich crusts.
Practice has made the process more fluid, but it wasn’t always so. Let’s turn to the highlight reel.
“Did you really take out my perfectly good simile and compare me to George freakin’ Burns?”
“So you drop in commas like a unicorn farting glitter, but sentence fragments are okay?”
“You put the word “niggled” in MY mouth!?!”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with it, just make it better.”
We practice, we improve, we write. Toss our medal out for the bounty hunters to find because we really just want some love from the crowd…and some sweats. We need to cover our assets because it’s getting sandy all up in here.
If you are looking for a writing community, then Yeah Write Me is the answer to your search.
By Ellen Williams Erin Dymowski
I always wondered how it worked so well! I think my sister and I would kill eachother if we ever blogged together. I kinda assumed that maybe you were twins and thus thought a lot alike.
Clearly cooperation was taught to you at a young age lol. I love your blogging style. it’s really unique!
Carrie recently posted..I am enjoying my new space
Amazingly, we are not sisters. Erin is from a big family, though, and she tolerates my only-childness.
We also have a pact now to just say what we think, with kindness mind you, and get on with it. When you have to write together, wishy-washy deferential simpering takes up too much time. I think our first combined post took 2 weeks to write.
Ellen
You’re NOT sisters. Now I am officially blown away!
Carrie recently posted..I am enjoying my new space
Clearly, whatever you are doing together works!
Christie recently posted..Two Boys
Thank you!
I have wondered how blogging duets work, especially when you’re writing the same post. Loved the volleyball metaphor, too! Nice set!
IASoupMama recently posted..The Boy I Wanted to Kiss
Thank you! For the kill (continuing the volleyball metaphor, not threatening in any way.
) Ellen
Interesting. Your guy’s process is a bit different than ours. For the sake of efficiency and time we always have several “in progress” at once. On average I would say it takes us about a month to write one, which makes it very difficult to discuss current events unless we know what those current events are going to be in the future. But unfortunately we aren’t psychics. Yet.
There should be a blog conference just for duo-bloggers. It could be called BlogThem or something.
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See, we would like, no love, to be that far ahead. We even plan for it, but we get distracted by shiny new topics and off we go. We have one post that is our little orphan. We’ve been kicking it around since April. It may see the light on Thursday, Fingers crossed.
As far as the conference name goes, how about “Chips and Salsa in Ellen’s Backyard?” We would only include other duos who were psychic. You gotta have standards. And I can only make so much salsa. Ellen
This is really an interesting and unique style of writing, and you explained the process beautifully, with the right amount of humour. Thanks again for stopping by my blog.
Dr Erhumu recently posted..DEALING WITH DEMENTIA.
Thank you for visiting us here. Ellen
Cool peek into your writing process! It’s fun to read posts like this – informative but not overly serious. The beach volleyball analogy totally works! Nice job!
If we gave you the complete play-by-play, you would want to poke your eyes out.
Ellen
As others have said, I wondered how it worked for you. I enjoy the back and forth, your humor, your friendship. I have 5 sisters and when I read the comments that say you’re just like sisters I can’t help but disagree, in my mind. I’m good friends with some of my sisters, and we have a great time when we hang out. But I could never perform a duet of any kind with any of them. But I could with a few of my friends, one in particular.
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Erin’s sister says that WE look like sisters. Hmmmm. I guess her opinion counts double. Ellen
I only meant to imply that often bonds of friendship are tighter than family bonds. I hope my comment wasn’t misconstrued. Or maybe you “look” like sisters, physically. In any case, your posts are wonderful because of your bond.
stephanie recently posted..Ambrosia of the Gods
Oh no! Not misconstrued at all. Erin turns to her sister all of the time for advice and to review our writing. She is an English PhD and we respect her opinion mightily. I laugh because when Erin turns to her for opinions, she often unknowingly backs me up. Erin always has the good grace to tell me. And that right there is probably why we can work together.
I loved your original comment. I was just expressing that Erin’s sister has commented that we look alike in our banner photo.
Ellen
I ALWAYS WONDERED!!!!
Kim @The G is Silent recently posted..She was Screwed
We might have presented the glossy 500 word version.
Ellen
Y’all are awesome! I admire your blog and envy your friendship; thanks for this great, funny, sweet and timely peek into your process.
Thank you! You’re pretty awesome yourself. Ellen
I loved those pictures, and I think your team process is freaking AWESOME. Yeah. And if you get those washboard abs, lemme know how, cos I’ll follow that program, too, yeah?
Jester Queen recently posted..Because it’s my name
If we found an EASY way to get those abs we’d be famous. But here’s a tip, you don’t get them by blogging. Ellen
My process starts on paper. I like it old school.
Kathy Kramer recently posted..Caught in the Grip of the Keratin Tentacle
If we are together, and especially if we are beach or poolside, we have been known to use paper, too. Our problem is the shuffling back and forth. Erin has lost an “Ideas” notebook and I have lost an accordion file. But we have issues electronically, too. We don’t discriminate.
Ellen
You two are amazing! You definitely have a winning formula, just like Misti May and Kerri Walsh. Keep up the good work, ladies!
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Thank you so much! They got the gold again! Ellen
Loved many lines her but “crack-of-ass-morning-person” cracked me up. I love your humor (both of you) and a riot to read. I can imagine those conversations and texts going down.
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She is ridiculously cheerful and ready to go in the morning. But in the evening you can actually see her winding down like her plug was pulled. Ellen
This is the first time I visit your blog, and what a fun post to find. I am not sure how I would work with someone else!
Ellen Stumbo recently posted..Drops of time
Glad you found Yeah Write Me and stopped by! Ellen
You’ve captured the essence of team writing – an elite athlete sport in the blogging world.
Cindy ~ The Reedster Speaks recently posted..Time Management.
This was so awesome! I loved the timely analogy and it was fun to learn how you guys actually pull this off. I think you get the gold!
Stacie @ Snaps and Bits recently posted..Raddoo
Here’s some love from the crowd: Perfection! I loved this post and am in awe of your process. Your partnership is inspirational and appears to be more fun than I’ve had lately! I’m thinking a vlog of your process would make a great post too. I love reading your work and this one is especially brilliant. Wow.
Mary @ A Teachable Mom recently posted..Sheer Luck
Believe us when we say, we are sparing you from the vlog. The editing it would require to make it palatable would be epic.
Ellen
“a unicorn farting glitter” is now what I will think of every time I read a superfluous comma.
Despite your witty and educational explanation, I am still in awe that you are able to work so well together. I can’t think of anyone I could write a blog with where we wouldn’t eventually devolve into name-calling and slander.
Liz @ShiftlessMommie recently posted..Dual Motivation
My 11 year old asked to look at the blog tonight. She wanted to catch up. (Hence why we refrain from hardcore swearing. Don’t need that showing up in a book report. The sentence fragments are bad enough.) I thought she was going to bust a gut over “a unicorn farting glitter.” She has a whole new respect for me now. Ellen
I always read your posts and think how wonderful it would be to do what you do. But I guarantee it would be over for me within 1 post. I loved this glimpse into your style(s) and your process. It sounds like over all you have a great deal of fun together and your obvious friendship is a beautiful thing.
Michelle Longo recently posted..I’ll Get to It.
Believe me, we thought it might be over before it started when we tried to write that first post together.
The secret is that we figured out we can just come out and tell one another when we don’t like something. No drama. No undertones. It’s a rare thing. Ellen
Let me just say, that I love you guys. I love this post and the fellowship and the laughter and the talent you guys pack into your posts is AMAZING. I am envious. This post was timely, humorous and perfectly illustrated. You rock.
Christie O. Tate recently posted..Three Bouquets
That means a lot coming from you. Thanks. Ellen
This was so fun! Loved the way you incorporated the Olympics and likened writing to sport. I had always wondered how you split blog duties, ’cause you do it splendidly!
Emma @ Your Doctor’s Wife recently posted..For the Love of Ryan Lochte’s Abs
It is nice because there is always someone to pick up the slack. We always sign what we tweet or comment because we decided in the beginning that we didn’t want to homogenize our voices. Ellen
Oh, I loved this look behind the curtain! Ive wondered how the two of you write together, and this was a fun, great description!
Bwwwahahahaha!!!! Genius, ladies. The analogy, the pics, the story. So much fun to see how you two operate (without killing each other). My favorite was the gem at the end: “So you drop in commas like a unicorn farting glitter, but sentence fragments are okay?” Oh, the snark.
DROOOIIIID. ::: runs away :::
50Peach recently posted..Joyride
the word niggled is ALWAYS appropriate and woefully underused. So thank you for that. I applaud your partnership, because it always seems to me that writing with a partner is about as difficult as a marriage, but without the (bi-monthly) sex to keep things juicy.
deborah l quinn recently posted..obligatory head-still-spinning post-blogher12 post: what I learned
Oh Deborah, if I didn’t love you so. I would have deleted this comment because Erin is now vindicated in her love of the word “niggled.” Keep reading because I feel it being worked in soon.
The funny thing about our partnership? We’re not quite sure how it works. Erin can be an awful team player/follower and I have always hated working in groups. We are both gifted with self-awareness, though, and that goes a long way. Ellen
Okay I will come right out and admit it: I’m jealous of your friendship. Peevish, and jealous.
There, I said it.
What a team you are! (-:
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Hmmm, we may have a proposition for you. Eyebrow waggle. Ellen
Someday I really want to see a unicorn fart glitter. In the meantime though I always enjoy the dialogue on your blog. Plus I deleted my comma’s before I hit post.
Vanessa recently posted..5 Things About Preparing For A Job Interview
I love this post! I was wondering how the two of you do this. It’s still amazing even after reading how you do it. Amazing! And hilarious! It takes a special kind of friendship.
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