by Nikki Attree
We were both clear that SD should have a ‘feel good’ ending. After all, to get to this point the reader has donated a fair chunk of their time and meandered through some 120,000 words, so we felt that the least that they deserved was to be left smiling.28
Richard: “having read Hemingway’s ‘Farewell to Arms’ while working with Nikki on SD I was made very aware of what counts as a bleak ending. It’s fascinating that Hemingway discarded around fifty alternative endings, some much less harrowing, to finally settle on the bleak finality of both mother and child dying in childbirth.29 We tried our best to make our ending as happy as Hemingway’s is sad.”
Calling SD a ‘real novel’ might be pushing it a bit, but it’s not without a serious side. Our main aim was to entertain and amuse, but as it races towards the climax the human protagonists search for what is missing in their lives, and begin to glimpse what they can learn from our canine friends: how to be stoic, live in the moment instead of regretting the past and worrying about the future, the value of friendship and loyalty, and simply to have a bit of fun in life without agonising over everything.
Collaboration
So, having spilt the beans on why we wrote SD, and the origins of the plot, characters, and themes, we should say a bit about how we collaborated.
Richard: “we’re a good team because Nikki tends to write quickly and spontaneously, and I’m someone who agonises and endlessly polishes the copy.”
Hence much of the book was originated by Nikki, and then edited by Richard, before being passed back and forth in an ongoing feedback loop. This process started with the very first page (Nikki remembers visualising the first scene with Angus being shut in the van), and continued right through to the last line: “we’ll always have Stoke Newington”, which she conceived as a kind of homage to Bogarde’s line to Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.30
When it comes to plot and character, two minds can often be better than one. For instance, it’s especially useful to have both a male and female perspective on each of the characters, how they relate to each other, and how they deal with events. This type of teamwork is quite normal for large scale film and television drama of course. A TV soap opera, for instance, will have a whole team of writers collaborating on story lines and character development, as well as the final script, whereas writing a novel is normally thought of as a solitary pursuit.
At least we didn’t need to suffer loneliness or isolation, and if one of us was experiencing writer’s block, the other would hopefully be simultaneously gripped with enthusiasm. We each tried our best to encourage the other to persevere through the tough times, and perhaps this is why the 120,000 words were written relatively quickly.
There can of course be negative, as well as positive aspects of a collaboration. One of our rules is that all decisions have to be 100% agreed by both of us. No compromises. So any disagreements over plot or language have to be discussed, and thrashed out, until we reach consensus, or else the plot idea / paragraph / character has to be abandoned. Although this means binning some promising chunks, it does guarantee that the book is a genuinely fifty-fifty co-authored collaboration.
Writing a book like SD is a bit like solving Rubrik’s Cube, repeatedly, or perhaps more like designing and building a Grand Design of a house. A whole lot of interlinked plot decisions are needed to crack it. We both (but mainly Nikki) had lots of intricate plot ideas, which we continually tried out on each other, thrashing them out, and discarding several that were too contrived, inconsistent, unbelievable etc.
So the process took quite a while, and involved some fairly heated discussions. Just as we’d had the original idea all those years ago when walking on Hampstead Heath, we talked about the plot endlessly as we hiked around our local spot in Tenerife (Mt Roja, el Medano) with Gizmo.
We slaved over the synopsis until all the major plot was worked out and 100% agreed, as per our rule. Once we had an agreed synopsis setting out what was to happen in each chapter, it left us individually free to plunge into the story at whatever point took our current fancy.
There was one major plot tweak that wasn’t foreseen in the original synopsis. Nikki came up with the twist that is revealed by Elizabeth in chapter fifteen: that she has been collaborating with the dognappers all along as a publicity stunt.
Nikki: “I felt as if the book needed another layer at this point in the story. Elizabeth's character is controlling and quite sneaky. This plot twist shows how far she’s willing to go to achieve material / career success, by sacrificing her dog’s, and even her daughter’s happiness.”
Once we had agreed this twist, it meant going back and rewriting chapter twelve (“The Ransom Note Copywriter’) and making it work so as 1 - to be consistent with the new plot twist without revealing it, and 2 - still be consistent with our reader’s version of the plot at this point. The story is largely moving on through the exchange of ransom notes in this chapter, so the plot twist meant carefully wording these notes to allow for the ambiguity.
Richard’s favourite moment in the whole book is in chapter fifteen, after Nikki’s plot twist is revealed by Elizabeth while being interrogated, and the police inspector says: “that’s a turn up for the book.” His remark obviously works on several levels, and became the ideal title for the chapter.
Nikki came up with another important story line for Elizabeth: as a consequence of having been found out conniving with the dognappers, the appropriate punishment would be community work in a dog refuge. Appropriate because: 1 - she needs to learn to treat her dog better, and 2 - cleaning kennels is the ideal punishment for someone who is such a snob about dog mess.
Nikki: “I’ve helped out at the refuges in Tenerife, and I know from first hand how hard the volunteers work. I thought that if Elizabeth was forced to work in a shelter as her community service, it would make her question her values, attitudes, behavior, and see the error of her ways. Coming into close contact with dogs who have been abandoned, through no fault of their own, is bound to soften the heart of anyone.”
Some of Nikki’s favourite moments are the scenes with Gizmo, Doodle, and the other canine guests at Wags dog hotel (chapter six): “I loved writing this chapter, with all the dialogue between the dogs”. Another favourite scene for her is Annie solving the case of the Yorkshire Terrier poisoned at ‘Crofts’ dog show. The dreadlocked pet detective is her favourite character, and for Richard, having had to endure TV producers for many years as part of his job, it’s probably Elizabeth.
Richard: “living with the characters for a couple of years, you get to know them pretty well. We’ll miss them a bit now.”
There again, maybe not ... To borrow Jack’s ‘Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder’ strategy (or as he calls it: “AMHGF”), there’s a possibility that Annie may make a reappearance (after a decent amount of time for the AMHGF effect to work), to star in her own series of stories, as ‘The Dreadlocks Detective’. We’ve added it to the list of future projects, anyway (more about them in a moment).
By the way, we never intended to write so many words, just as we originally thought that the first book might end up a bit longer than it’s thirty thousand(ish). We were actually slightly disappointed to find out that ‘Nobody’s Poodle’ is classed as a ‘Novella’ (20,000 - 50,000 words), and rather stunned to discover that ‘Somebody’s Doodle’ is officially an ‘Epic’! (over 110,000 words).31
Once we had the characters and plot in place, the words just seemed to flow. We started writing the first draft in October 2013 and finished it in February 2016, of which at least three months were taken up renovating and moving house and were wordless. So around two years work. Par for the course, perhaps?
There then followed several months of proof reading, editing, tweaking, polishing, book design, creating a cover, and writing a blurb, before we were finally ready to submit it to CreateSpace for publishing as a ‘print on demand’ paperback and an e-book.
These are all important jobs. If an author is lucky enough32 to have a
n agent and publisher then they will normally have been assigned an editor, proof reader, graphic designer, marketing person etc. As self published co-authors we do it all ourselves, and as mentioned, we make a good team.
Richard is annoyingly obsessive about polishing text. After obsessing over word choice, grammar, and punctuation, he had to get to grips with the way the text looked - doggedly tackling the minutia of fonts, drop caps, and all the other details of designing a book.
Nikki is good at seeing the bigger picture and an exacting editor, as well as being a visual professional and a dab hand at online marketing (you can find all her links in the final extras section).
Designing a cover was tricky (especially as Nikki’s cover for ‘Nobody’s Poodle’ was so well received, and a tough act to follow). Anyway, here’s the explanation ... We both enjoy a good pun, and there are a fair few dotted around SD, so the basic idea was to make a ‘visual pun’ on “doodle”: i.e. 1 - the dog in the story is a Labradoodle called 'Doodle'; and 2 - a doodle is also a type of quick, simple drawing. So, the idea was to show a hand holding a pencil which is drawing a doodle of a Doodle.33
Another aspect that we wanted to include in the cover was to convey a feeling of crime by giving it a slightly ironic ‘film noir’ / James Bond / detective look. However, we clearly hadn’t written a serious thriller or murder mystery, and we found it tricky to get the crime-humour balance right, visually. Our friend, Armin Popp, who is a very successful freelance illustrator in his native Germany, produced this idea for us, and Nikki then tweaked it.
The final word on husband and wife creative collaboration: in our experience, if / when it does work it brings you closer together. It’s a bit like taking the ultimate holiday together, and our marriage is all the stronger for it. It may be a bit of a twee cliché, but nether the less true, to say that our motive for writing books together is certainly not fame or fortune (LOL, fat chance etc) but just because we love doing it!
Links and Future Projects
We both like links - online links to things (see Extras 4), and to put links between things in our books. It started with the little poem in the first book, which actually lists the titles of our first three co-authored books:
I am Nobody's Poodle
But I'm Somebody's Doodle,
And I Woof ... therefore I Am!
Two of these are now finished. In ‘Somebody’s Doodle’, Elizabeth reads ‘Nobody’s Poodle’ and decides to make a film of it, which becomes central to the plot. At the end of SD, Elizabeth has the idea for a follow-up film, and Nikki (the ‘fictional’ character in the book) suggest to call the sequel ‘Somebody’s Doodle’.
The third book: ‘I Woof therefore I Am’ will be a collection of short stories (‘Shaggy Dog Stories’) and some of them are links. One might be a link back to SD, perhaps filling in a missing (for brevity) scene in which Elizabeth goes to Tenerife to film the location scenes for NP. Another may be a link forward: ‘DogWorld’ is a teaser for what we hope may become a whole series of books about a fantasy universe in which dogs run everything.
Another idea that has been mooted recently is to re-visit (or should that be resurrect?, resuscitate?, or perhaps reincarnate?) Annie, the pet detective, to star in her own series of stories, as ‘The Dreadlocks Detective’.
Who knows how many of these projects will come to fruition, but anyway, the ‘Grand Design’ is to venture out from the cosy kennel of the dog book genre, and to boldly go where no dog has gone before, and explore wooftastic new worlds of Detective stories, Fantasy / Science Fiction books, and Dog Knows what else.
As Elizabeth might say: ‘watch this space’, and ‘stay in the loop’ by following the links in Extras section four.
Finally, a big thank you to all our readers. We hope you’ve had as much enjoyment reading Somebody’s Doodle as we had writing it. If you feel like posting a review on Amazon, you will make the authors (and Gizmo) very happy.
EXTRAS 2: ABOUT THE AUTHORs
NIKKI ATTREE studied photography at the University of London, graduating with a BA in 1987, before going on to work as a freelance photographer and digital artist in the UK. You can view her paintings and digital art on her website: www.NikkiAttree.net.
Since moving to Tenerife in 2007, she has been helping to promote the hardworking animal rescue centres on the island by producing calendars and educational poster campaigns. Her website: TenerifeDogs.org is dedicated to finding homes for the island’s abandoned dogs, as well as being a mine of information and an insight into the canine world.
Despite being disadvantaged at school by mild dyslexia and a woefully unsupportive English teacher, she discovered an unexpected passion for writing. After publishing her first book, ‘Nobody’s Poodle’, she set up a website: WooftasticBooks.com as a showcase for authors and books that feature dogs in an ethical way.
RICHARD ATTREE grew up in London in the 60′s and left home as soon as he could to study a variety of useless subjects (philosophy), and play keyboards in various unsuccessful bands.
For the next 25 years he made his living (sometimes sporadically) as a composer of music for TV, working at the BBC’s renowned Radiophonic Workshop before going freelance with his own studio near Brighton. To hear some of his music visit his website: www.AttreeMusic.com.
Tiring of the stresses of freelance life he decided to retire, sell up, and “downshift” to a sunny, windy beach on The Reef (Tenerife). Despite working for most of his life as a musician, Richard has always hankered after the straightforward, direct communication of language when struggling with the complexities of producing electronic music or hauling tons of keyboards up several flights of stairs. Retiring from the music business has given him the opportunity to get to grips with writing.
In May 2013 Richard and Nikki published their first book: 'Nobody's Poodle', a short novel written from the perspective of their rescue dog, Gizmo. It was included in the Guardian Top 50 Readers' recommended self-published authors 2013, as well as being listed in the Top 50 Indie Authorland list 2014. Dogs Today Magazine wrote: ‘I cannot recommend it enough! It’s a real page turner written from the perspective of a Doodle who ends up on the street of Tenerife. Lots of real big issues covered in passing.’
EXTRAS 3: ABOUT Nobody’s Poodle
A wooftastic 'tail' about a loveable ex-pat pooch living in Tenerife. He writes, from a canine point of view of course, about settling down in a new country, coping with the cultural differences, and learning the language (although woof-speak is universal, mas o menos, there are still some differences which need to be understood, otherwise a dog can have muchos problemas with his furry Latin amigos).
The ex-pat / travel genre has been popularised by some very successful books, but until now man's-best-friends' take on it has been little explored. We're familiar with "Driving over Lemons", but there hasn't been a "Bouncing over Bones". Most of Tenerife's ex-pat Brits know and love Joe Cawley's "More Ketchup than Salsa", but we've all been waiting for "More Saliva than Salsa".
Nobody's Poodle is much more than a canine ex-pat diary though. It's a gripping story, with a plot that is the mutt's nuts. Our intrepid hero: Gizmo may be more street Doodle than swanky Poodle, but he's very much his own dog. He's all about standing up for the underdog, and it gets him into a fair few scrapes on the mean streets of Costa del Scorchio.
He's also something of a canine philosopher, and along the way you'll be learning a lot about their universe ...
For instance, not many people know that dogs invented the idea of sharing information via a network (their 'SmellNet' predates our internet by several millennia), along with on-line messaging ('SmellMail'), social networking ('SmellBook'), and wi-fi ('Wiffy').
Dogs realised a long time ago that time was more like a small round thing rather than a long thin thing. More like a dog chasing it's own tail, rather than an endless piece of string, or an infinitely long ladder, or whatever else humans think it's like.
Gizmo explains that dogs are like Z
en Buddhist monks. They live in a present tense universe, they're dogged, and they're stoic. They accept what life throws at them, which is just as well considering some of the smelly stuff that gets thrown his way and just misses the fan.
Full of twists and turns, with a cast of wonderful woofers, and some beautiful illustrations, it will make you laugh and it will make you cry. It's a book for dog lovers of all ages, an insight into the canine universe, and a celebration of their Zen-like stoicism in the face of human stupidity, indifference, and cruelty.
Quite simply it's the dog's danglies of a book.
To sniff out more, visit the website: www.NobodysPoodle.com and please post a review on Amazon, you will make the authors (and Gizmo) very happy.
EXTRAS 4: Websites, Contacts, Acknowledgements etc.
www.NobodysPoodle.com - All about our first book: ‘Nobody’s Poodle’.
www.SomebodysDoodle.com - All about this book: ‘Somebody’s Doodle’.
www.WooftasticBooks.com - Nikki’s showcase for authors and books that feature dogs in an ethical way (it’s a real website, as well as in the plot of ‘Somebody’s Doodle’).
www.TenerifeDogs.org - The website that Nikki set up to help the rescue shelters in Tenerife, provide local information, and discuss canine issues (where to find a vet, dog hotel, articles by veterinary assistants etc).
www.NikkiAttree.net - Nikki’s photography, paintings and digital art.