Remember back in school when you had to do a group project? There was always that awkward first meeting where everyone found their role and decided how the group would be productive together. Some people were expert planners, and others were excellent do-ers. Then there were some who missed deadlines, needed reminders, and got easily overwhelmed.
When Penn and I worked on our book together, we were all of those group project roles at some point. One of us would push, and one of us would pull. One person would want to plan it, and one person would just want to do it. And both of us needed to lean on the other from time to time when productivity would leave us entirely. This week, we caught up with our friends, Page and Jake Fehling, on our podcast about their experience writing a book together and finishing it during a pandemic.
It was refreshing to know we were not alone in how we felt.
Holy Crap, This Is Taking Forever
Writing a book takes a lot of time. For Page and Jake, it took years to write Holy Crap, We’re Pregnant. Months would pass and Jake would remind Page that they needed to buckle down to write. Page would remind Jake that she was navigating being a working Mom and needed sleep to survive. Whereas we had Christopher Edmonston (our marriage coach) to help us navigate our book, Page and Jake did it all on their own. They had no tiebreaker. This lended itself to the format of their book. They would re-tell stories as each of them remembered, and then react and write responses to each other’s passage. Which also makes it very entertaining to read.
Both of our situations are very unique. Not everyone reading this is going to write a book with their spouse, but everyone is going to work on some sort of “project” together. (You may have even worked on one during quarantine!) Whether it is raising kids, home renovations, or running a business. One tip from our discussion was to learn each other’s styles – strengthen and weaknesses – and how you can divide roles to better suit each other. The other tip is to outsource pain points when possible – help with childcare, home cleaning/organization, grocery delivery, or auto-paying bills. Things that you get caught up in that could help you focus and function better.
We hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain at what it’s like to write a book, and hang out with our best friends Page and Jake! You can find more about their book and gear at:https://holycrapbooks.com/.
