“Sooo how does this work?”

This is one of the questions the bro and I constantly get asked whenever we meet with someone about the show.

Person looks at us, gestures back and forth and asks, “Sooo how does this work?”

Some people don’t understand how you can work with a sibling.  Especially on a project like writing a show.  For us it just works.  Is it always smooth sailing? Ummmm no.  We’re siblings.  HELLO.

As we’re currently working in Bristol, we’re living in their housing with the rest of the cast.  One of our fellow cast mates came up to us during tech and jokingly said, “Cristina, don’t yell at your brother! I heard you guys arguing about plot points today.” 

We all laughed about it cause it was true.

Yes, we argue.  We bicker.  We annoy the hell out of each other sometimes.  That’s what siblings do.  We’re working partners and best friends, but sometimes I just want to throw a water bottle at his head (I’m sure he feels the same about me). So how do we deal with it when that happens?

Certain times we argue it out.  Sometimes it’s nothing but, “I want to do this” “No” “Fine”.  Other times it’s loud (apparently I’m the loud one–shocker), “That doesn’t make sense plot wise!!” “YES IT DOES!”  

When this happens, we usually take a bit of a break and then come back to it.  Other times we don’t argue at all and come to the same conclusion.  We always end up coming to the same conclusion and agreeing on something.  The process of getting there just happens to be different depending on the topic at hand.

Now, honestly speaking, this doesn’t happen often.  We usually stick to the outline that’s mapped out and that’s it.  It usually happens if we had to deviate from said outline and are now trying to figure out “Well, crap.  This plot point needs to get resolved sooner rather than later now.”

That’s the writing process though.  Things change left and right.

The one thing that’s great about this whole process, and working with a sibling, is you can yell at that person and not be afraid that it’s going to impact your relationship.  Not every sibling can do this, but for the most part, and the ones we’ve seen working together, this happens to be true.  The reason? We’ve been yelling at each other our whole lives and we’re still standing.  It’s just a level of comfort.  I know I can be completely honest with him and not hide behind some sort of veneer to spare his feelings and he knows the same applies to me.  For us, it just gets things done faster (in a weird way, I admit).

So far we haven’t killed one another yet and we’ve managed to finish the whole book! Ok, we know it’s not that great at the moment and nobody will be setting eyes on it until we do some major revisions, but it’s DONE and we’re still alive.  Now we’re off to finish up all the songs….if you don’t hear from me in a while, you know who’s to blame.