It Takes Two To Make A Book Go Right

Are two heads better than one when it comes to novels? For some writing teams, the answer is yes—although it isn't always smooth sailing.

Friends Robin Epstein and Renée Kaplan joined together in late 2002 to create modern-girl-in-the-city novel Shaking Her Assets, based on the kind of young career woman both knew well. At first, they worked side by side at a café, which they found "as productive as filling the ocean with an eyedropper." Eventually, they each wound up writing alternating chapters, passing them off the other to edit when they were finished. Faced with a tight deadline, they bunkered down, and according to Epstein, "each of us learned to trust the other. We learned to take edits with increasingly less resistance or discussion, to respect each other's strengths, and just crank the damn pages out."

Another chick lit team is Annie Ashworth and Meg Sanders, whose novel Goodbye, Jimmy Choo was published by Britain's Orion imprint in 2004 and will be published in the United States by Warner Books in 2006 under the name Annie Sanders, upon the insistence of their publisher, who believes that books with dual bylines don't fare as well in the marketplace. Despite this, the two are very public about their true selves, and have recently signed another two-book deal. They'd already done other types of writing together, and on a train ride following a business meeting, hatched the idea of working on a novel together. "The only restriction was that we weren't allowed to place the characters anywhere the other person hadn't been," the pair explain. "We found that, because we were writing two different characters who spent a lot of time together, it was essential that Meg knew Annie's character and vice versa, even to the extent of knowing things about that character that never actually appeared in the story." For them, compromise was key. "But the golden rule is that you cannot, cannot afford to be precious about your work. You have to be flexible, be able to compromise and at times be able to defend your choices without throwing a tantrum."

Emily Gould and Zareen Jaffery just signed with Penguin's young-adult imprint, Razorbill, to write their first novel, Hex Education, about "a mean, funny 14-year-old girl named Sophie Stone who discovers, to her horror, that she and her best friends are witches." Gould says the pair stumbled into the field—both are avid YA readers, and were emailing about their latest pop culture passions. "I think the idea was born the day after Zareen had watched The Craft on TV, and I'd been reading the latest Gossip Girls book." Jaffery wrote the first chapter and asked Gould if she wanted to be her co-author. She agreed, and a joint byline was born: Ali Deshler, a combination of their middle names. The two brainstorm together, write separately, then regroup and comb over each others' sections. "At this point," says Gould, "it's pretty impossible for us to tell who originally wrote a certain scene, although there are some scenes and characters each of us feels more proprietary about." Jaffery stresses that the pair worked well together due to admiring each other's writing, a shared love of the genre, and being able to temper each other's moods. "When one of us is sick to death of working on the same problematic scene, the other one will rally and get excited about it."

Perhaps Gould and Jaffery can take note of what worked for Chris Tebbetts and Lisa Papademetriou when they wrote their YA novel M or F?, published in October 2005 by Razorbill. This pair were introduced by their editor Kristen Pettit to tell this alternating tale of two high school students who wind up playing mischief online. Each wrote in the first person, telling either Marcus's (Tebbetts) or Frannie's (Papademetriou) tale. Yet key elements, including a main character's name, got shuffled around as the two dug into the work. Asked if each felt particularly attached to the character they wrote, Tebbetts replied, "Marcus was definitely more 'mine' and Frannie 'belonged' to Lisa. We were both writing our respective characters in first person and consequently, spent a lot more time in that character's head. Having said that, neither of us ever had veto power when it came to negotiating the plot, the editing, or specifics of character. In that regard, it stayed collaborative all the way through." Tebbetts, who has authored the middle grade fantasy adventure series The Viking, found collaboration a useful way of balancing his writing strengths and weaknesses. "I especially loved having a partner for the aspects that are hardest for me: plotting and promotion. There's a certain kind of creative spark that flies when you're interacting with someone that you don't get sitting alone at the computer. Plotting M or F? was the most fun I've ever had at that phase of a book."

For Papademetriou, much of the flow of the book stemmed from the interplay between the authors, which took a while to build. "The fact that the characters had a similar take on things did make some of the writing go more smoothly—but I think that came out of the fact that Chris and I have a very similar take on things. In fact, Marcus and Frannie refer to each other as 'brain twins'—but that phrase was originally how I referred to Chris." Their revision process hit a snag during their second draft when Tebbetts suggesting renaming the character Papademetrious was writing. "Frannie's name was originally Cassie. One day, Chris called to suggest we change her name. He explained that it made sense with the title of the book—M or F? Male or Female? Marcus or Frannie? I was outraged. How can we change Cassie's name? I thought, Cassie is her name! So I called and told him to forget it. He was very nice about it. He said that he really thought we should change it, but if I just didn't feel right about it that was okay and we hung up. And then I called him back and told him that we should change the name."

P.J. Parrish is the pseudonym of the sisterly duo Kristy and Kelly Montee, who've written several mysteries including Thicker Than Water, Island of Bones, and, most recently, A Killing Rain. Their website answers many of the questions presented here (from which the following quotes were taken). Inspired by her husband's prompting, Kris called her sister and proposed they start writing together. She'd attempted writing a novel on her own, but hadn't met with success. Now, the pair have their system down to a science; after over five years of working together, they've developed a standard pattern for doling out the work. "We literally take assignments for chapters or scenes based on which of us has a better feel for the work to be done." Their use of a pen name is intended to obscure their gender to ensure the greatest number of readers possible. For them, the best thing about working together is "the double insight you get into your characters, plot and overall story. To say nothing of the double dose of energy and imagination. What one doesn't catch, the other does."

At the end of the day, are the slings and arrows, the compromises and arguments, worth it? For Epstein and Kaplan, definitely, "Writing together is a very intimate relationship, and like all relationships it takes work. So along with the work of writing, there is also the work of taking care of your collaboration. It's so gratifying and just friggin' cool to be able to share the burden of work and the deliciousness of success with a great friend." While both would be thrilled to work together again, they're now working on separate projects, though hope to sell the film writes to Shaking Her Assets.

To future authorial teams, Papademetriou suggests: "Go Zen. It's really important to listen to what the other person is saying, rather than getting defensive. When Chris and I talked through our ideas, we almost always came out with something better than what either one of us had come up with on our own. Also, it's important to find someone who works in the same way that you do. If you're a deadline person, and your writing partner is more hang loose, you're going to have some tension."

Rachel Kramer Bussel is an editor, writer, and blogger.