Co-Authoring a Novel: What One Year of Writing With a Partner Taught Us About Expectations Versus Reality

Ms. Lee and I were surprised to realize recently that it’s been a whole year since we started writing our novel together. It’s been a busy and intense time for us, personally, professionally, and in the larger world generally, so this anniversary was one that snuck up on us. When they say ‘time flies’, that’s definitely how we feel.

Once it dawned on us that we’d reached this milestone, we took the time to pause and reflect. And what we realized was that we’ve learned a lot, especially since we didn’t start out with a clear idea of what our collaborative process would look like.

In the beginning, we had a general sense of the world we wanted to create, and we had a very, very high-level plot outline–basically where we were starting and where we wanted to end up. We’d also done some research on how other writing teams collaborated, and we knew that workflow and roles varied and that we would likely need to experiment a bit to see what clicked for us.

So with that in mind, we thought we’d share some reflections on co-writing a novel–our expectations versus realities, as well as crucial takeaways from this first year.

PACING

Expectation: With two people we’d write faster.

Reality: It’s not faster, at least not for us. However, the first draft of our manuscript feels more polished and well-realized than first drafts we’ve written alone. Our manuscript still needs several rounds of revision, but the realization that it’s better written than what we’ve done alone was a pleasant surprise.

Essential Takeaways:

• We spend a lot of time brainstorming and making decisions together, which means decisions aren’t always immediate and work sometimes pauses until we’re able to sync our schedules and have a call.

• We need to pause the work more often to have these calls. For example, when what we initially discuss isn’t working on the page, one of us invariably spends time trying to make it work. Nine times out of ten though, when we finally have a follow-up conversation, the solution is a change of direction and a rewrite.

• While these delays have slowed us down, they’ve also helped us. We’ve been able to identify and include small nuances about our world that are often missing in a first draft. We’ve also been able to catch potential narrative or characterization issues earlier, ensuring that, if needed, what we’re changing is reflected in the different sections we’re each working on.

PROCESS

Expectation: We’d rotate the initial drafting and 1st-round edits, either chapter-by-chapter or POV-by-POV.

Reality: There is an initial discussion about each chapter, or several chapters at once. During this conversation, I sketch out a rough outline of key events while Ms. Lee asks questions that help us flesh out the details and figure out if the direction we’re taking makes sense or needs to be revised. Ms. Lee usually takes notes during these conversations because I’m a pacer who can’t sit still on the phone. Ms. Lee then writes a draft of the chapter(s), and I do the 1st round of editing, typically focusing on pace, characterization, and consistency with genre/reader expectations.

Essential Takeaways:

• By dividing the work in this manner, we’ve been able to have a more consistent tone and authorial voice. Our natural writing styles differ, so if we were alternating chapters, the voice and flow would likely feel a lot less cohesive.

• We’re balancing each other’s natural writing strengths, but in a way that is complementary and has broadened how we think about the composition of our own line writing.

• We’re also leveraging the writing experience we each bring to this process–Ms. Lee has more experience with writing fiction as a craft, while I come from a background of editing and commercial/technical writing.

• We’ve found this breakdown of work allows us to be more fluid with our story structure as well. We can change POVs depending on chapter content rather than limiting ourselves to a strict alternating outline based on which of us is writing a particular character. We’ve done this a few times already, deciding that the impact of a scene could be greater if told from another perspective.

PLOT

Expectation: We could each lean into the conventions of our favorite genres–Ms. Lee as a lover of mysteries and myself as a fantasy/romance girlie–and the genres would weave together naturally as we developed our plot and drafted alternate chapters or POVs.

Reality: Creating our plot requires a much more thoughtful approach. Our story is a contemporary fantasy with a mystery plot and a romantic subplot. As such, we’ve had to evaluate how to blend the conventions of these genres, bringing some elements to the forefront and allowing others to recede a bit. Finding this balance has been challenging and the cause of a lot of debate. However, these discussions, while occasionally contentious, have been incredibly fruitful and have resulted in some of our most interesting and compelling ideas.

Essential Takeaways:

• Creating a shared understanding of the conventions of our chosen genres has been essential, so we’ve been intentional about reading how-to books and articles.

• We've also created character sheets, family trees, and genre-specific plot diagrams that we continue to reference. For example, we put together a table with three different genre-based sets of plot beats so that we could analyze them side-by-side. When we talk about our plot, we do so with these beats in mind. In fact, it was this analysis that showed us that our plot was more mystery than romance driven, and it's our world-building that places our story firmly on the fantasy shelf.

• Discussions about plot beats and genre are ongoing. Even though we now have a clear beginning-to-end plot outline, this outline is constantly evolving as we flesh out characters, develop the details of our paranormal world, and draft the action sequences that move the story forward.

There have been a lot of surprises in our collaborative writing journey. When we originally sat down for tea at the Huntington Gardens to discuss the ambitious dream of writing a novel together, I’m not sure we knew what we were getting into. But, ultimately, the experience has been deeply rewarding, and we’re happy to be writing this story together.

What have you learned while writing with a partner? Let’s chat in the comments!

Photo credit: Bessi on pixabay.com