Co-authors: Our Writing Process
Have you wondered how co-writing a novel works?
As authors, we have strengths and weaknesses. A successful co-authorship balances those to create a strong writing team. Here’s a little background about us and an in-depth look at our process:
How did our co-authorship start?
This project started as a way to strengthen our relationship when Kirsten was a teenager. Our goal was simple: enjoy writing a good story together. Over the years, our process has evolved into a dance (even if we do step on each other’s toes sometimes). We joke that if left to ourselves Kirsten would never have finished the story and Carol would never have started.
Do we have different roles in the writing process?
Yes. We understand each other’s strengths. Therefore, our different roles capitalize on our skills as writers. Kirsten brings creativity and Carol brings technicality to the writing table. The original story idea was Carol’s—creatively inspired in a dream (read more here). However, once she shared this idea with Kirsten, it has exploded in her head over the past two decades. As a result, Kirsten writes as the creative originator and Carol writes as the technical perfecter.
We balance one another in our different roles. Kirsten gets randomly distracted, so Carol keeps things in scope and on schedule. On the other hand, Kirsten has a head for complicated stories, so she keeps character arcs and plot details interconnected when Carol gets confused.
What is our writing process like?
Kirsten writes most of the first drafts, inspired by Carol’s original vision for the story. Before anything appears on the page, Kirsten’s imagination rehearses the plot and character arcs. She is a firm believer that good ideas will be memorable, and bad ones will get filtered out. For this reason, she only sketches a brief outline. She talks to herself in the shower, in character voice. She rushes to the computer to write down good bouts of dialogue. Most chapters start out in script format. Once she’s fleshed out a scene, Kirsten turns the script into a narrative. When she’s completed a whole chapter, she passes it on to Carol who rips it apart.
Carol’s first read is just that—a read. She soaks in Kirsten’s ideas and visualizes them. She jots down questions and discusses them with Kirsten. Carol “picks” Kirsten’s brain and forces her to explain further what she is thinking and seeing in the story. We hash through the scene, character development, storyline continuity. When we reach clarity, Carol reads and re-reads and revises and revises. This is Carol’s favorite part. She lets the scene come to life in her mind and acts it out. She loves scrutinizing every detail and considering every best possibility. She makes edits and adds comments. Then we discuss the changes, argue, disagree, make our cases, convince or refute, and finally come to agreement. This process gets repeated countless times for every chapter.
What is our editing process like?
We worked with a professional editor to complete book one. When the editor finished a chapter, she sent it to us electronically. We carefully read her comments, suggestions, and edits. We accepted the edits we agreed about, discussed options, and considered her comments. Then Carol read and re-read and revised and revised once again until she felt confident every word was best. Next, she reached agreement with Kirsten. This copy was sent back to the editor for her to do one more line-editing pass. We read this second pass out loud together, tweaked a few details, and finalized each chapter. The result is quality literature worthy of a re-read.
What is our most frustrating part of co-writing?
Sometimes we have conflicting visions for a particular story line. We’re both very sure we are right, so we make our case to persuade and either compromise, yield, or agree. This takes time to come to an understanding. The revising stage is tedious, requiring patience. Also, if Kirsten is hungry, she gets easily frustrated. That’s usually a good sign it’s time to stop for the day.
What is our best part of co-writing?
The best part of the process is seeing the finished product come together. We get tons of satisfaction out of the late-stage edits. Our favorite is reading a meticulously edited chapter out loud together and exclaiming, “Yes, love it!”
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