The Tale of Two Writers

They say two heads are better than one, but we prefer two pens instead. Writing together has been a great and natural process. We’re not saying there haven’t been bad days, but our process just seems to work. That’s why we’re always surprised when other writers question it. We know writing is a personal and sometimes isolated process, but there have been many co-authored books. That being said, I think we realized how special our shared writing experience was when we went to our first writer’s conference. When we explained we wrote together, we were hit with surprised and puzzled expressions. I (Jennifer) even had a creative writing professor ask me how it worked. Since we’ve been asked about it, we thought we’d share our process—the pros and cons of having two pens writing one book.

The Brainstorming Process

Writing doesn’t start without a lot of brainstorming and outlining. This step has to be completed together. We need to discover our world and get to know our characters before any scenes can be written. This usually involves us sitting with caffeine close by and bouncing ideas back and forth.

Our story ideas always begin with the plot. One of us will get an idea or a scene will pop in that inspires us. We play around with it alone and if we like what we’re seeing, we share with each other. The only exception to this was Sorrow Behind the Glass. Our first book idea was developed at the same time together. But that’s a story for another day. I think my favorite part of writing is brainstorming. This is the fun part. I love thinking about plot points and scenes. There’s something special about seeing a story idea begin to come to life, taking the seed and watching it grow. We take the starting point and branch out from there. Characters introduce themselves and eventually a world forms. If you’ve ever seen the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas with Dan Stevens, you’ll have a clear picture of how our writing sessions play out. It’s like the characters are in the room with us trying to figure out their next move. (By the way, if you haven’t seen the movie, you should. It’s great.) Some characters just naturally develop while we’re brainstorming the story idea. We know their quirks, flaws, and how they would respond to a situation. Others take a little more time. We’ve used people we know as inspiration and it’s safe to say each character has a piece of us in them. We’ve found pictures can really help us visualize the character. It also makes it easier when we have to describe them.

We may not struggle with brainstorming, but finalizing details is another story. It always seems like we can figure out the beginning and the ending before anything else. We struggle with the middle. We laugh (and sometimes groan) that we’re mystery writers who struggle with the mystery. The clues and the investigation can be a pain to figure out, which is always the middle of the book. We’ve found that giving this section space to breathe is helpful. We’ll discuss the plot and develop a basic outline, but there’s usually a few blank spots. Does this make life easier later on? Not really. Do we create more work for ourselves? Usually. Does it work? Crazy enough, yes! Leaving the spaces blank gives us time to brainstorm and leaves room for new ideas. Even though we have to go back and adjust things later, it’s worth it in the end. We can usually tell when we’re stuck and need to revisit the outline, and we’re okay that it comes in stages and drafts.

Writing the Book

With a partial outline in hand and a solid foundation, we’re ready to write the words. Some days we write alone. Inspiration will hit and we’ll write a rough draft of a scene. When we’re happy with it, or frustrated, we give it to each other to read. We edit and clean it up. If we happen to pick the same scene to write (this happens more than you would expect), we take the best parts from each draft and mash it together. It’s always fun to see how each of us interprets a scene. It’s usually similar, but the details can change. Krystle is great with words and when she writes, she knows how to describe it in a way that readers will understand. I love words, but I always see the story in my head like a movie. I have to see it before I can write it. We balance each other.

We don’t always write apart, many days we sit together and draft a scene. I’m usually the one writing or typing. I may be a little bit of a control freak. It’s hard to explain how these sessions go, but I’ll do my best. One of us starts the scene and it takes off from there. Each of us offers a line or a paragraph until we have something. We know each other well and can help fill in the sentence once it’s started, and we edit each other along the way. We’ve found talking out dialogue is incredibly helpful. We each take on a character and will talk our way through the scene. Some of our favorite pieces of dialogue have come from these sessions. Warning: If you have trouble remembering things, please take notes or record it. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve come up with good stuff and then can’t remember everything we said.

Now, I know I’ve probably made writing together sound simple, but we do have our struggles like all writers. Words don’t always want to come. Some days one of us is more inspired than the other. We don’t always agree on things, and it can take us a while to find a compromise. Have I mentioned that we’re both stubborn? Thankfully, we get through it. We usually only disagree on the small things like what food will be on the table in a scene. Yes, this was a real disagreement. One of our longest discussions was about the layout of a house. We both had an idea in our head and thought the other agreed. I think because we usually work in sync with one another, we’re thrown off when something isn’t visualized the same way. We always work it out, but it does take time.

Somehow, through God’s intervention, this process of working together and apart comes together to create one book with one voice. We’re lucky to have each other on this journey. Writing can be hard, but extremely rewarding. Sharing it with one another is a very special blessing.