Those of you "in the know" with me know that this summer, I'm planning to coauthor a book with Allison Dickson.  I can't tell you a whole lot about it yet because we're still in the development stages.  That being said, I've never written with another author before, and then I happened upon Jackie Kessler in the pages of Thousand Faces.  She wrote a book (about superheroes, even!) along with Caitlin Kittredge, and I asked her if she'd write a SGSS post about coauthoring.

I Say "Kapow," She Says "Bam"

Back in 2006, I was online with Caitlin Kittredge, who, like me, was not yet published. We were schmoozing about superheroes, and we agreed that once we had our first books published, we’d have to collaborate to write a kickass novel about superheroines. Fast-forward to April 2007: HELL’S BELLES had come out three months earlier, and Caitlin had her first novel contract. Caitlin and I decided that it was time for us to get the collaboration started.

We didn’t read any books on how to collaborate. We didn’t ask other authors how they did it. We just dove into the project headfirst. We talked all via IM, because Caitlin was in Seattle at the time and I am on the East Coast. And we hammered out a few things:

1. We would have the POV in the book go back and forth between two characters: Caitlin’s and mine.
2. Caitlin’s character would be the supervillain because in her main series she wrote about a cop; my character would be the superhero because in my main series I wrote about a demon. We picked their names and powers (Jet for me; Iridium for her), and started talking about their weaknesses. 
3. We figured out who the REAL villain was and what the villain wanted, and who another important secondary character was. 
4. We kicked around origins of not just our characters but of all super-powered characters.
5. We talked about structure, loosely: We knew we wanted to tell two stories — the one taking place when Jet and Iridium were already enemies,  and the one that began back when they were 12, and first became friends. 
6. World-building conversations ensued.

Once we agreed on the basics, I wrote a pseudo synopsis, one that touched on the origins we’d discussed and covered plot points we’d agreed on. It was much more of a rough guideline, and we wound up not using it.

And then, Caitlin started writing. She sent me the prologue and the first chapter, which I devoured. And then I wrote the next chapter, which I sent to her. She wrote the next one; I wrote the one after that.

At this point, we started each writing two chapters at a pop: a “NOW” chapter, and a “THEN” chapter. We built on each other’s momentum; we would take a day or two to write a chapter (the chapters tended to be short) and then email the new manuscript file to the other author. Roughly one-third of the way into the manuscript, I divided up the chapters into the NOW and THEN sections, and Caitlin and I each wrote a sentence summary for our remaining chapters — that way, we knew the big events for each section and where the book was going, even if we didn’t spell out how to get there. (In other words, plotting AND pantsing.)

Ten weeks from the time we started, we had a finished manuscript. Huzzah! We then each reread the entire manuscript and tweaked our own chapters while making comments or suggestions for the other author on her chapters. Then I took my final pass and did some copyediting (I’m a copy editor at my day job), and then Caitlin took her final pass. And then we gave it to our agents.

In spring 2008, BLACK AND WHITE sold in a two-book deal to Ballantine/Spectra. Huzzah, again! When our editor sent her revision letter, Caitlin and I agreed who would tackle what in terms of the revision: I would do more with religion, for example, and she would do more with the gangs/crime families. We had some restructuring to do, which I handled because my schedule was lighter than Caitlin’s at the time. We incorporated our editor’s line edits. And I took the first pass of revisions, making changes to my chapters and adding some new ones; then it was Caitlin’s turn. Back it went to our editor. Back it came to us, with a few more questions. We answered them. And then the manuscript was officially accepted. (Read: we gots paid!)

Caitlin and I agreed that I would review the copy edits and she would review the page proofs. And then...we got our advance reading copies. And there was much giddiness.

Just like when you’re writing solo, when you’re collaborating, there’s no one right way to do it. This was how it worked for Caitlin and me. Try it! You might like it.

Jackie Kessler used to run around in Wonder Woman Underoos and watch Challenge of the Super Friends. Now she watches superhero cartoons with her kids. When not writing about superheroes and the villains who beat the heroes into a bloody mess, she likes to write about demons. She also has a pseudo-secret identity as a novelist for young adults. For more about Jackie, visit her websites: www.jackiekessler.com and www.jackiemorsekessler.com.