Writers Collaborating: How does it work?

By Jill Amadio

Co-authors, such as the several collaborators who write with bestselling James Patterson, are freely acknowledged by the thriller writer, and he gives them public credit for their work. Is there also an increasing trend for mystery writers to team up? One successful couple, Greg Wands and Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Keenan, are finding their books more and more popular, and sell in twelve languages. Here they explain how their writing process works:

What are your writing backgrounds? Were you published before collaborating?

Greg: Liz and I both wrote short fiction separately for many years, and I tried my hand at screenwriting. While we were early readers and supporters of each other’s work, it wasn’t until our debut, The Woman Inside, in 2019 that either of us became published authors, and it was a real thrill to be able to do it together!

How did you decide to collaborate and why crime?

Greg: We’d been discussing the idea of collaborating on a project together in the abstract for many years when we both suffered separate tragedies: my father passing away from cancer and Liz having a long-term relationship unravel in heartbreaking fashion. While supporting each other through the grief and trauma, we cooked up the seed of the idea that became our debut novel. A crime story seemed like the proper genre, as we were interested in exploring the more clandestine aspects of the human condition and the capacity people have for secrecy and deception.

What system do you use to organize and collaborate?

Greg: We write in Google Docs, which allows both of us to work on the manuscript simultaneously. As a duo, this helps when we’re in the revision or copy edit phases and often need to tackle separate plot points in a complementary fashion.

Which strengths and weaknesses do you each bring to the writing?

Greg: Liz is wonderful at scene setting, character development, and creating a visceral experience for the reader through the use of a specific image, textural description, or the like. And she’s marvelous with a turn of phrase! I enjoy writing dialogue, and would like to think I’m good at creating atmosphere. I think we’re also both skilled at being able to nudge the other in the right direction when one of us starts to lose the thread of the plot or makes a narrative decision that feels untrue to a character.

How have you changed or adjusted your system as you wrote more books?

Greg: We fell into our routine fairly organically, by volleying chapters back and forth with only a loose framework in place. This seemed to give the work an improvisatory energy that kept each of us–and by extension, the reader–on their toes. Thankfully, we’ve been able to keep our formula reasonably intact, which works well for us. With a couple of the books, the publisher has requested a more comprehensive breakdown, but we still find ways to surprise and confound one another on the page, to our mutual delight.

Which obstacles/pitfalls/challenges did you face in the writing of the books? Arguments? Agreements?

Greg: It can be a bit of a challenge having two separate brains tackling one story, mostly from a logistical point of view: keeping timelines straight, having slightly different ideas behind character motivations, and trying to foresee where your writing partner might take the plot of the book. But the uncertainty can also be thrilling, and lend to the feeling of discovery and surprise that makes for an engaging writing experience.

Do you think having two writers can shorten the length it takes to write a book?

Greg: Because we write in a back-and-forth style, with one author penning a chapter and then kicking it over to the other, it takes about the same amount of time to finish a draft as it would a solo writer. The advantage we have is that our method allows for extra time in between chapters to clean up the text and to find places where we may have slipped into some inconsistency or other in the plotting of the story.

Your separate backgrounds appear tailor-made for a collaboration. Have your experiences in publishing and screenwriting helped you write, publish, and market your books?

Liz: Our respective backgrounds have given us several useful tools. Our experiences in the film and publishing industries have informed our understanding of effective storytelling, audience, and the publishing process. For marketing, our past experience has helped us to succinctly pitch our books and connect with influencers and other writers in and out of our genre, as well as our understanding of how much authors have to be entrepreneurial when it comes to marketing their books.

Who does the research?

Liz: Since we typically split up the characters in writing our novels, we research our designated parts and their history, professions, passions, etc. For the broader story elements like forensic and legal procedures, we also split research and share our findings, which often spur new story elements in our plotting. We pick themes and story elements we are interested in learning more about, knowing we’ll spend six months to a year immersing ourselves in these topics.

What is your publishing history?

Liz: Our first novel, The Woman Inside came out in January (2019), and the following year, In Case of Emergency was published (2020), and The Rule of Three was released in 2022. We have a fourth novel publishing in 2024. Our books are all published by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House

Either of you writing other books, fiction or non-fiction,  that are non-collaborative?

 Liz: Yes! We are both working on novels separately in between our collaborative projects. They are in various degrees of completion; Greg is further along than I am!

Which of your books did you have the most enjoyment writing?

Liz: Each of our novels has brought immense joy in the writing process in different ways. If I had to pick one, I think The Woman Inside was the most exhilarating to write since it was the first, the most personally motivated, and we were doing something completely new.

 Most effective marketing strategy?

Liz: This is a hard one since effective marketing is so elusive. However, the approach with the most ‘legs’ is personal recommendations from fellow thriller writers and bookstagrammers of our books when they are released. The trust of readers that these well-read influencers and writers have fostered is priceless and effective in spreading the word about our work, and we are eternally grateful to the people who support us in that way. We aim to do the same with all of the incredible books that are published each month!

Advice for budding collaborators?

 Liz: Like any healthy relationship, creative collaborators should focus on the foundation of the partnership as much (if not more) than the creative output. Communication, trust, and encouragement are vital to keeping momentum when things get creatively challenging. Making the work an extension of the friendship is the core of our collaboration; we write for the amusement and shock of the other, which keeps us motivated. Laughter is essential, too.

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This interview by Jill Amadio was posted by Jackie Houchin.