When Two Writers are Better Than One: How to Collaborate on Your Next Novel

By Sarah Skilton, @Sarah_Skilton

Part of The Writer's Life Series

JH: Teaming up with a fellow writer can be a great way to share the writing burden and produce more books. Sarah Skilton shares thoughts and tips on things to consider when considering collaboration.

Tash Skilton is the pen name of Sarvenaz Tash (author of The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love and Virtually Yours) and Sarah Skilton (author of Fame Adjacent and Club Deception), who met on Twitter and parlayed their online friendship into an IRL one. Their Guidebook to Forever Friendship includes getting each other's '90s pop culture references, passionately discoursing their favorite TV shows/books/movies via email, and cheering each other on through the psychological matrix that is motherhood. They have a complicated relationship with the Internet, but will also always love it for facilitating their bicoastal friendship (and the writing of their books).

Their first book together, Ghosting: A Love Story (a multicultural, millennial spin on You’ve Got Mail), released May 26, 2020 from Kensington in paperback, e-book, and audiobook, and has sold foreign translation rights to five territories.

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Take it away Sarah...

10 Tips on Collaborative Writing Success: Are Two Heads Better Than One?

By Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor, @msheatherwebb, @HazelGaynor

Part of The Writer’s Life Series

JH: Ever wanted to write with another author, but weren’t sure how to start? Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor visit the lecture hall today to share their top ten tips on being a successful writing team.

Hazel Gaynor is the New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of seven historical novels including The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter which is longlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown award. She was the recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award for The Girl Who Came Home, and was shortlisted for the 2017 Irish Book Awards with The Girl from The Savoy. Hazel lives in Ireland with her husband and children.

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Heather Webb is the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of six historical novels set in France, including Becoming Josephine and Rodin’s Lover, and the upcoming Ribbons of Scarlet, Oct 2019 Heather lives in New England with her children and husband. 

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Hazel and Heather’s first co-written novel, Last Christmas in Paris, won the WFWA 2018 STAR Award, and Meet Me in Monaco is a finalist in the 2019 Digital Book World Awards for Best Book (Fiction). Their third co-written novel will be published in 2021.

Take it away Hazel and Heather…

7 Tips for Collaborating on a Novel

By Dan Brotzel, Martin Jenkins, & Alex Woolf @CrawleyGroup

Part of The Writer’s Life Series

JH: Collaborating with another writer can be a great way to bring an idea to life, but it also comes with its share of challenges. Please help me welcome Dan Brotzel to the lecture hall today, to share some tips on how to work with another writer.

Dan Brotzel’s first collection of short stories, Hotel du Jack, is due out in early 2020. He won the Riptide short story competition 2018, and was Asda Christmas Cracker gag champion, 2004. Martin Jenkins is a freelance writer, researcher and editor. His publications include an experimental novel A New Science of Navigation. Alex Woolf has written over 100 books for young people and old, both fiction and non-fiction, published by the likes of OUP, Ladybird, Heinemann and Watts.

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Take it away guys…

Some Musings on Co-Writing a Novel

Jason and co-author K. C. Alexander

By Jason M. Hough, @JasonMHough

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Since writing is such a solitary endeavor, the idea of co-writing with a writer pal is very appealing. Bestselling author Jason M. Hough visits the lecture hall today to share his thoughts on the co-writing process.

Jason M. Hough (pronounced 'Huff') is the New York Times bestselling author of the The Darwin Elevator and Mass Effect - Andromeda: Nexus Uprising. In a former life he was a 3D artist, animator, and game designer (Metal Fatigue, Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction, and many others). He has worked in the fields of high-performance cluster computing and machine learning, and is a patent-awarded inventor.

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Take it away Jason...

Two Heads Are Better Than One (co-authoring a book for dummies)

By James R. Tuck, @JamesTuckwriter

Part of the How They Do It Series

Writing a novel is usually a solo endeavor, but there are plenty of writers out there who team up to put words to paper. James Tuck is one such writer, and he's here today to share his experience writing as a duo for those thinking about trying a joint effort on their next writing project.

James was born and raised in Georgia and grew up drawing and reading a steady helping of Robert E. Howard stories, Golden Age comics, and books he was far too young to be reading. Combined with a very Southern involvement in church and watching horror movies, this became the bedrock of his creativity. He became a tattoo artist, and now writes dark fantasy. He's the author of the Deacon Chalk: Occult Bounty Hunter series, a variety of short stories and novellas set in the same world (and some outside of it), and the editor of the Thunder on the Battlefield anthologies. His newest series (co-written with Debbie Viguie), Robin Hood: Demon's Bane, comes out in the fall.

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Take it away James...