Writing tandem
If two heads are better than one, Simon Whaley finds out if two writers are better than one.
Some things work better in partnership: strawberries and cream, fish and chips, French and Saunders.
But when it comes to the business of writing books, can a writing partnership work? Is it possible to share what is, for many of us, such a deeply personal experience? The fact that co-authored books exist suggests that for some writers this is a business decision that works.
‘On the whole, the process was surprisingly harmonious,’ Chris Brookmyre explains. As one half of Ambrose Parry, and co-writer of the highly successful The Way of All Flesh crime novel, Chris already knew his anaesthetist co-author, Marisa Haetzman, extremely well: he’d married her.
‘When we thought about it afterwards,’ he continues, ‘we realised that this was probably because we each brought a unique set of skills to the task. I was an experienced writer and Marisa brought historical knowledge and an anaesthetist’s desire for meticulous planning.’
Practical partnership
Having written novels previously under his own name, Chris knew working in a partnership would mean a different way of working. ‘What I would normally do instinctively when it comes to constructing a story had to be made explicit. Ideas had to be clarified so that they made sense to both of us. In practical terms Marisa wrote most of the chapters about Sarah, our female protagonist, and I wrote predominantly from the point of view of the male protagonist, Will Raven. But we rewrote each other’s contributions to maintain a consistent voice and tone. Marisa, unsurprisingly, tackled the medical scenes and, in an unusual departure for me, I was responsible for the more disgusting elements in the book.’