Writing a Book with a Friend (and Staying Friends)

by Jessica (J.R.) Lancaster and Jessica Thompson

Writing a book with a friend sounds great until you think about all the time one spends in the publishing trenches, effort spent making another person understand you, and tying up all the loose ends when you are not even the person holding them all.

We, Jessica (J.R.) Lancaster and Jessica Thompson, have written a book together, we didn’t fight, we’re still friends, and it makes sense and everything! Therefore, we must have some wisdom to share on how to write and publish a book with a friend and keep the peace.

Where or how do you start writing a book together?

J.R.: Build the foundation first. I would highly recommend doing it with someone whose company you truly enjoy. Writing a book is a labor of love and a long one, so the two of you will be spending a lot of time together. It took Jessica and I two years to write Murder Under Construction. Set expectations up front. The two of you must always be on the same page with deadlines, responsibilities and clear direction. Jessica and I had two initial meetings to create the characters, plot and outline before getting started, then we set a time to meet for one hour every week until the first draft was complete. This gave us the ability to make tweaks when we needed to. Make sure you both understand that when writing there are times when the outline will need to be tweaked -account for it, allow it and adjust.

Jessica: I say start with a good friend who already matches your brain’s wavelengths and you know you can work out potential problems together. You’ll still disagree on things, but this way you already mostly understand each other. Then, when creative differences arise, you know you can work out differences amicably with this person. If you have a great but tumultuous friendship with a person, pick a different project.

How do you reconcile the differences in writing style and voice?

J.R.: One of the things that helped us get the idea off the ground was to have a conversation about our writing styles and process so we were familiar with each other’s flow from the get-go and to decide whose process you will follow. For instance, I am a pantser and Jessica is a plotter, so early on we decided to meet in the middle and create a loose outline to follow. Jessica cut back on the details she usually adds to allow for discovery writing for me and I learned how to outline so we could see the plot points clearly for each chapter. As far as the voice, we really only had a baseline for the personalities and allowed the voice to be controlled by the writer because the whole idea was that it was written from two different viewpoints so the goal is for the chapters to sound different.

Jessica: Yeah, our book has alternating chapters by the two main characters. The Birdie chapters were written by J.R. and the Blanche chapters were written by me. That way we only had to agree on the plot and tone of the book, not the voice or trying to mimic each other. And that way we could take turns writing a chapter a week.

Did you just build on the other person’s chapters or did you plan it out?

J.R.: We did plan it sort of, ha ha. Think of it like building a house. We decided where to start with an idea and dream for what it would look like in the end, then we laid the foundation with our characters, setting and processes so we could effectively work together and play to our strengths. Next we build the framework with a loose outline so we would know where everything would go within the story. Once we understood each other we could set off separately to close it all in. In this part of the process, most of our conversations started with I stuck to the main idea for this chapter but ended up (insert creative license here). The only real building we did on each other’s chapters was in the transitions.

Jessica: We had lots of phone and Zoom meetings, and kept records in a shared Google drive folder to plan out the tone, genre, audience, characters, setting, vision, and any issues that arose, like “Wait, what is the floorplan of this house? I think we just said two different things for where the kitchen is.” We also just kept in touch the whole time with weekly meetings. That helped us make small, adjustments as needed, and helped us edit after the manuscript was drafted.

Be honest, how are you splitting the work and money?

J.R.: Everything is 50/50 in my book. It hasn’t been nearly how we thought it would be, but it’s still fair. Initially we were going to tag team our tour and edits, but life happened to both of us at different points meaning one tackled one then the other took on the other. Still equal parts though. I’ll be honest with you, I feel like a lot of co-writers fall out in this step. You have to be flexible though and understanding of the other person. I also think clear communication is key. There have been points where each of us has said, this is too much at the moment, could I take a break or I don’t think I can handle this part. But if you are able to come back together and say, okay I can for sure handle this part if you could do this one, it will all work out. As for the money, it was never about that anyway, it was about the time as friends we got to spend together doing what we love.

Jessica: As for work, I think J.R. has done more than I have, but I’m trying to catch up. Luckily we both take turns saying “I’m so sorry, I don’t feel like I’m doing enough. I’ll recommit and try harder.” And every time the other person has been like “No, I wasn’t thinking that. Probably because I got busy too.”

So we shared the planning, split the writing, she did most of the editing both developmental and line, we split formatting, split the cover art, it’s published on my accounts, and I’m trying to do most of the marketing. So, I guess it’s working out because we’re both doing our best to contribute as much as the other person.

Would you coauthor a book again?

J.R.: Absolutely, probably not right away though. I got lucky to have such an amazing friend who just jives with me so I would jump at the chance, especially in this series. How much more fun can you have than writing a gender-swap Grumpy Old Men with an Agatha Christie twist? I’ve never laughed so much. We actually have several anthologies out together right now and another on the way later this year.

Jessica: I think so. But probably only with J.R. Not most people. We might even be better at it the second time around. We’ve talked about writing more in a series with our new book “Murder Under Construction,” but we don’t have any immediate plans. We both have other projects to publish first, so if we write more in this series it’ll have to wait.

First, J.R. is putting out an anthology later this year and I’m helping however I can. The working title is “The Splintered Spindle” because it’ll be Grimm fairytale stories that have a murder mystery twist. It’ll come out for Halloween 2026.

We could go on and on about the process and fun we had writing together, but I think both of us could agree that writing with someone else won’t work without clear communication, a shared vision and willingness to meet in the middle. If you have that, you can figure out the rest.

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When Jessica discovered mystery novels with recipes, she knew she had found her niche. Now Jessica is the award-winning author of best-selling cozy and classic mysteries. She is active in her local writing community and volunteers as the Finance Chair of the Storymakers Guild. Jessica lives outside Austin, Texas with her husband and two children, plus her parents and their nearby cattle ranch.

J.R. Lancaster is a published author and journalist as well as CEO of Musings & Company Creative Agency. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and children. J.R. is a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University and possesses an MFA in Creative Writing and Teaching Degree in English. She has a passion for writing that is only rivaled by her love of reading. In her spare time, you can find her outside with her family or behind the pages of a book.