“Every person who wants to be a professional writer should have to write in a fandom for a little bit,” she noted. “I couldn’t do this job without what I learned there. It taught us how to take criticism and positive feedback, and to know what to take and what to leave. And it showed me how to write—we still use a lot of those tools now in how we construct chapters and stories.”
Over the course of their time as writing partners, Christina and Lauren have written over 30 books, including bestsellers like Love and Other Words, The Unhoneymooners and most recently The Paradise Problem.
And with each new project has brought an evolution in their collaboration process.
“At the beginning we wanted everything to be like a super even 50/50 split—every single task she did half, I did half,” Lauren admitted. “It just wasn’t realistic. It didn’t really work out that way. And I think we’ve learned over time that we have to really lean into our strengths.”
As she put it, “Once we sort of figured out that she’s a good storyteller, and I like to do the noodly writing, it really felt like it came together.”
That said, there are some traditions that haven’t wavered. For instance, “We always outline together in person,” Lauren noted, “because there’s just like a little magic that happens when we’re in the room together.”
From there, they start building their story, trading drafts until they have their finished copy, a timeline that for them is ideally roughly four months.
