Cowriting experiences?

[JoNightshade]

Just out of curiosity, how many people have ever co-written something? Was it a good/bad experience? Would you do it again? Do you do it regularly? If you haven't done it before, any particular reason why?

Personally, I have never done it in a serious way, and I can't imagine myself doing it under most circumstances. Mainly because I have a need for creative control. Whether it's set building, a research project, or what-have-you, I always somehow end up in charge, and it's a place I need to be if there's something creative involved. I think that's why I became a novelist in the first place... so I would have control of my worlds!

Once when I was a teenager, a friend and I decided that we were going to write the "sequel" to Jurrasic Park (this was when Crichton had only written the first book). I think it was about 10 minutes before I was sitting there just telling my buddy the whole story.

I think the only way I could imagine myself cowriting was if I took on a project that required a lot of technical or historical knowledge; if I found someone who just wanted to be in on it to supply me with the expertise and let me do the plotting... I could maybe handle that. :)

[Begbie]

I'm doing it now (just completed a 100K word first draft) and I regret it. If you do decide to partner up, be sure to put everything in writing. There are sample collaboration agreements online.

[Kaytie]

Agent Nathan Bransford had a guest blogger on his blog a while back who wrote about her experiences working with a co-author (http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2007/06/guest-blogger-anne-dayton-on-working.html).

I'm a little too selfish with my time to work with a co-author. It has been my experience that I'm happy with the level of involvement that my close readers and my agent take, and that's plenty of involvement for me. :)

[veinglory]

I tried it twice and it was a disaster twice. I would try it again only with a writer in that genre who I knew well and who had at least as much experience as me.

[ChaosTitan]

I've co-written two novels, and both experiences were a joy. Then again, my co-author is a good friend, we have similar tastes in entertainment, and we did a lot of pre-plotting beforehand. We knew our world, knew the basics of the story we wanted to tell.

One of the things that helped us, I think, is that we assigned characters. She had control over a handful, and I had control over a handful. The main characters were divided evenly. We wrote the dialogue and reactions of those assigned characters, and playing off each other was great fun. Sort of like improv.

We plan to go for a third some day, but haven't managed the time yet. Everyone's experience with a co-author is different. Not everyone can do it, but when you find the right person, it's a dream.

[Thump]

I'd love to cowrite something with someone but it seems like no one wants to cowrite with me. Sadly, most of the people I get along with and have imaginations like mine are not interested in writing. There is this friend in particular who is a very good writer but only wants to right about her Star Trek roleplay. She would like to make it in to a novel but she'd have to figure out the rights with the owners of Trek. Nothing I say can convince her to try her hand at original stuff :-/

[johnzakour]

My first three novels were cowritten and one of my next three is.

Pros: two brains are better than one, four eyes are better than two. If a reader doesn't like a part of a book you can always says, "oh my partner wrote that." :)

Cons: the process can be a bit slower as there is a lot of give and take and discussion. The book isn't totally "yours."

All in all, I like to co-write one new novel a year.

[MelodyO]

I thought having a co-author would be a great way to share ideas and have someone push me beyond my own limits, so I asked a friend whose writing I admire to co-write a book with me. She emailed to tell me she was thrilled and honoured to be asked! Yay! And then...I never heard from her again. Awkward. So that's my rather limited experience on this topic. :)

[seun]

Never done it and don't think I could...not that anyone is beating down my door to do so.

Writing is such a personal business that the idea of sharing it with anyone until the book is finished makes me feel odd. And not in a good way.

[Maryn]

I'm pretty sure I could do it--but with only 3 people in the entire world. Otherwise, my need for control would cause problems. You think I'm ugly now, wait until you see me not get my way!

Maryn, bossy and opinionated

[ChaosTitan]

She would like to make it in to a novel but she'd have to figure out the rights with the owners of Trek. Nothing I say can convince her to try her hand at original stuff :-/

Tell her Trek novels are work-for-hire, and Pocket Books hires published authors. The only way to get her foot in the door is to get some original stuff pubbed first.*


*sorry for the slight OT

[thepainpasses]

I am way too possessive over characters to ever cowrite with someone. Even in school, when we had to cowrite a CHILDREN'S story with a Christmas theme, my friend really wanted to work with me (we didn't HAVE to have partners, but I felt a bit guilty), and he ended up accepting the task as illustrator because I got a bit obsessive over the puppy and secret agent penguin that were journeying North to save Christmas from the evil Jack Frost.

[RLB]

I cowrote a book with my mother of all people (she's started at least ten novels and never finished any of them, and I'd never written a novel, so I told her we were going to do one together). It was a huge learning experience for both of us. And it was fun, but there was a bit of arguing and tears (my poor father and brother got drug in a few times to take sides with particular chapters). Fortunately, we're a close family.

Now we're each working on our own novels. I kinda miss having someone who cares about the WIP just as much as I do, but I like the creative control.

[Ab_Normal]

One of the things that helped us, I think, is that we assigned characters. She had control over a handful, and I had control over a handful. The main characters were divided evenly. We wrote the dialogue and reactions of those assigned characters, and playing off each other was great fun. Sort of like improv.

That was my experience with co-writing (yeah, fan-fic, but that still counts ;)). I found it enjoyable and productive.

Norma

[benbradley]

I recall Jerry Pournelle writing about collaboration, perhaps back in his BYTE column. He had some big hits writing with Larry Niven. Pournelle says collaboration takes 90 percent of the effort of writing a book by yourself, and you only get 50 percent of the credit and money.

But the results from the right combination of authors can be worth it. Niven has been more of a hard SF writer with the science in the stories being the main thing, whereas Pournelle appears to do better making characters come to life. Together their talents complement each other, and make a better overall product than either alone could write. I don't have any figures, but I have the impression the Niven-Pournelle novels sold a lot more than the novels of either author writing alone, so that 50 percent was of a much bigger pie.

[Storm Dream]

I had a friend that I used to collaborate on stories with -- mostly we wrote little adventures for a couple of original characters that we used to RP online with. I'd write one scene, she'd write another; sometimes, with a larger work, we'd switch off chapter by chapter.

It worked for us because we both knew the characters and setting in question very well, and we had fairly similar writing styles at the time. It was a lot of fun, and we had built-in encouragement to keep on writing ("Are you done yet??")...I don't think we ever used an outline. Maybe we had a vague idea of where the story was supposed to go, but mostly we just got to go out and play.

In general, I can see where it would still be fun, if you can work up to that sort of rapport, but people often have very different ideas about plot, dialogue, etc. The trickiest thing besides actually successfully working with the person is probably polishing it into a cohesive whole...looking back on the writing my pal and I did, overall it wasn't bad at all, but I can still see where she stopped writing and I started. Every writer has different tics that show up.

I could see myself co-writing a crossover (characters from two books COLLIDE!) or an entirely new piece of work, though I'm not sure how I'd feel about entrusting someone else with my Beloved Characters. Still, if I'm ever offered the experience my thoughts may change. :)

Still, I'd like to try it one day.

[Angelinity]

never wrote with another cow...

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[reenkam]

I tried twice--

The first time we outlined the story and came up with a lot of info. But that was all.

The second time we did the first two chapters...her's was lengthy with massive paragraphs and description (how she writes) while mine was dialogue driven with lots of emotion (how I write). We didn't go any further.

It wasn't a bad experience...it just wasn't very productive.

[Jamesaritchie]

I've done it twice. Don't much like it. I want the credit for what goes right, and the blame when something goes wrong.

To add to Jerry Pournelle, I think it was Lawrence Block who said something like, "Co-writing is twice the work for half the money, and a quarter of the fun."

[Carrie in PA]

I've co-written short stories, a play-of-sorts, and some seriously funny stuff. Fabulous experience, and if there were more hours in a day/days in a week, we'd do much more co-writing.

The trick is to find a partner you really click with, in writing AND in the stuff surrounding writing, ie control. Seriously, I love collaborating with Pete - we're very good at stepping back when one of us is on a good roll, and stepping in when the other hits a rut. We've also been very good at inspiring each other and keeping the ideas rolling.

It's funny, because I'm normally an anal retentive control freak. But maybe because I *know* that Pete will deliver something great, I'm very comfortable just hanging back when he's on a roll, and he does the same for me.

Unfortunately, we haven't written together for a while, but we will again.

[pepperlandgirl]

I've co-written several books. In fact, you can see most of them here, though our Coming Soon page is still incomplete (http://www.juno-books.com/blog/). We've been collaborating together for about 15 months now, and I think it's one of the best things that ever happened to me. My co-author is my best friend (my husband jokingly refers to her as my wife), and we share a brain. I don't say that lightly. We are so often on the same wave-length that it's frightening. We've got a queue of nearly 20 books right now--some of them are already contracted, some of them are just ideas we love too much not to write.

And it's fun. I've never had so much fun. Yes, sometimes it's be really hard. Even painful. In many ways, I'm the exact opposite of Vivien. We've both learned a lot about compromising. But that's only made us both better writers in the long run. And all our disagreements/problems are usually worked out within an hour or less. We respect each other too much to argue for long. It helps that she's brilliant--most the time I don't have any reason to disagree with her.