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Lenora Rose said:Have you found particular pros and cons to this? Do you have specific advice for collaborating successfully, and is your usual way of collaborating (Which you suggest at in things like the intro to The Stars Asunder) much like the methods of other collaborators you know?
There are as many different ways of collaborating as there are different collaborators. All of them, however, depend on one thing: the collaborators bring different strengths to the mix, and work in their area of strength.
Some alternate chapters, each one trying with a cliffhanger ending to put the partner in a "what do I do now?" situation. It's a goad to getting the work finished, and turns the project into a game. (Eventual publication is a happy benefit.) Others hash out what will happen verbally; the writing either could do as a mechanical process afterward. I've heard of another set of collaborators wherein one person lay on a couch sending thought-waves to the other, who sat in a different room transcribing them. It may seem wacky, but they thought of themselves as collaborators, and who's to say they were wrong?
All of thes have one thing in common: They involve getting the words on paper.
How much input do you think another person should have on the final product before they stop being a first reader/draft editor/copyeditor and start counting as an actual partner? Do they have to be involved from the zero draft, or can they come in later if they end up changing the plot enough?
That's a real "let your conscience be your guide" kind of question. In my own case, all that Dr. Doyle added to one story was three linebreaks... and she got co-author credit. In another, entire chapters were hers alone, and I got co-author credit. We long ago decided that the way our partnership worked, the amount of "writing" wasn't what counted. I get final say on what happens, she gets final say on how it's said, and we continue.
I will say this: Collaboration on fiction is the closest relationship two people can have. Perhaps that will help you decide the difference between a beta reader and a collaborator. Or -- if whether to make a particular change is your decision alone, and you can make it or not without caring how the other person feels about your decision, you aren't collaborating.