Writing Partnerships - How does yours work?

well, the novel i am writing, i have a co-writer, we just give each other ideas and we compromise when we disagree so we both have a chance to write and everyone is happy.


does that help?

While we are both unpublished, I have co-written twice with the same person (and we're prepping for a third collaboration). I think our method is a bit untraditional, but it works for us.

We use a trick from our online play-by-post RPG days, which was the first time we collaborated on anything. Our styles have always clicked, we like the same types of stories, and we are good friends. When we decided to try writing a novel together, we sat down and talked about the setting first. When, where, why, those types of questions. After that, we started talking character. What sort of characters we needed, what their backgrounds were, how their powers worked (this is urban fantasy, by the way), what their goals would be.

From those chats, we each came up with three or four characters. Histories, looks, personal lives, powers, flaws, goals, likes and dislikes. Kinda of like planning a character bio for the RPG. We each became responsible for those characters during the course of writing--dialogue, internal thoughts, actions, reactions, everything. Once we decided on chapter POV, we started writing. If it was a single-character scene, we wrote it alone. If it required several of our characters to interact, we wrote it "live" over instant messenger. It made the dialogue quite fun and spontaneous. Sometimes she'd change the direction of a scene with one in-character comment, and I'd have to figure out a response.

We didn't do much outlining ahead of time. General thoughts on plot points, on where we saw the novel going. If one of us had an idea, we were never hesitant to share it with the other. Sometimes we agreed; sometimes we didn't.

Like I said, it's probably an unorthodox method of co-writing, but as we're so fond of saying on this board, you do what works, right?

Uh...

My writing partner and I have been wanting to do something together. I have a feeling we'll end up throwing out ideas, come up with the basic premise together, and then split up and write our parts separately. But we think SO MUCH ALIKE that it would work for us like that, with others perhaps not so much.

The way we've been talking about it is I'll write from the POV of one character, her another, and have a dialogue back and forth--and at the same time have a dialogue with EACH OTHER so that we're on the same page.

Seriously, you gotta at least think like your partner, and be able to anticipate her moves, or else you're just fumbling around in the dark.


Bear in mind that we haven't actually DONE this yet....

Not currently in a partnership, but have enjoyed them before and am hoping for a new one for nanowrimo. Since I write romance, a roleplaying method is natural. First my partner and I swap writing samples so we will know what and how each other writes. Then we chat about worldbuilding, plot, and character ideas for the new project. A technique I particularly like is when each person creates the other's character's appearance and makes suggestions for their personality. Anyway once we each have a character, decide where the plot starts and what it should head toward, we start roleplaying. Some tasks we do divide - I usually do worldbuilding and editing, usually don't do plotting. Sometimes half of the pair is uncomfortable with writing sex scenes, or battle scenes, or comedy, or angst, whatever, so one person handles those type of scenes.

Edit: maybe I should also mention that when a partnership dies its either because the project stalls out/loses direction and one partner gets bored, or because the partners find that they are trying to drag the story in opposite directions because what one likes the other thinks is cheesy, and what the other thinks is fascinating the first thinks is scary/gross; basically irreconcilable differences of taste and writing goals.

Prior to collaborating on our first book, Lynn Sholes and I spend almost 10 years as friends in a weekly writer’s critique group. So by the time we decided to writer together, there were few issues or surprises in dealing with ego, writing styles or author voice. We already knew what our individual strengths and weaknesses were and our goal was to capitalize on them. The result was THE GRAIL CONSPIRACY which was named Book-Of-The-Year by ForeWord Magazine. It became an international bestseller and has been translated into 21 languages worldwide.

When we first started, we worked in a linear fashion. Not so much any more. Currently, we’re half way through writing our 4th Cotten Stone thriller called BLACK NEEDLES. Because we constantly brainstorm and plan our story in such detail, it’s not unusual for us to hop around and drop into the story at any point where one of us has a “handle” on the scene or chapter. I might be drafting chapter 52 while Lynn is revising 35 with few chapters in between. And we always know how the story ends pretty much from the start.

We are separated by hundreds of miles, so we collaborate electronically. Aside from an occasional signing, workshop or conference, we rarely are in the same place together. We conference call daily and burn up our email connection with attached drafts of our current chapter. There’s never any writer’s block or lack of ideas and solutions.

Lynn and I work well together. But I would not recommend collaborating on fiction to anyone else unless their goal was to wind up in prison for capital murder.

The only one I had flopped after the first page. Never collaborate with your best friend when one of you is a grammar-and-info-dumping Nazi and the other isn't.

I swear I'm obsessed with today.

The way we worked was, she would think of a sentence and say it out loud, and I'd offer suggestions. Then we'd both write it down... and if I had suggestions she didn't like I'd write it down anyway.

Needless to say it wasn't successful.

Wait. Garpy said "successful partnerships." Sorry. *Sprints casually away with hands in pockets.* [/drivel] [/hijack]

Joe Moore said:

capital murder.

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Would that be as opposed to corporal murder, or lowercase murder?

sunandshadow said:

Would that be as opposed to corporal murder, or lowercase murder?

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Yes, those crimes are reserved for unpublished collaboration.

Garpy said:

. . . because you're really getting into the thought processes, tiny little foibles, character traits and ticks...and that, I think, is where you need the continuity of one writer.

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You're right, Alex. When Lynn and I first started on this long road we spent over six months outlining our story and characters. We created a 50-page synopsis as our guideline. And it took three years to write THE GRAIL CONSPIRACY as we learned to work together and develop our characters at the same time. The thing that makes it a bit easier for us is we write a series. So we know our main character(s) really well and can spend our time concentrating on plot and additional characters. Our main antagonist is the same in each thriller so that helps, too.