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plotlinehotline · 6 years

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Do you have a specific tag for collaborating with another author?

Collaborating with Another Writer

We don’t have a specific tag for author collaboration, but let me give you some tips (from someone who has written with a partner MANY times).

1) Generate Ideas

It’s possible that the reason you’ve chosen to collaborate is because you both already have an idea, but if you and your partner aren’t sure what to write about, spend some time brainstorming ideas separately. Set yourself a designated time to meet up and discuss your ideas, whether in person or online, and bounce those ideas off of each other. Get inspired by prompts or images, or other story sources (books you’re reading or television shows you’re watching). Jot them down as they come to you on sticky notes, and then transfer your ideas to a notebook/sheet of paper (you might even just stick the sticky notes directly in your notebook).

During the sharing-of-ideas with your partner, no idea is bad. Trust me - I’ve shared ideas with my writing partner that I thought wouldn’t work, and she added a new angle to it that ultimately transformed it, and I would do the same for her. It was a true collaboration of ideas where we each contributed to the overall concept. When we landed on an idea that kept us talking and adding on to it, we knew it was a winner.

2) Develop a system of splitting up the work

There are many ways of divvying up who writes what, and my writing partner and I have tried many of them with routine success. The details of your project might determine how this works out for you, but here are some suggestions:

Take ownership of a character - If you’ve got two (or more) protagonists, you might decide to each “adopt” one of those characters. Say we’ve got Mike and Lisa as main characters. Anytime we’ve got a scene from Mike’s POV, perhaps that’s you writing it, while anytime there’s a scene from Lisa’s POV, your partner writes it. This can do wonders for consistency with each character’s voice (even in limited 3rd person).

Make a list of scenes and divide them up based on content - This definitely requires more prior planning, but you might look at scenes and give them each a label of backstory heavy, action heavy, crucial turning point, ect., and split them up so that each person gets to do a little of everything. It’s obviously not fair if one partner gets to do the super dramatic scenes, while the other gets stuck with the challenging job of integrating backstory. It’s best for both writers to get practice in every type of scene.

Each writer writes a certain amount - It could be that you switch off every chapter, or scene, or even every 5k words (or whatever word goal you want to set). The great thing about this is that each writer gets a little “time off” in between turns, but depending on how well you plan, you might not know what part of the story you’ll be writing until the new pages from your partner are in front of you. My partner and I have even done this one live - where we’ll write for 30 minutes and then switch. Not always our best work, but it was certainly fun and forced us to make quick decisions we could really work with.

Develop your own system - We all work differently, and when trying to find a system that works for two writers who may have different individual methods, it’s necessary to do trial and error until you land on something that works for you both.

Set deadlines and make each other accountable - When we’re working on our own projects, it’s easy to live by our own schedules, but with a partner, it pays to consider their schedule as well. It certainly helps partnerships to be supportive of each other, but pushing each other is also an important part of the equation. [And as an aside, if my writing partner is reading this, I haven’t forgotten our project, and I’m prepping for our upcoming meetup ;) ]

3) Decide how you’ll share feedback

If you’re writing together, it’s anticipated that you’ll be critiquing each other as you go. It’s important to set boundaries for this process, so that both writers know going in what to expect from a critique. You don’t want to be criticizing aspects of your partner’s work that are personal to their writing style, simply because it’s not “what you would do.” The beauty of collaborating is that you both bring something different to the table. However, you also don’t want two styles that completely oppose each other. I know that’s a tall order, but finding that balance is the challenge. When I read old work that my partner and I collaborated on, there are frequently times where I don’t remember who wrote what (bear in mind, this is almost 10 years after we wrote it, so a lot of time has passed).

But beyond what you’re critiquing, decide on how you’ll share it. Will you just email each other, will you use the comment feature in word processing programs, will you print out hard copies and do margin notes...how will you exchange feedback? And how often will you do it? Perhaps you both want to work in “rough draft mode” for the beginning chapters where you don’t really share feedback, and you simply move forward with the story until you’ve gotten a certain amount done (perhaps even a whole draft).

4) Don’t force a partnership that doesn’t work

If you find that you and your partner are too different, have conflicting writing preferences, or just don’t work well together, let it go. If you value the relationship, continue to support each other’s individual writing, and maybe someday the partnership will blossom again. In the meantime, you might find a new partner or focus on your own work for a while.

I hope these tips were helpful! Good luck!

-Rebekah

#ask r #writing partners #collaboration

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