Do you collaborate when writing?

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readertim109
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Do you collaborate when writing?

Post by readertim109 »

Do you collaborate when writing? Do you prefer to write alone?

Do you always write on you own, or do you sometimes work with a partner or partners? I notice some books are written by more than one person. It seems like it would be hard to write with more than one person, because you'd have to have a lot of communication with the person. What do you think?
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kaytie
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Post by kaytie »

I work best alone when in the rough draft stage. I don't feel like I make progress with a partner, and I'm less likely to try new things with one, more likely to please them than myself. My one attempt at collaboration didn't pan out--we made better friends than collaborators, I think.

That doesn't mean I work in a vacuum, though. I have two friends who are also writers and we share our work once we're past the first draft stages. They're at the same level I am (we all have agents) and are brilliant in ways I wish to improve on. I like to think I bring good comments to them, as well. :)

And now, with my agent, I get even more feedback. I don't consider our relationship as a collaborative one creatively, but he knows the business better than I do so I take his suggestions really seriously.
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DuchessAngel37
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Post by DuchessAngel37 »

I've always written primarily alone, but I'm working on something with someone that should be ready by summertime.

I think collaborating depends on what you're writing or HOW you're writing.

For instance, is Person A coming up with the ideas and plotting and Person B is the one actually doing the writing?

Or are they both working together, which would mean they'd have to have similar styles.

My current collaboration involves one of my affiliates in my fanfic community, and we have completely different styles of writing, so our plot involves a main character who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (aka split personality) as a result of being molested as a child or seeing his parents killed (we haven't decided which yet), and we're each taking a personality and writing from that vantage point. His 'normal' personality is outgoing but quiet, kind, just your 'everyman' kind of guy. She's taking him and writing it in third person. His 'new' personality developed when he was a kid, as a defense mechanism for what he went through, but he really doesn't start coming out until he's grown and this guy is brash, ballsy, egotistical, a partier. I'm taking his side, and it's being written in 1st person. (1st person cuz he's selfish, get it?)

The plan is for readers to just be reading all this.. la di da, then suddenly it changes to this hard rocker dude, then it's back to la di da. Each 'guy' has his own friends, 'Josh' has one steady girlfriend, 'Damian' has one girl that he sees regularly, but every day has a new "girlfriend". So readers (hopefully) shouldn't even realize right away that these two people are the same guy.

The best part about this is that we can write independently of each other for a few chapters, as Damian doesn't show up until chapter 3, where he'll have a whole chapter to himself, then it goes back to Josh for awhile. We don't have to connect them to each other until maybe 6 or 7, when either Damian comes out in the middle of something Josh is doing, either work, or a date, or something, OR Josh's friends (or girlfriend) see Damian out, doing his partying, hard core thing, and then Josh has to take the fall. Then we can still work independently, but we'll just have to make sure we're both following the same track.

In the end, we decided that Damian will kind of take over, because as Josh's job gets more and more stressful, he keeps running into the person/s that hurt him, and more and more people give him sh*t for what Damian has done, he starts to crumble under the pressure, and Damian has to step up to keep him from falling apart, until it gets to the point where Josh IS Damian. But we haven't yet decided on whether Josh will just take on Damian's characteristics and still be Josh, or will Josh cease to exist.

And yes, notice the Jesus/Devil reference in Josh/Damian.
So far, really, that's all we've gotten. The actual writing part has not yet begun.

For the record, anyone who watches One Life to Live can point out that we're not entirely original here, but we're not copying the Jess/Tess thing in its entirety.


Wow that was really long. Guess I'm more excited about it than I thought.
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ResearchScholar
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Post by ResearchScholar »

Collaboration in a book project works well if the individuals concerned are of the same intellectual level and share a similar temperament and personality. In most cases, however, this is rarely so. Inevitably, one person is of a higher intellect, far rigorous in analysis and finicky about his writing style, while the other person is less so. Yet, all things considered, the collaborators receive the same credit and acclaim. In fact in some cases, the person who has contributed less to a book project receives greater credit.

The writing process is not like assembly-line work, where each person's input into manufacturing the product is the same. Yet, many people do not seem to be aware of that simple reality. Clearly, for obvious reasons, those of less capability do not wish to acknowledge that reality.
brownnataly21
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Post by brownnataly21 »

When I am in the mood to write anything, I prefer to be alone and not to be disturbed at all. Only peace and quiet around.
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Rancher
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Post by Rancher »

I write alone.

I have been asked to collaborate on a book but I declined. I prefer solitude while I write.
dansgoldilocks
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Post by dansgoldilocks »

Whenever I've written in the past, it's always been alone. I always thought I worked well that way. Then recently my boyfriend told me of an idea he had for a book, but he's not so good at putting it down in book form. So, we're collaborating in the sense that I'm doing the writing, and coming up with the..."day to day" plot line, so to speak, but it's his idea, with the major plot points already outlined by him (ex: he wants this, this and this to happen, I get to fill in everything in between and determine when those big things happen.)

It works quite well for us, I do the writing, I send him what I've done every so often, he reads it over and gives me feedback. It's nice to have someone to give me feedback, and it's also nice to have someone who can help me out when I get stuck. I don't know that I would want to do this all the time, but for this one, I do enjoy it.

Or maybe I'm just addicted to my boyfriend and will go for any excuse to interact with him. Who knows? :roll:
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lukebodell
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Post by lukebodell »

I wrote alone, but I keep friends updated as to what happens in the story, and tell them I would welcome suggestions; but so far about 99.5% of my work has been through my own thinking, so I basically write alone.
Alexa12345
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Post by Alexa12345 »

When it's about work and not a thing that you must really focus i agree to collaborate, but when it comes to writing i think this requires totally attention and you have to do that on your own. Also, usually the books written by more authors are split and each of them write a part.
Perrywinkle47
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Post by Perrywinkle47 »

Writing in collaboration has both pros and cons. If you write with a partner, the good thing is that you can share your skill set. Like as one of the fellow mentioned, one can do the writing and other can do the thinking. Also, you would have someone to share and come up with better ideas and someone to sincerely read the draft and do purposeful critique on it.
On the other hand, if one of the partners is resistant to put the effort or is less interested or even the mindsets don't match of the partners, so this could eventually lead to fights. Also, one who worked more would feel bad as far as the credit is concerned.
So, yeah one should keep these things in mind before setting up any collaboration.
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Post by ALynnPowers »

I've always wondered how collaborative writing works.
I was actually the fourth author on a professional paper from my university days... and I didn't write any of it. I was just on the author's list because I helped with the research and was like the expert on the date analysis.
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Post by Amheiser »

I like to collaborate with my son and daughter who are also writers. We bounce ideas off of each other all the time and ask questions of each other and I think it makes writing even more fun. If we get stuck on how to say something, or where to go with something it's nice to have people who are interested in what I'm doing to give me advice or suggestions and sometimes I can help them also.
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Post by kezzstar24 »

I'm of the school of always trying something at least once, and collaborative writing is no exception. I wrote a silly little fanfic piece with a friend once, not that anyone else ever saw it lol, and it was a fun experience but not one I would repeat in a hurry.
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Post by moderntimes »

I never collaborate in my writing. It's all a one-author process.

But I am now collaborating in a special way. A graphic novel artist who creates supernatural adult-oriented horror and sci-fi comics and I will be teaming up in 2015. I'll take about a dozen of my horror short stories, rewrite them in a script format, and he will use the text and dialogue, plus my story line, and illustrate the stories. We're going at this 50-50 and it will be a treat. Then we'll package the whole lot as a special issue graphic comic.
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Post by zeldas_lullaby »

ALynnPowers wrote:I've always wondered how collaborative writing works.
I was actually the fourth author on a professional paper from my university days... and I didn't write any of it. I was just on the author's list because I helped with the research and was like the expert on the date analysis.

:lol: You're an expert on date analysis, ALynn? So, like, could you come on a date with me and give me feedback? "Not enough leg." "Too much talking about your parents' divorce." Because I would appreciate that. I've never met an expert before!

:happy-wavemulticolor:
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