Do you collaborate when writing?

[moderntimes]

Re. collaborating, I often did this when I was writing an article or news story, and I worked with a photographer. Of course I wrote the story and the photog too the pics but we'd get together on the general scope of the piece and cooperate on the whole thing. And of course split the payout.

[toonenthusiast]

I've always written solo but definitely always wanted to check out writing with another person. It brings a new perspective on the story. I'd imagine the process could be really exciting and fun because the other person and I are just tossing ideas around back and forth, getting really hyped about the idea, debated what to do, maybe even arguing if it's intense enough. It would evolve into a real laborious process but it would feel sooo worthwhile in the end. We accomplished something together and I love that idea.

[desi330]

No i keep my writimg personal

[wmsvensen]

I usually write solo. I feel like I'd enjoy a collaborative project since I like bouncing ideas back and forth and whatnot, but I've only ever managed to finish one story that way. Everything else fizzled out or crashed and burned because the other authors flaked out or we simply got distracted with our other various life issues and just kinda forgot about it.

[Mjelmer]

I love to write alone. Once I have finished I like to have someone else give me advice

[Drakex1686]

I like to collaborate for other peoples views, to make things people could find more relatable than just the knowledge in my crazy mind. I usually like to write alone though, that way you don't have to argue about how things will be.

[Ventis]

I do both. I write my original short stories, and work on my original novel alone. But I also co-write fanfiction with a good friend. We divided our characters, she writes one guy, I the other two. It has some advantages - the dialogue feels more natural, because we don't know in advance what the other character will say, so they don't say things just for plot reasons. It took some time to synchronize our writing, styles, and learn how to avoid headhopping, but we also have two awesome beta-readers who always tell us if something feels odd. It's been a great writing practice, we both learned a lot.

[zeldas_lullaby]

I do both. I write my original short stories, and work on my original novel alone. But I also co-write fanfiction with a good friend. We divided our characters, she writes one guy, I the other two. It has some advantages - the dialogue feels more natural, because we don't know in advance what the other character will say, so they don't say things just for plot reasons. It took some time to synchronize our writing, styles, and learn how to avoid headhopping, but we also have two awesome beta-readers who always tell us if something feels odd. It's been a great writing practice, we both learned a lot.

Wow, that's awesome. Can you explain to me what headhopping is?

[Ventis]

Wow, that's awesome. Can you explain to me what headhopping is?

Headhopping is the omniscient narrator done bad. It's a sudden change of different POVs within one scene. It can be done, but it's easy to get it wrong and end with jarring, choppy sequences (usually paragraphs) with different POV.

For example, a story is about a girl who's leaving to study abroad, and about her life there. The whole scene about her departure is from his POV. Then, just before the end of the scene, in the middle of a paragraph, there's a sudden switch to the girl's father POV, to show how worried he is and how much he loves her. Then there's another sudden switch to the girl. And then the father is never mentioned again till the end of the story. That's head hopping.

[zeldas_lullaby]

Ooooooh. OK.

Wow, thanks a lot. that was a great explanation!

[bluefrog]

My dad and I are tying to write a fantasy book together. "Trying" is the key word. We have yet to get past chapter one. He and I are very close (we talk every night) and yet we are also very stuck. We have very different ideas about the world we are building.

[Layla_20_20]

I have always written things on my own and although I went to university and have done a lot of research and read a lot of books written by groups of people I have never been keen on that element. I always feel that reading and writing are a solitary pursuit and one that requires great skill and concentration. I feel that writing is more how one thinks and writes their thoughts on paper. When you collaborate with people there are two basic fears - the first is that they might steal your ideas and pass them off as their own and the second too much criticism can be demoralising.

[Amagine]

I prefer to write alone but I have collaborated on a poem with friends. I actually enjoyed the experience so maybe someday I'll consider collaborating in the future with someone.

[clint_csperry-org]

I never have, but honestly, I think it might be fun to try one day if we could work out the details of any pay that might come from it.

[Inkroverts]

I'm very interested in writing collaboration. But I can't find any friends who are into writing... So I mainly write alone