My best friend and I have decided to try our hand at writing a collection of poems/essays/proses on a series of topics. We live in separate states and decided it could be a way to bond together. Also, it gives us a reason to stay in contact regularly, which neither of us are particularly good at.
Both of us love writing and bonded over poetry classes we attended together in high school. We are both unhappy in our professional lives: she hates her job and I hate being unemployed. So during a recent conversation, we decided to give writing a real go. In two weeks, we decided to have a few pieces to share with one another on the topic of “long distance”. We wanted to see if our writing styles mesh well together and to be honest, see if we can really write worth a damn anymore.
Does anyone have experience in writing with a partner? What steps did you take in the writing process? How do you deal with differences of opinion? Does anyone have a topic that might be worth visiting?
My husband is an author and embarking on his first collaborative project, but I suspect that’s a bit different to your situation.
When you say a collection, are you actually planning on working on a single piece together, or are you planning to each contribute your own pieces to a shared collection? What are you planning on doing with it when complete? If your thoughts are commercial, then you really need to get at least a simple agreement in place now.
We decided to work on our own pieces separately for most of the book. We did think that a collaborative piece should be incorporated, but the majority would be a single author per piece. When it’s completed, I guess we would start looking to get it published, but honestly, we really hadn’t said much about it. We really wanted to see if we had pieces that were actually worth sharing before we got too much into it. By simple agreement, do you mean a contract about how profits would be shared? Or rights over the content? I’m very new to this.
Both of those things, and more. It might feel over the top, but it’s better to have these things agreed up front so there is no drama if anything unexpected happens. I’ll see if I can husband has a generic partnership contract tonight.
I am in a writing group; we meet once a month and exchange manuscripts. Everybody critiques everybody else. The collaboration is great! It’s very helpful to have other pairs of eyes read your stuff, to catch continuity glitches, or just to correct the grammar.
We’ve decided to try to put together an anthology, just to see what happens.
I’ve never actually co-written anything. To be honest, the idea makes me feel a little uncomfortable. But accepting advice and critiques is very, very helpful, and I recommend it to anyone.
That’s so interesting, Trinopus! I wish I could find a writing group in my area! Reading other people’s work helps get my mental juices flowing and gives me better ideas.
I also understand the concern though over co-writing, but I’m hoping it has more benefits than downfalls.