Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Tips for working with a writing partner | Scott Myers

Reader Question: What are some tips for working with a writing partner?

A question from Dave:
I'd love to hear more methods people use when writing with a partner...
This is one area I think I have a considerable amount of credibility in that I have had two professional writing partnerships and worked on other projects over the years with a few others. Setting aside the macro issues of compatibility, here are a few tips specific to the actual writing process:

* Talk through each scene: Assuming you've done your prep-writing and have the story pretty well laid out, as you are about to commit each scene to paper, discuss it with your partner. Go through the basic scene-writing questions you worked through in prep -- what is the point of the scene, why are these characters in it, what's its beginning, middle, end, etc to make sure you understand the scene. Besides hearing a scene out loud gives you a good sense if what you have works or not.

* Record those talk-throughs: Most of the time as you discuss each scene, you'll come up with specific bits of business and even dialogue. So you don't slow the creative flow by having to stop and jot down notes, record your discussions, then work from that as you type up the scene.

* Write your own versions: If there are scenes you and your partner don't see eye-to-eye on, each of you can go off and write out your own version of it. Come back and read them through. Generally either one or the other versions will work, or you can pick and choose parts from both to include in a final version.

* There's always another way: If you can't agree on a scene, don't keep pushing your version over your partner's. Rather work on the assumption there is always another way to approach a scene. Invariably that proves to be true.

A few general tips:

* Have a discussion where you work through as honestly as you can what strengths each of you bring to the writing process. If your partner is great with character and dialogue, and you are better with structure and theme, acknowledge that. If there are situations that arise where it's a 50-50 decision whether to include this line or take a character that direction, you can rely on each of your respective strengths.

* The actual typing can be an issue. I've read where some writers switch off. Since I type really fast and am a good speller, I've always been the designated typist. Besides I think it's probably advisable to have that single 'filter' in putting the actual words into the script as you're more likely to produce pages with a unified voice. But as I say, I know plenty of writing partners who switch off typing.

* Come up with a writing schedule that works for you both. If you are a morning writer and he's a night writer, then you'll have to figure out a compromise writing time. Part of the discussion, too, should be about what your expectations are in terms of page production per day. In one partnership we had the same arrangement for years: 1 to 5 or 5 to 7. That meant when we were in the page-writing process, we wrote from 1-5PM every week day and strove to write 5-7 pages per day. If we hit that page count before 5PM, we would end our writing day early.

I'm sure GITS readers will have plenty of advice on the subject, so those of you who have worked with a writing partner, please feel free to weigh in with your comments.

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Reader Question: What are some tips for working with a writing partner?

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