Collaboration or Pact with the Devil

[MontiLee]

Partnerships and collaborations for writers can be pretty darn special when two minds managed to meld into one terrific unified voice.

King/Straub, Zelanzny/Saberhagen, Callahan/Stormer.

*grin*

They are also as rare as unicorns in a slaughterhouse and writer collaborations can fail for a number of reasons.

Here are some tips (gleaned from personal experience and chatting with other writers) on how to maintain a successful collaborative effort, and probably more important - when to bail.

Make sure your collaboration is actually a writing project an not en excuse to fall into bed. Seriously. I've been approached to collaborate on a few projects only to find out a few exchanges through that it wasn't my writing they were interested in.

How to make it work

• Find a good match. This is a lot like finding a good mate, and if you suck at the mate part, maybe collaborations aren't for you. Essentially, writing projects are like making babies, so examine your reasons for doing it and with whom, and be honest. Do you like the person as a writer and as a person? Does this person respect you as a person and a writer?
  
  
• Don't say yes because you have nothing else to do. Collaborations take time and real effort and a healthy dose of compromise. This is a serious commitment. It's not fair to hold back another writer because you're not ready to settle down.
  
  
• Respect for the other's ability. This should be easy, but I've heard tales told of writers getting together for no more reason than someone wanted a coat-tail to ride, but not really liking the coat-tail's work.
  
  
• Discuss what you each of you plans on getting out of it - and realistic goals are the idea. Do you have an idea in mind? A length? How will the work be distributed? Is your partner an outliner and how will that mesh with your more free-style method of sitting down and writing until your fingers bleed? Who's name goes first? Do you trust this person?
  
  
• Know what you're writing. If he's writing a hard-boiled crime thriller and your sparkly vampires don't have much to do - chances are you aren't writing the same book. Go over characters, plots and maybe an outline.
  
  
• How will information be shared? Drives? Google Wave? Google Documents? E-mail? Settling on a method early ensures a timely exchange of material.
  
  
• Decide on a division of labor. Who does the outline, the synopsis, the treatment? My situation is unique since we were going off a screenplay I'd already written. He divided up the scenes, using their natural end points to create chapters. He took the odds and I took the evens. As we finished and handed off we were able to see each other's take on characters and incorporate that into future chapters.
  
  
• Don't blow off deadlines and meetings. If you've got writing meetings planned and either you or your partner are finding things "pop" up, chances are the book isn't a priority and it isn't ever getting done.
  
  
• Be realistic about when it'll get done. Books take time and we all write at different paces. It took my partner and I almost three years to complete Isle and there was an exchange of responsibilities in getting it done. The first three chapters clipped along so fast in the beginning we thought we'd have it wrapped in six-nine months. Hard to believe we were ever so young.
  
  
• Expect to get frustrated, because things happen, life happens, and not everything you produce will be gold. Which leads me to
  
  
• Expect life to happen. My partner and I had been rolling along pretty well until Life happened, and nothing could be done on the work for several months. I can't get mad because he's suddenly working 70-hour weeks and I'm unemployed.
  
  
• Expect to take chances and like them. I wasn't anticipating my characters to be so three-dimensional and I hadn't realized early on how much of a dick my main character was until my partner fleshed him out. And I love it.
  
  
• Expect to say no. Sometimes things just aren't going to work. If the respect is there so will the understanding. Maybe there can be a compromise, as it's a partnership, not a benevolent dictatorship. You're in this together so be flexible.
  

When to bail
Knowing when to bail on a collaboration that just isn't working again is a lot like bailing on a potential mate. Some people bail too soon at the first sign of trouble, potentially sinking what could have been a healthy match. Others languish for years projects that will never see a publisher. If you suck at breaking up with people, collaborations aren't for you.

• Not getting along anymore
  
• Blowing off meetings
  
• The division of labor has shifted drastically
  
• Not actually writing when getting together
  
• Gentle prods for progress go unanswered
  
• Your partner has taken on a huge project and there just isn't any time left
  
• Your partner belittles your effort and makes a million changes to stuff you've already written.
  
• You realize that this person just isn't into you or the potential anymore.
  

Partnerships are a big deal and it takes people willing to grow together as writers to make one successful.

I know I'm missing some stuff, but I think those cover the basics.

Comments?

[Mr Rice]

This is something I'm going to have to steal from you. I'm about to start a 4-way collab with writers I do like, but I don't want to trip and fall before we even get up and running.