Collaborative Writing

[katiuska]

So I've been thinking that I could probably do more with a partner, since other people have different skills/perspectives to bring to the table. The main problem I see is the potential for creative differences, because two given people don't necessarily have the same artistic "vision." In my experience, it usually ends up primarily being one person's thing, with the other pitching in every so often, which isn't necessarily bad, it's just not quite working together.

Has anyone hit upon a good formula for shared projects? I've had a couple of good experiences, but they weren't really planned out--the projects just kind of came together, but I'm pretty sure that's rare.

[Pip Boy]

If you want a consistant writing style and a better understanding of the overall story, its probably best t owrite yourself. But if you want other perspectives on things, bouncing ideas off the forumites here is usually pretty handy. We even have a social group for it.

[Bells]

If you want a shared project, someone has to be the "Lead" in it. The other are there to rewrite dialog, bounce off ideas, research, point out problems, cliches and the such.

This is the only way i know that Collaborative writing can -not- become a drag. When there is someone pushing it foward writing stuff, while the others "oribit" the main work with their ideas.

[Archbio]

One of the dangers of collaborative writing is the risk of the work being adapted into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

[katiuska]

Well, group writing is pretty standard in things like scriptwriting, so it's useful to learn. Not so much in novel writing, and I think most writers start out wanting to be novelists, but novels and I fell out years ago and I mostly prefer to read/write scripts now.