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Posted By: Briq Jan 04, 2004 - 09:00 am

Anyone else here ever teamed up with some co-authors to create a piece of work together?
Regardless of the exact ‘abouts’ of the project or the number of people participating in it, I would love to hear about other peoples experiences in such projects.
How do you look back on the collaborating efforts? Did it work for you? How did you/the group deal with obstacles in working together? How do you look back on the results? Did you manage to finish the piece of work together? Do you consider it a piece of work with added value (over a solitary-project)? And so on...

As you might have guessed: I’m involved in such a thing myself right now.
Some issues however make me seriously consider now to blow off the collaborating-part and continue on my own.
But still...

So I would really love to hear bout other peoples experiences on this.

Posted By: gypsychic Jan 04, 2004 - 01:53 pm

I think it depends on how well you balance each other, and how able each writer is to acknowledge his or her own strengths and weaknesses. I collaborated on a project with one other writer (just two of us) and it was perfect. We balanced each other very well. My weaknesses were her strengths, and vice versa. Mutual respect combined with a true desire to create together are both imperative for a collaboration to be successful. I think if you end up in a situation where one of the writer's on the project inwardly believes that he or she is better than everyone else, then you're going to have problems. Also, if you've got someone who completely falls in love with their own writing and can't allow any change - again, colloaboration isn't going to work. I also think that if you and the people you're working with are too similar - and have similar strengths and weaknesses - then its not going to work. It has to be an honest effort on both sides between people who balance each other well for it to be worth doing at all. JMO.

Posted By: RongFo Jan 04, 2004 - 08:04 pm

I've had fun writing with others, but it's always been in the context of a writing game or exercise. Not so much with the co-writing seriously. I did read a good article on the subject. Let me see if I can find it.

Ok, here:
http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp18.Me.and.My.Ampersand.html

Posted By: Briq Jan 07, 2004 - 03:47 am

Thanks for the responses.
(That really was a great article RongFo, thanks!)

So, balance, honest efforts and fun.
Yes, you're both quite right.
The fun-part is why I started this project in the first place.
And as for balance and honest efforts, well, we started off that way but lost some of it along the way (so less fun also).

I still think a team-up could be great and I really hope someday I'll start/find another project which has all these fine qualities.
But I also think I'll have to face the fact I am not going to find all that in this particular project. Nor being able anymore to change things around for the good.
There is more to it of course, but all things together I feel it is best changed into a solitary work after all.

Well then... *raises a glass to all that has been sweet and to future experiences*

Posted By: ForeverZero Jan 10, 2004 - 07:44 pm

Well, me and a friend are working on a six-episode series right now. The way we go about things actually works out very well.

My friend is online a lot, so we get to discuss ideas we've come up with often (Which is a must for joint projects). We are also good artists, so we share concept art of how we want our characters to look.

Sure, this is more time consuming than creating a story on your own, but think it's worth the effort. There were times when I wrote a lone that ended up in a 12 page piece of trash, but now that I have a writing partner, we have this saga going for real. Currently we are about half a year into the project, and still are finalizing ideas about a single episode of the series.

Having another person to work with is great. It's nice to have another mind, another imagination and another side to things when you present a new idea.

Also, our series has a ton of Religious reference in it, so having two researchers gets information much more quickly, and on top of that we have two people thinking of how we can integrate Religious stories and names.

Now that I started this project I finally feel I can actually write out a complete story and actually send it to a publisher, which I had failed to accomplish as a solitary writer. The truth is, some writers need additional help when they want to convey an idea into a story.

Posted By: Briq Jan 12, 2004 - 02:47 am

Yes, I can relate to a lot of the advantages you mention in working together with someone, ForeverZero.
Now I just have to find out if working on my own works as well for me...