In our long career, the only writing partner we’ve had is the husband. As far as collaborative processes go, it worked surprisingly well. Unlike traditional fiction partnerships, we wrote in a shared editing environment. This, of course, meant the poor man had to wait until we were satisfied with his commas and apostrophes before we started the next section.
MediaBistro takes a look at the process of writing with a partner. Though we know you’re going to pop right over and read the whole thing, we feel compelled to summarize: communication. Oh sure, you’re always right and have never made a wrong decision. This does not allow you to make all the choices when it comes to a joint work.
To future authorial teams, [Lisa] Papademetriou suggests: “Go Zen. It’s really important to listen to what the other person is saying, rather than getting defensive. When Chris and I talked through our ideas, we almost always came out with something better than what either one of us had come up with on our own. Also, it’s important to find someone who works in the same way that you do. If you’re a deadline person, and your writing partner is more hang loose, you’re going to have some tension.”
