Collaborative Writing (Part Two)

If you’ve read about the benefits of collaborative writing and you’re ready to get started, the first thing you need to do is find a writing partner. This is the most crucial part of the process because if you choose a person who isn’t compatible with your style, your commitment level, or your vision, the partnership will be more work than joy.

Ensuring your find the right partner for a project involves some research and some investigation, but it is well worth the work. 

Investigate your writing community

The best place to start when looking for a partner is your writing community. Social media groups, local in-person writing groups, events at the public library. If you haven’t yet established a writing community, this is where to start. Go to public readings, take some online writing classes. Go to a writing conference. Meet other writers and talk to them about their writing. 

Read the person’s work

Once you’ve narrowed down a few choices, read the work of the people you’re considering. Since you’re going to be combining your skills into one project, you need to ensure you like their style, that you feel comfortable having your name attached to theirs on future published works. 

Ask them about their writing habits

If you’re going to write with someone, you need to come up with a functional plan for getting the work done. Are they morning writers? Do they prefer to write only when inspired or do they sit down every day and work? 

Talk about willingness to change and how they feel about editing. Ask about compromise and how to resolve potential disagreements about the direction of the collaborative work. Most importantly, spend some time with the person. If you don’t already know them, get to know them. If you’re going to be writing a book with someone, you’re potentially setting yourself up to spending an awful lot of time together between writing, revising, querying, publishing, marketing. Make sure that time will be enjoyable. 

Start small

Consider starting with something small. If you’re just getting to know another writer, ask if they want to write a short story together, or work collaboratively on a novella. Sometimes, on the other hand, jumping in the deep end can lead to awesome results. The first collaborate work I did was a non-fiction book on plotting with my friend Kimberly Cooper Griffin and the second was a full novel with my friend Andrew Buckley. Though both of those situations worked out beautifully, if I were to start working with a writer I didn’t know well, I might consider starting with a shorter work, just to test the waters.

Ensuring you have the right partner is key to a happy working relationship. Taking time to check out your potential partner, get to know their work, and discussing the parameters of the project together leads to a smooth and enjoyable partnership and hopefully, an exciting and successful shared creative work.