Making Collaboration Work
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Many avenues can bring you to having a co-writer. Some writers, faced with the blank page, come to the conclusion it’s easier to not have to go it alone. Others are already friends and decide they should write a script together too. Maybe a writer and a director hit it off and want to build a project from the ground up.
Whatever the reason, maintaining and developing your writing relationship is a brand new challenge in addition to actually getting your writing done. And as with other relationships, communication reigns supreme as the most important element.
Methods of Co-writing
These days, between the internet, videoconferencing, and cloud based writing apps, co-writing a script has never been easier. I’ve had the chance to work with multiple other writers over the years, and each time I’ve had a different work process.
In one case, we spent a few months thoroughly outlining while in different cities. Then, over the course of one weekend while the other writer was in town, we powered through the whole first draft. With another writer we have regular calls and alternate who writes and who reads along. For a third, we pass pages back and forth like a relay race, with weekly calls to check in.
These are just a few examples of ways to write your script with another person. You’ll have to experiment to see what makes the most sense for your own partnership. But the important thing about all of the above – we always started with a thorough and in-depth outline.
Clear Expectations
For each writing partnership I’ve been a part of, the key first step has been setting clear expectations. You want to make sure at the start that everyone is on the same page. By spending a lot of time brainstorming and outlining, you ensure you have the same vision.
The last thing you want to do is get 60 pages into your script and realize one person thought it was a comedy and the other thought it a thriller. That may be an extreme version, but at every level you want you and your co-writer to be moving in syncopation. The outline stage lets you hash out those differences when it will cost you the least amount of time and effort.
Of course it can always turn out you need to deviate from the outline once you get into the muck of writing. But by talking through the outline, you can confidently pivot and know you’re still in the right ballpark.
The Stakes
It’s not just the script that you might throw out if things go bad. You also might lose out on a writing partner or even a friendship. And even if you make it through to a successful draft, that script and partnership will then define you. You’ll be tethered, professionally, to this other writer. And until you can write a good enough script on your own you’ll have to keep writing drafts with them.
So do yourself and your partnership a favor now and be clear about what you want to achieve, how you want to write it, and what it’s going to look like. You’ll thank yourself later.