This post is part of a series about writing with a co-author. To read all my advice about the full process of collaborative writing (including stories and bonus chapters not found here on the blog), order my book, In It Together, a guide to writing with a co-writer without losing your mind.
Many writers are interested in the idea of collaboration, but don’t know where to start. Writers can be a solitary bunch; it can be difficult to wrap your brain around bringing a partner into a habitually solitary process—often a partner who is also accustomed to working alone. Some authors have a sense that writing with another person will be difficult, that it will probably involve conflict over both creative and business decisions, and that it might turn into, well, a mess.
These were my concerns about collaboration before I started co-writing, and I wasn’t wrong! Like any team project, writing books with a partner is a joy and a privilege . . . until it isn’t. It’s hard to match the creative energy that sparks when you bounce ideas off a partner who is every bit as invested in the project as you are, but even the best partnerships encounter challenges, and if they aren’t navigated carefully, those challenges can quickly turn into project-derailing problems.
In addition, there are as many different partnership circumstances as their are collaborations. You might be a junior partner working with a more experienced collaborator on intellectual property owned by your partner. You might be a pair of writers on equal footing trying to develop an IP you both share. You might be an author who is doing work-for-hire, who will write words, get paid, and then have no further connection to the property once the work is done. You might be in a combination of these circumstances. All come with their own benefits and complications.
Maybe you already have a collaborative relationship and things have already gotten complicated. You may wonder if your partnership is the only one that is sometimes messy or difficult.
Friends, it is not just you. When I began collaborating, I had no idea what I was doing. I dove in and muddled through, learning as I went, and like most people who are making things up as they go, I made a lot of messes. In short, I have made all the mistakes, and I’m here to tell you about them so you don’t have to make them all yourself. Or, if you already have, I’d like to help you figure out what’s gone wrong and build a plan to get yourself (and your partnership) back on track.
This book is divided into two sections: the first will help you develop skills and mindsets to tackle even the biggest partnership challenges with confidence. In the second section, we’ll deal with the mechanics of writing a book as a team, going through all the phases of the production process from brainstorming to publication and promotion.
You might be tempted to skip the first section and jump right to the practical bits, but don’t! To work through the challenges of the creative process, you’re going to need a healthy baseline of collaborative skills that will enable you to be a true team player without undermining your own creative goals. Trust me: it’s worth sticking through the foundational bits to make sure you have a solid set of tools for working together before you try to put them into practice.
If you’re merely curious about collaboration, if you’re just starting to work on your first project with a partner, or if you’ve already got projects (and challenges!) in the works, this book will help you think through what you really want out of collaboration and plant you firmly on a path to achieving those goals—without hurting yourself or your partner in the process. You can work through this book with your partner, or if your partner isn’t interested in participating (or you don’t have one yet), you can also work through it on your own and empower yourself to make the most of your current or future collaborations. Each chapter ends with exercises to help you put the principles and processes into action. You may want to keep your completed exercises together so you can refer back to them as you work through the material.
Welcome to our discussion of co-writing. The creative process may make you want to sing and dance or tear all your hair out—or maybe both at once—but the wonderful thing about collaboration is you’re never alone.
We’re in this together.
