HALF THE WORK, TWICE THE FUN? What You Need To Know About Collaborating

HALF THE WORK, TWICE THE FUN? (What You Need To Know About Collaborating)

By Christina Hamlett

“Let’s get the kids together and put on a show in the old barn!”

This plucky trope emerged in the 1930s movies of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. To this day, it perpetuates the myth that any disparate group of classmates, neighbors or coworkers with no prior discernible aptitudes for song and dance can successfully launch a Broadway-worthy production and transform the most dilapidated stable into a venue which seats 500, accommodates multiple backdrops and has a full orchestra pit. Who’d have thought? Even sitcoms have discovered that the quickest fix to a season running out of plots is to have the characters put on a talent show and, thus, reveal aspects of their personalities we never knew existed.

It’s a trope which also applies to author collaborations. Unfortunately, many of these take the form of, “I’ve never written anything but I’ve got a great idea for a novel, play, movie. Since you obviously know what you’re doing, I’m thinking we could collaborate.” Translated: “You do all the work, find the barn, renovate it, sew the costumes, sell the tickets, and we’ll split the proceeds 50/50.” 

Golly. How could anyone turn down such a stellar proposition?

If you’ve ever entertained the idea of creating something with a writing partner, there are three simple rules which should govern your decision. These will be followed by two examples of collaborations from my own experience—one which quickly dribbled into a disaster and one which has successfully endured for over a decade despite the fact the two of us have only spoken once on the phone and have never met in person. 

With My Idea and Your Experience, We Could Get Really Rich

Anyone who wants to ride your coattails with the dream of bestsellers and blockbusters will not only expect you to do the lion’s share of the work but will kvetch constantly that you’re not working hard enough. If an idea is that epic to them, what’s stopping them (besides laziness and/or a lack of confidence) from learning the craft and developing it themselves? Meanwhile, authors who do know what they’re doing have no shortage of their own ideas sizzling away on front and back burners.

Who Brings What to the Table?

If you’re great at dialogue and your prospective partner excels at narrative descriptions and action scenes, it could be a match made in heaven and one in which you truly complete each other.  Likewise if one of you has a professional background in law, medicine, Egyptology, gourmet cooking, theatre, etc., it will fill in a lot of authenticity blanks a solo writer would otherwise have to go research. The same can be said of female/male perspectives, ethnicity, cultural mores and intimate familiarity with geographic locales. At the end of the day, a partnership only works if there are equitable contributions from both sides and respect for each other’s expertise.

Compatible Work Ethics and Productivity

If it takes you only three days to write a chapter but it takes someone else three months to deliver the same amount of content, a finished product could take forever. From the outset, collaborators need to agree on a timeframe which works for both of their schedules. This includes factoring in hours for brainstorming, editing, proofreading and exploring marketing strategies. It must further be understood that although you can agree-to-disagree, it’s not a competition to see whose ego can prevail. You are in this publishing/production race as a team joined at the hip. The decision(s) on which way a scene or character should go must ultimately be what’s best for the project.

THE ONE THAT WENT WRONG

Several years ago, two colleagues and I decided to pen a new book targeted to solopreneurs. Office For One: The Sole Proprietor’s Survival Guide would tap the insights of experts worldwide on how to go it alone in the business world without getting lonely. During the first two weeks, we mapped out chapter headings, developed a four-month timeline, and discussed how we’d hype the book after we self-published it.

Everything was enthusiastic, congenial and sometimes even involved wine and cheese. Given the number of moving parts in bringing such a project together, my husband drafted a contract regarding deliverables along with release forms for the participants whose interviews/essays would appear in the book. After the first month, I asked Collaborator #1 how her third of the work was coming along. Turns out she hadn’t even started. She then decided she didn’t want to do it at all. It now fell to Collaborator #2 and myself. Collaborator #2 decided she didn’t want to do it, either. Thank goodness there was a contract in place which absolved me from further involvement with them. I finished the book myself in three months.

THE ONE THAT CONTINUES TO BE AWESOME

In the summer of 2012, one of my play publishers asked if I’d like to develop a new script series for them. I wasn’t keen on the idea but I also realized they’d give it to someone else if I declined. It was my husband who noticed I seemed to be enjoying the work of one of my online screenwriting students, Jamie Dare, and that maybe she’d be interested. She was intrigued and we quickly discovered that our writing styles and comedic timing were a natural match.

Not only have we gone on to write and sell multiple stage plays but we have also forayed into chick-lit, our first novel together being While You Were Out. If you noticed earlier I mentioned Jamie and I have never met, that’s completely true. The way our brainstorming works is that I’ll write a scene or chapter, send it to Jamie for editing and provide her with “reveals” of what happens next. Within this framework is a lot of latitude for our own creative spins and the introduction of new characters. So seamless is the way we literally finish each other’s sentences that not even my husband can tell our pages apart. I honestly could not have chosen a better partner with whom to share silliness and success. 

As for the idea of our ever meeting in person, we have decided that if a system works, why mess with it? (We never even chanced it when we lived in the same county and time zone.) There would likely be a ginormous rip in the fabric of the universe if we crossed paths anywhere other than email. You can thank us later for the wisdom of our staying apart.

*****

Former actress and theatre director Christina Hamlett is an award-winning author of 45 books, 266 stage plays, and squillions of articles and interviews. Her latest release, A Little Larceny in Lynmouth, is the first book in her new cozy mystery series set in the UK.

A LITTLE LARCENY IN LYNMOUTH, Christina Hamlett

The picturesque harbor village of Lynmouth on the Devon coast was supposed to be a respite after being made redundant from her job at a prestigious import/export firm in London. But when her landlady is poisoned by chocolate a scant three days after she moves in, Rochelle Reid and her new neighbors discover they have become overnight murder suspects.

Red herrings abound, romance teases, a heroine learns her past is about to collide with the present, and a daylight break-in at the house hints that—even with a victim neatly out of the way—the murderer is not yet in the clear if a damning piece of evidence hidden within its walls isn’t recovered.

 

BUY HERE

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