Screenwriting: the secret of successful collaboration

How do writers collaborate successfully? My previous post was about the online comedy, “Husbands,” co-created  and co-written by Jane Espenson and Brad “Cheeks” Bell. On Scriptmag.com Espenson described their working method:

“We did it in turns. Cheeks wrote the first draft and then I did a polish, and then he gave notes, and we did that for a while until all we were doing was just tweaking jokes back and forth. So yeah, we checked and rewrote each other until we were happy and then we did ultimately have a table read where we brought in some really top-flight comedy writers who pitched jokes and ideas.”

Of course there are many other systems that work, too. Here are a few more thoughts about collaboration that I posted originally on my Time to Write blog:

Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote the screenplay of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” told Carpetbagger:

“I think if you were trying to pair up writers, you probably would say it’d be good to have someone who is more intuitive and goes by feeling and does just what feels right in the moment, and then someone who is really good with story, and nuts and bolts and conceptual look. Both of us are much more in terms of feel. We don’t have the nuts and bolts guy in the organization.”

The difficulty is that we tend to like working with people like ourselves and the more alike two collaborators are, the less they actually need each other. That often leads to each person to thinking they’re providing all the value and the other person is getting all the credit.

Where can you find potential collaborators? In writing classes, writing groups, and even online.

Before you commit to any long term collaboration, have a bit of a trial marriage. When you do start working together, put everything in writing. Like many marriages, it always starts with sweetness and light but, sadly, sometimes ends in acrimony and different ideas about what was agreed and who did what.

(Whatever you’re writing, it can really help to have guidance and support along the way. That’s what you will get from the Writing Breakthrough Strategy program–get details at: http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com.)