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In this week’s three-minute podcast, I interview my coauthor and friend Charity Singleton Craig about our collaboration, asking about some of the challenges and joys associated with our work together writing On Being a Writer
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Her responses make me wonder about the collaboration experiences of my readers and listeners.
After you listen to Charity’s response, I’d love to hear your answers to these questions:
What challenges did you face when you collaborated on a creative project and how did you work through them?
Have your collaboration projects been filled with enough joy to balance out the challenges?
Would you collaborate again? If so, what would you do differently? If not…why not?
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On Being a Writer
“This brand-new book is a must-have for career writers, whether seasoned or just starting out.”
— from “10 Great Books for a Writer’s Wish List” on Huffington Post
“A genial marriage of practice and theory. For writers new and seasoned. This book is a winner.”
—Philip Gulley, author of Front Porch Tales
My most recent, and much smaller-scale, collaboration was when I had four friends over for tea and toast and poetry and we all wrote a poem together. It was fun, and we played nicely with each other. The stakes were low. I know at least a couple of them would like to do that again.
The thing that comes most strongly to mind isn’t about writing. It was about the roughly 10 years I was in a band. Lots of collaboration there, with more than one person. There were frustrations and there were joys, and all of us in the founding five maintained friendships after we’d parted ways musically. I think we’d do it again. Charity is right, communication can be the biggest challenge.
I have some collaborations coming up, so I’ll keep that in mind as we navigate new territory.
THIS collaboration, by the way, you two talking — I hope you had as much fun making it as I did listening to it.
Some great examples, from the recent tea, toast and poetry gathering, to the music, to your upcoming collaborations. Thanks for sharing your work! And I agree with Charity’s observations, that communication was key, and we had different needs and desires for what we felt was necessary. I’m glad she brought that up. I think others could find disagreements in artistic approaches or content tension. It just happened that most of ours came in *how* we were working. Staying attentive to tension and addressing it early will be key to a healthy partnership.
We did have fun, and it didn’t take much time to record. The videos we were working on took a lot more time–they won’t be ready for a week or so, but you see the podcast is already live!
And that unnecessary comma after collaboration in the first line is bugging me.
Look what I can do. Behind the scenes, in an editing mode, I can make you say things you never said (though I won’t) and I can take away commas you never intended (which I did).
Ahh. Now I can sleep tonight. Thanks. 🙂
I’m thoroughly enjoying your podcasts, Ann, and I’ve been anxious to respond to this one, but two full days of traveling, four days celebrating Christmas and birthdays with my son and his family in Louisiana added to the bookend days of preparing to travel and recovering from travel have prevented me from doing so until now. For three years, a writer friend, Robbi, and I collaborated on a project that she conceived. It was eventually self-published earlier this year, and we both learned much in the process. The concept was Robbi’s. She wanted to use my photography, but she also wanted me to work closely with her in writing the prose. It was a huge learning curve for both of us as we determined what artistic elements were important to each of us, learned when and when not to compromise, and practiced giving and receiving much grace in the process.
Patricia, thank you for this generous and thoughtful reply. I love learning about collaborations, and it sounds like you both learned how to play well together, respecting each person’s contribution and offering grace through compromise where needed. As you heard in Charity’s responses, communication was key, so that we could get our ideas and preferences out on the table for discussion and to make decisions. I’m glad your work with Robbi went well. Where’s your project?
These are such fun, Ann! I’m playing catch-up and hope to hear more from you SOON.
Thank you for the encouragement, Diana!! I’m trying for one per week and aiming to have one live by Monday. Stay tuned!