Teamwork by Ann Evans

          There have been some great partnerships over the years - Laurel and Hardy, Morcambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, the list goes on. Great entertainers who paired up to produce some wonderful entertainment. 

          However not quite so many double acts spring to mind when it comes to collaborating over writing  a book. 

          Thanks to the wonders of Google, I've just picked out a few of the successful writing partnerships. For instance Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchettt wrote Good Omens together in 1990 which was nominated in the World Fantasy Awards.

          Stephen King teamed up with Peter Straub to write The Talisman in the early eighties which also was nominated for the Locus and World Fantasy Awards in 1985. 

          Back in 1930 Dorothy L. Sayers wrote The Documents in the Case with author Robert Eustace. And of course there have been lots and lots of other books that two or more writers have collaborated on. Clearly, sometimes when two people get together, some amazing pieces of writing emerge from the partnership. 

          I imagine also that many of the countless books that are written by one author also depend a great deal on someone else - someone the author trusts to cast an eye over their manuscript to pick out any flaws in the plot or has the knack of pointing out areas for improvement without getting the author’s back up.

          While on the other hand many of us just get on with our writing totally on our own with the only person to see it before it gets published (if it ever does) being our agent or editor.

          So what’s it like to write with a friend, are two minds better than one? Or would two imaginations counteract and contradict?

          In the past I’ve teamed up with a good writing friend, Maxine and we’ve written a pantomime which was successfully performed, a sit com (years ago) which got us an agent at the time but not a TV contract (sadly); and currently we’re trying our hand at a couple of TV dramas, one is a comedy and one a thriller. That’s the plan anyway, and even if our joint work never sees the light of day, we do have a laugh as we’re pooling our thoughts. In fact we seem to descend into fits of giggles over the serious drama more often than with the intended comedy. Combine our efforts with a glass or two of wine and probably a take away curry to start with, at least its one kind of writing which isn’t solitary.

Teamwork between these
two authors proved
successful. 

But now for something completely different. A good friend, Rob who has worked with me for over 20 years as the photographer for my magazine articles and with whom I share a photographic business, always has loads of ideas for stories and I’ve been telling him for years that he ought to write them down. “No, you’re the writer, I’m the ideas man,” is his stock answer. Although on one occasion when he did write a story I saw that indeed he could write. But he’s stuck to his guns and left me to do the writing.

          A couple of years ago he told me of an idea he’d had for a long time. It was a very dark story, far darker than I could write, and I knew I couldn’t do justice to creating the blackest character in the story. However I knew I could craft out the rest of the story into which this extremely nasty, evil character was going to slink. And so we decided upon a joint venture to write this book between us.

          Ours is probably not the conventional method of two people writing a book, we haven’t collaborated over every scene and word. As I’m the writer, as he says, I’ve had a free hand in crafting out the story. At the points where I need his more sinister input I’ve left notes in bold capitals; one particular character needs Rob’s 'voice' when it comes to a particular subject; and the narrated scenes involving the evil character are in the manuscript simply in note form. Can you make her do this or say that please Rob? (Yes the evil one is female).

          And now it’s finished and polished and a little while back I passed my 'baby' somewhat apprehensively over to Rob to write in the darker, sinister bits.

          Admittedly it was a bit nerve wracking to hand a story over to someone else and when, one morning he announced that overnight (3 in the morning in fact) he’d written in the first narrated scene from our nasty character’s point of view and gone deeper into my main character’s subconscious, I sat there with trepidation as he prepared to read out his words to see if I liked them. (He was as nervous as me at this stage in case I hated what he’d written!)

          Woo hoo! The effect as he read his words in his extremely deep and demonic voice (which had me thinking it would definitely work as an audio book) and felt the shivers running down my spine, my worries vanished. From then on I couldn’t wait for the next instalment.

Two of a kind.

          Writing a book this way is certainly different for me. I’ve never passed a manuscript to another person and said, okay, now improve on this, and I can’t see me doing so with anyone else. But for me with this book, it’s the right way to go. Of course only time will tell whether it’s a success or not but in the meantime it’s definitely a fun and exciting collaboration.

          So how about you, do you always work alone, or do you sometimes team up with someone on your wavelength for a joint writing project? And has it worked for you?

          Please visit my website: www.annevansbooks.co.uk