Thursday, September 29, 2016

Bro-authors


I am a wanna be writer with an odd question that might not be that odd, really. My brother, who is also a wanna be writer, wants me to co-write a book with him. He has three kids and zero time and has a pretty interesting concept for a thriller written from two distinct perspectives. He wants me to write one of those perspectives. Before I get into this project, hell, before I say yes to it, is this a good idea? Will this result in literary agent shunning? Do you ever get queries for a project from two authors? How quickly do you send those rejections back from which they came?


If you're asking this question, you don't know enough to be querying. You don't know for example that MANY fine "writers" are in fact two people. You would know this if you'd read enough books in your category.

Charles Todd
Renee Patrick 
PJ Tracy 
Ellery Queen


not to mention writers who both appear on the book cover:

Preston and Child 
The James Patterson Book Factory



Aside from that, I don't care if a congregation of alligators are your co-authors. Or even a quiver of cobras. I don't care if a bar of agents has already rejected you.

I only care about the writing.
I only care about the writing.
I only care about the writing.



But, before you proceed merrily ahead, you might want to make sure you and your bro are on the same page about all those annoying little details like money and credit.

You can't imagine the problems that arise when there's a falling out among co-authors. And don't even try to tell me "oh he's my brother, we won't do that" because the bloodiest feuds are among family members.



56 comments:

Anonymous said...

Besides, quite a lot can be learned from doing a joint project even if that book never gets the time of day from the publishing industry (whose watch might have stopped, so don't take their word for it).

Do your weaknesses compliment each other? Collaborating with a writer who makes up for your own shortcomings is a fantastic way to grow as a writer.

Is your brother capable of giving an honest critique, and are you capable of taking one? Since you both have stake in the project, it could be a valuable time to get some much-needed feedback on what your weaknesses even are.

I heartily second Janet's recommendation to get on the same page as your brother, but on a lot more than the far down the road considerations of money and credit. Do you see the project going the same direction? What happens if your ideas diverge? Is one of you assuming you'd get veto power? Sit down and have an honest chat before getting started. But sounds like a worthy endeavor for a variety of reasons, as long as you two make a good team. Good luck!

Lisa Bodenheim said...

I had to look it up. Janet, google persists in calling them alligators with 2Ls and congregation with 1T.

Opie, yes, careful to get all that ironed out beforehand to prevent ill-will. NO assumptions.

Amy Schaefer said...

If family members could be trusted to get along during trying circumstances, no one would ever need a final will and testament.

Kitty said...

Amy beat me to my answer.

Just Jan said...

Well said, Amy.

Theresa said...

I have my song for the day: He ain't heavy...

I'm a big Charles Todd fan and always wondered what it would be like to co-author.

Colin Smith said...

So, to sum up:

1) It's all about the writing.

2) If you co-author with anyone--especially family--get everything in writing: credit, royalty split, who gets final say in a split decision, where projects and royalties go should one or both of them exit this mortal coil (as with a will, don't assume "next of kin"), what happens to the characters should the partnership dissolve and one partner wishes to continue writing stories for a co-created character... and those are just the first few details that jump into my barely-awake brain.

3) Watch the Columbo episode, "Murder by the Book" from 1971. It's a cautionary tale of what can happen when a writing partnership ends badly. And it's a darn good Columbo story. :D

Scott G said...

Once again, Janet hit the nail on the head, or knocked it out of the park, or pinned the tail on the donkey. In any business relationship, get on the same page (i.e. a signed agreement) before you start. In my line of work, the biggest fights are between family members inheriting money from someone who didn't have a Will (and many times even if they do have one), or business partners who think one is stealing too many paper clips from the office supplies and they don't have a written agreement on how to separate from each other.

And if you take nothing else away from this post, take this: Always beware of the bar of agents.

Colin Smith said...

... and no, I'm not going to mention any examples of Carkoonian literary partnerships. Not even the Drooblvitt brothers, who wrote the famous "Leafy Green" series of mysteries. (That's a very loose translation. The original Carkoonian has something to do with bloody castrations. It's a brutal language.) The fact that Blechfiq Drooblvitt literally dissolved the partnership (i.e., his brother Dechfiq), consumed him, and continued to claim royalties on the basis that he was writing for both of them now, is of no interest to anyone.

Especially when people on this side of the world are still having breakfast. Enjoying that protein shake..? ;)

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

Though I can flex my imagination and try to envision what it's like to write a book with somebody else, I was also the "can I work alone?" kid when group work got mentioned.

However, I do also game very regularly, and with tabletop role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, the World of Darkness, and Shadowrun, there is collaborative storytelling (not as much as in games with Fate systems >.>), but that's within an established world, so there's that framework.

DLM said...

(Psst, Janet - "alligators" ...)

There is a myth, not pervasive but present, that writers are all solitary alcoholics who hate and/or refuse to deal with other people. While, granted, the finding of a passel of characters inside your own head is an *intimate* experience, not all intimacy is solitary business. The two authors I trust most in this world are women I feed off of even without actually collaborating on a single work with them.

Though now I want to ... :)

E.M. Goldsmith said...

I am co-writing with my pug. Does that count? She only wants food and cuddles for her input.

Susan said...

I had a writing partnership in which I ghostwrote/edited nine books with a friend. Kind of like the James Patterson Book Factory (which I actually clicked on and then LOLed at Janet's choice of words), my friend wrote the skeleton for the stories--general scenes outlining her vision--and I went through and polished it up with rewrites and filling in the details. It was great. Her writing strengths met my weaknesses and vice-versa, and since it was outside the realm of what I usually write, it was a fun exercise without the pressure of putting my name to it.

I can say, whether you're friends or family or complete strangers, put it in writing, put it in writing, put it in writing. The finances, the goals, the deadlines, and most importantly, the expectations: lay it out so everyone knows where they stand and keep communicating throughout the process. Communication is going to be key to this success.

John Davis Frain said...

I would find out ahead of time which brother gets killed after the bestselling novel gets made into a film.

I mean which brother gets killed in the story, of course, not in real life. C'mon.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Many, many years ago my mother decided WE should write a novel, romance actually. She figured that because I was such a brilliant published author (don't cha' just love supportive, if uniformed, parents) getting our novel on the NYT Bestsellers List would be a cinch.
She wrote a chapter, I wrote a chapter. Problem was I had to write the sex scenes. Single and without any dates on the horizon did not match up to her experience of many decades married. So she wrote some, I was to edit.
Eewww factor. Every time the couple got into it all I thought about was mom and dad.
End of collaboration.
I continued with my op-ed writing she knitted.

Susan said...

WAY OFF TOPIC

Colin: Oh, Columbo! Somehow he always seems to mean good things to me (my dad loves that show). Can I tell a quick story?

In 2008 I spent a month in France at a writing retreat, which means I was completely on my own for all the travel to and from it. It was an amazing growing experience--when I look back on it now--but good grief, the travel was a disaster. I missed my connecting flight to Toulouse, which meant I missed the train to Carcassone, which meant I missed the ride to the village up in the mountains. I was a wreck.

Fast forward to the return trip and everything was going fine until the train stopped on the tracks, delayed by something I can't remember. I was traveling back to Toulouse with a new friend at the time, so I was pretty calm. But we entered the airport just as my plane was taking off for Paris and she had to go meet hers. Cool, I thought through my blubbering. I could handle this. I was able to change my flight to ten o'clock that night, which meant I'd be staying the night in Paris for my afternoon flight the next day.

Fast forward to 11pm in the CDG airport. I could have gotten a hotel, but there was no way I was going to chance missing my next flight, so sleeping in a little cafe in the airport would be good enough. A lot of people had the same idea...At one point, I woke up to see a man across the cafe take off his blanket and get up so he could put his pants back on (couldn't blame him, it was cold in the middle of November). I giggled, practically giddy from exhaustion and disbelief, and went back to sleep. At another point, a man sat at one of the tables near me. We started chatting and ended up bonding over Columbo. He left a little while later to catch his flight, but it was connections like that--connections that helped me all along my trip--that assured me I'd be OK. I love following those threads.

So, yeah. Whenever I see or hear about Columbo, I know I'm in a good place. :)
(Sorry for going off topic.)

french sojourn said...


Then there are those of us writing with many partners running around inside our own head...it's a thing.

Cheers Hank

french sojourn said...


2n's....love it...Da Harrorah! (Elmer Fudd voice doing Col. Kurtz's (Marlon Brando) great line in Apocalypse Now)

DeadSpiderEye said...

Pretty much all forms of creative endeavor is the product of some kind of collaboration. I know we think of writing as the author locked in a cellar with their typewriter but consider the role of the editor and the rewrites spawned from critical feedback. In other media the degree of collaboration is more profound, of course it is everyone's seen a list of credits of film. Indeed no screenplay would ever see the light of day without the collaborative efforts of dozens or folk working diligently towards its completion.

Properly managed collaboration is probably essential for your writing career but joint authorship presents a few problems that need addressing right from the inception of a project. The road will be rocky, it always is but things will proceed more easily, if the role of each contributor is clearly delineated. It will be though like any negotiation, replete with compromise and imperfect consideration for the individual perspective. Most importantly though, there will be an overall winner, the other contributions being somewhat suborned. Now you might think that would be something your fraternal relations can cope with, if you can foresee yourself giving ground but it's not the only or indeed, most hazardous pitfall.

Creative differences is a euphemism for a bevy of circumstance but the most important and common one can be summered like this:-


Author A creates a rounded narrative, spending months honing characters and plots.

Author B says, 'I think we should give the protagonist red shoes'.

Author A agrees.

Joint authorship ensues.

Author B now says, 'I want to write a new novel with my character, the one with the red shoes. This will be a solo project, therefore I'll be keeping all the cash'.


Essentially it's the circumstance where a minor contribution garners disproportionate creative rights over a project. It's something that happens with disturbing regularity, mostly because of the maneuvering of more cynical contributors.

Is this something you think you want to subject yourself and your bother too? I duuno really, it's bit like asking would you sell your old car to your brother. Yeah you might do in good faith but what would happen to your relations with your brother if the engine blew up?

T.C. Galvin said...

I've read some amazing books by two authors. Given that I struggle to agree with myself when writing, co-writing isn't something I'm personally inclined to try, but the results can be spectacular.

If your co-writer is time poor, I'd definitely discuss expectations before starting writing. It'd be frustrating if you've finished your portion and your partner is still on the first scene.

And definitely sort out the legal details first. In writing. It may not stop disputes later, but at least it'll provide a guideline for resolving them. Legal disputes with family are messy.

Donnaeve said...

"Rain, rain go away, come again some other day."

Not much sleep last night. Storms. Flooding - my daughter is trying to get to work and her route is shut down. Our sump pump under the house has constantly run every 10 secs (good thing - it's doing it's job)but the banging throughout the house is enough to drive one crazy.

And then, there was THE LARGE BUG in the middle of the night.

At any rate..."I only care about the writing."

That says it all.

Cheryl said...

If the brother already has zero time, who do you think will end up either writing the whole thing or spending all their own time nagging Brother to do his part?

Kate Higgins said...

The greatest advice I ever got was:
If you want to go into partnership with anyone for any reason (even relatives) go wilderness camping with them for a week.

Really, it works. You find out who wants to be boss, who pay for what or not, who is prepared or not, who does the work, who needs to be first, who thinks about every detail, who brought the toilet paper...well you get the idea.

Wilderness camping will tell all and either cement the relationship or result in cement overshoes. I know from experience...not the shoes however.

Just saying...

I need coffee, I wrote this at 5:30 am my time (west coast)

Dena Pawling said...



>>My brother, who is also a wanna be writer, wants me to co-write a book with him. He has three kids and zero time and has a pretty interesting concept for a thriller written from two distinct perspectives.

This sounds like those folks who come up to authors and say “I have a great idea for a story. You write it and we'll split the proceeds 50/50.” I think we all know what our answer to that proposal should be.

>>He wants me to write one of those perspectives.

Okay he's wanting to write approximately half the book, so it's not exactly the same as what I wrote above. The FIRST question I would have to ask myself, is what happens when you, who obviously have all the time in the world [otherwise why is he asking you], write your half and he's still working on his first chapter? Are you sitting around chomping at the bit because you love what you wrote and can't wait around for Bro-the-slacker? Does he ask you to “just go ahead and finish the project” and you still split the proceeds 50/50?

Definitely get your agreement in writing if you decide to do this, especially regarding joint ownership of the characters and the world. Are you planning to self-publish or traditional? Do you even agree on that? Maybe something like Kindle Worlds would work.

But I would be hesitant, unless both of you are on the same page, very motivated, and have an equal amount of “zero time” available.

Good luck.

Colin Smith said...

Susan: WAY OFF TOPIC *sigh* Clearly you've been hanging around here too long. There's no hope for you now... ;)

Colin Smith said...

Susan: Oh, and what a great Columbo story! Thanks for sharing that. I've been a Columbo fan since single digits. I own the complete collection on DVD and always enjoy watching them. There are at least three stories that revolve around publishing. One of them has a lovely literary agent who supplies Columbo with a vital clue ("Publish or Perish"--it also features Mickey Spillane as the author/victim).

Susan said...

Colin: LOL! I almost decided against posting because it is so off-topic, but the story had a writing retreat, a naked guy, and Columbo in it. I took a chance. =P

I don't remember those episodes, but I'm curious now. I'll have to ask my dad and see if I can find them somewhere.

Colin Smith said...

[Public Service Suggestion]

If you want to correct Janet's spelling or grammar, do so in a stand-alone comment. That way she can make the correction and delete your comment without deleting any other words of wisdom you might impart to her or the rest of us. This will help keep the blog "clean" and easy to follow for future readers. You never know, if your email address is in your Blogger profile, she might thank you privately. :)

[END PSS]

Colin Smith said...

Addendum to the above: Of course the above is just a suggestion... it's Janet's blog after all, and she can keep or delete comments as she desires.

[END OF CYBSYDGSTC (Cover Your Butt So You Don't Get Shipped To Carkoon) ADDENDUM]

Colin Smith said...

Susan: Just one more thing... Columbo: The Complete Series

:)

Colin Smith said...

OFF TOPIC BUT SERIOUS: I just heard about the Hoboken, NJ commuter train crash. Praying for all involved, but concerned for NY/NJ friends. Doesn't Jeff Somers live in Hoboken? :-\

Craig F said...

Hot damn, the correct venery terms for gators and cobras. Cool.

Writing with someone else would make interactive dialogue so much easier.

There is something off with this question though. I am not sure what it is. Maybe it is just the putting the cart before the horse thing. I think you should give it a shot before wondering if it will work. If the writing is great you can surmount many obstacles.

The hard part will be in who gets to suppress their ego when it is a necessary thing.

JulieWeathers said...

OP

One of the more unusual author teamings, to me, has always been Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer on their romance novels. Mayer is a graduate of West Point, Green Beret, survival expert. He writes thrillers, science fiction, and historicals mostly, but everything has a lot of action.

If you and your brother think you can work on this together, sit down and really plan out how you're going to do this. Then get things in a legal agreement. Even if you have two POVs, the story and writing styles have to flow seamlessly. You'd be surprised how easy it is to pick out someone's writing even if you don't see a name attached.

At the magazine I used to work for we did short stories on races that had a $10,000 purse and below. We didn't do interviews, but still did pretty full stories on them, but there were no bylines. Even so, I'd still get a call occasionally from an owner or trainer thanking me for the nice story.

This happens. Even as brothers you will have different ways of expressing yourselves.

When it comes to querying, I would probably have one person query so you aren't driving agents crazy. Be organized. Do a goggle spreadsheet so both brothers know which agent has been queried and all the data on the query.

"And don't even try to tell me "oh he's my brother, we won't do that" because the bloodiest feuds are among family members."

Yup. That's why I'm not going to Surrey and one reason I didn't go to Oklahoma and Texas to research Cowgirls this summer. The other being I was on babysitting duty all summer while son tried to finish up some schooling and work.

My father died almost three years ago. The trust was supposed to be settled no later than 18 months after his death. It by the terms of the trust was supposed to have been settled a year ago. This is a simple trust since everything had already been converted to cash except one vehicle, three if you count the two that were left to me, but my brother decided illegally to put in the trust.

Since he obviously has no intentions of settling the trust, I'm now supporting lawyers. His last stalling tactic was to get the other brother wound up by telling him I took a valuable gun and coin collection. Dad had two guns, a 22 and a 30-06. The 30-06 was a rifle my ex loaned him since he didn't have time to hunt anymore. Now, if my two upstanding brothers think they're entitled to my husband's rifle, I'll be happy to give them his address, but they should realize trying to take guns away from Texians is what started the Texas revolution.

And as for the valuable coin collection, well, the various presidential dollars, state quarters, Danbury Mint replica coins and poor quality genuine coins (or whatever the name of that ripoff place is) is interesting, but not that valuable. But, I'm sure it's enough to get another lawyer involved to keep me from getting control of the trust, getting an accountant involved, and getting it settled. The value lies in the fact Dad loved to sit in the nursing home and shop on tv. He loved getting mail. When I look at them, I see him getting out his strong box and lovingly showing me all his treasure and explaining this is a genuine gold coin commemorating the tall ships or that's a genuine gold doubloon and giggling because he got them for only $49.99.

Anyway, get it all in writing. Once you have it in writing, there's no chance for misunderstanding. Even if one arises, then you've got something to go back to and save the debate.

I wish you both much luck. When my youngest son came back from Iraq, he had the most wonderful idea for a thriller. He told it to me, but didn't have the skill to write it. I said we should do this. Some disaster came up and we got sidetracked. Both of us forgot what it was to this day. If you have an idea about something, for pity sake, write it down.

Sherry Howard said...

On topic, hah! (Although I must say that Colombo is a fave! I digress.) On topic, I've wavered so much about the collaboration issue. My son truly wrote my ready-to-sub book with me. I did the physical writing, but his ideas and feedback molded the writing. I feel like he's a co-author. He says he's not. It's a sincere quandary for me. I know you can't solve this for me, but reading the column and comments today makes me realize that collaboration can take many shapes.

JulieWeathers said...

Susan I loved your story. Thanks for sharing.

Dena Spot on. Everyone's heard this a million times, but Diana Gabaldon wrote Outlander while she was working two jobs, three actually and the mother of three small children. She'd get up in the middle of the night when it was quiet and write for a few hours.

My former editor used to edit all the stories the other writers wrote each week, do her own stories, write an award-winning editorial column, sell more advertising than the rest of the sales staff combined and still managed to do stories for Chicken Soup and some other things. She wrote one thriller and was working on an inspirational book that was really well done. Since she was forcibly retired, she doesn't "have time" to write.

OP and brother are going to have to have a serious sit down and decide how they're going to handle all the things Dena brought up. If you two are committed to this project, then both of you are going to have to work on it.

Mark Ellis said...

Co-write, schmoe-write, my brother just wanted me to write his life story, on spec.

K. White said...

I work on a team at my day joy, so I relish the 'me' time I get when I write and cannot imagine sharing it with someone else.

However, if OP moves forward I do have a suggestion: make sure any agents you pitch know it's a partnership. Of course, you say, both of our names will be on the query letter, but what if you pitch at a writers' conference?

Having run the pitch sessions at a few conferences (NOT as glamorous as it sounds) I often encountered partners who failed to make me aware they wanted to team pitch. I had one agent who refused to listen to the pitch because she did not want to rep co-authors (I suppose for her it wasn't just about the writing). Another agent told me that trying to listen to two authors ramble over each other made for an easy rejection. Based on my observations the most successful teams did not pitch together, but pitched individually. If the agent was interested, then the author made the agent aware that there was a co-author.

I know this is way down in the weeds, but it is worth considering as you put everything in writing. Good luck.

RosannaM said...

From a writer's perspective I think a collaboration could be fun, and help keep enthusiasm for the project going. For the pitfalls, see all comments above. My two cents is take your brother out for a beer and throw a bunch of the above what-ifs at him and then if it feels right and you both are gung-ho do the legal mumbo-jumbo.

And when you get to the querying stage, figure out your strategy ahead of time.

Colin and Susan love Columbo even though I have no cool international stories or the ability to recall specific episodes with such clarity!

I, too, just turned on the TV. Praying for those affected by the train crash in NJ.

Unknown said...

Author Joanna Penn has a book on this topic called (appropriately) "Co-writing a Book."

I haven't read it so I can't endorse it, but there's probably a few books, blog posts or articles out there from experienced authors you could learn from before jumping in whole hog.

Good luck!

Brigid said...

T.C. Galvin: "Given that I struggle to agree with myself when writing" — yes, yes, wait no, yes.

2Ns: OH NO. Nooooo. Nope. No. (All of me agrees on that one.)

By the way, I ran across a collection of tweets with twists that might be useful inspiration for our flash fiction contests. Here's number 16:

"The England team visited an orphanage in Brazil today. "It's heartbreaking to see their sad little faces with no hope," said Jose, age 6.
@PeterNurse1

Joseph S. said...

I want to scream “Don’t do it” but since I don’t know anything about the relationship between the brothers I have no idea if they should co-write. His my-brother-has-no- time line is a red flag though.

I just read Sandra Brown’s “Envy” about ‘best friends’ living together to write and that’s scary enough.

I saw in practice examples of Janet Reid’s “the bloodiest feuds are among family members.” In both cases the brother were in business together (not as writers). The persons who seemed to suffered the most were the mothers who could never get their families together for the holidays or other family celebrations. In the end, all most mothers want is to have their family together around her, and that was denied. (Family bad blood feuds last decades)

In my teaching days I read bad blood cases. Since I didn’t know the participants personally, those were funny.

Joseph S. said...

OP
Any co-writing suffers from “agency costs.” There are inefficiencies, different visions, coordination problems, etc. I’m a co-author of an academic book where the publisher wants a new edition every three or four years. My co-author and I switch halves nearly each edition (not this last time). I’d say half or two-thirds of my time goes to undoing or changing what he did, and I’d guess the same goes for him as to what I did. We’ve never met and seldom communicate, so we don’t argue. Luckily, we’re both competent

Janet Reid said...

Hoboken alert: Jeff Somers is fine, as is his lovely wife The Duchess, who does commute to work but not via the PATH train.

Our New Leaf staff who commute from NJ are also fine.

I am thankful they were spared. Others of course were not, and my heart is with them.

Joseph S. said...

Totally off topic

AJ Blythe recently helped me on my novel. I've thanked her privately but I want to thank her here, too. Bloody Oath, mate!

Colin Smith said...

THANK YOU, Janet. I was concerned. I'm relieved you, Jeff, and your NL colleagues are fine, but I continue to pray for those who are not. :(

Lennon Faris said...

Just to throw this out there, I read 'I am Number Four' and was totally captivated by the first half. It seemed like a very believable mix of fantasy and realistic teen drama.

Then the second half tanked: long paragraphs of action-text that was hard to follow and only half interesting, and the teens' conversations and actions seemed very staged. (Don't run in and out of the school ten times, guys, it doesn't make the monsters go away or solve anything).

It's like it was written by two totally different people, I thought, and then looked up the author. Lo and behold, it was not just one guy. I don't know how exactly they divvied up the writing but the end product sure annoyed me. I haven't read any of the others in the series.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, obviously it can be done but just make sure you keep the tone and quality consistent throughout.

Saying prayers & thinking of all those involved in the crash :/ Glad it doesn't seem to involve anyone one here.

Ann said...

The perfect tag line for this novel: The bloodiest feuds are between brothers.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Just going to work.
Deadly.
Stay home and a plane flies into your house.
It's true, live life like this is the last day of your life.
It just might be.

Janice Grinyer said...

GAH nothing more annoying than "wanna-be" writers. Of course, the only reason why its annoying to me is because I was once one too. OPIE, We all started out as 'wanna-be's." But the ones who write, put in their time, write, put in MORE TIME and then patience, practicing writing skills, self-control, practicing more writing skills etc etc etc can be called writers. Others who just contemplate "what-ifs" are wanna-be's.

OPIE- do your time. Just like all writers do. Write. Study, Read, talk to people in the publishing industry, write & read more. Join conversations/forums/comments where writing is the topic. Read more. Write more. Study it like a french girl. JR gives top advice, but you got to do the time to get paid for the crime.

So hey, if you truly want to be a writer, first off, you will stop calling yourself a wanna-be writer. Second off, start writing.

Janice Grinyer said...

JR- thank you for the update!

abnormalalien said...

Oh Carolynnwith2Ns , yuck! The words "my parents" (or any subset thereof) and "romance" do not belong in the same sentence. That, my dear, is a recipe for eyeball gouging and/or brain bleaching.

Ardenwolfe said...

On a side note. James Patterson Book Factory? You so sweet. Personally, I prefer, "I only put my name on the cover and maybe write a sentence. But I'm getting paid! Boo Ya! Suckers."

But maybe that's a little too honest.

JulieWeathers said...

My stars, what a horrible train crash. I'm glad everyone we know is all right and thank you to Janet for reporting in.

Anonymous said...

Janet, I'm glad to hear The Duchess and Mr. Somers, as well as your colleagues, were not injured this morning. I hope those commuting home to NJ tonight are able to do so safely.

I've only collaborated on a writing project once, and it was with a sibling. My older sister and I wrote a eulogy for our dad-- 12 pages, double-spaced. So, what is that, roughly 3000 words? I'm pretty sure the only reason we didn't kill each other in the process was because we were both numb with grief. To this day, there are parts neither of us remember writing. There were parts I wrote but made her deliver because I knew I couldn't get through it.

I share many of the same concerns mentioned by others here. It gives me pause that your brother "doesn't have time" to write and assumes you do. That hardly sounds equitable, as coming up with ideas is the easy part. Another concern is that you're both inexperienced as writers. Maybe that will put you on equal footing, but it might also double the potential for making the mistakes every single new writer makes. I wish you all the best if you decide to proceed.

John Davis Frain said...

"I only care about the writing.
I only care about the writing.
I only care about the writing."

I'm trying to read between the lines here cuz I know there's a secret message that I'm just not seeing. Damn, how it eludes me. I shall walk, and come back with a fresh outlook.

AJ Blythe said...

Aw, shucks, Joe. Thanks, mate =)

Heard about the train accident. Sounds terrible and while I'm relieved to hear our writing community is safe, my thoughts go out to those families who weren't so lucky.