Has anyone ever written with their SO?

I've not written with an SO, but I have written three novels with my best friend. We're lucky in that we have similar interests in fiction and stories, similar writing styles, and the ability to make each other think. We split the work pretty evenly, but we're both responsible for all things: characters, plotting, grammar, spelling, etc...

If Mr. Vagabond doesn't care much for grammar and format and style, it'll be left on your shoulders to do so. And that could be where things start to get sticky.

Unless you'd be writing for fun and for yourselves--in that case, have it it.

Then go for it. That's how it started with us. Chatting one afternoon about things, and it led to a story discussion. We wrote over Instant Messenger, taking turns with characters and Point of View. The books we've written are a trilogy, and I love them dearly.

It's something creative and enjoyable to do together, so have fun with it.

I've tried this with one of my exes and at a separate time with one of my friends. Laid out the plot and assigned parts. Both times it failed. I was so much better, and delivered my output so much more quickly, that my partners apparently got discouraged and stopped participating.

I can't blame them. Writing is, after all, what I do. Most likely it was my fault that they quit. I probably did something stupid. My personality doesn't lend itself very well to cooperative endeavors. But I tried!

We tried writing a play together a few years ago. The actual process of working together and bouncing ideas of each other, worked very well. It was shaping up to be a great play. My husband also cannot spell - he has no idea! But I love spelling, so that worked out.

We never completed the play because at the time I was also working on a play for a competition, and that kind of took over. We never did get back into it, but hopefully one day......

I think it can work. Now I'll have to get us working back on ours again!

I would never write with hubby, first of all because he has no interest in doing so, but secondly because we have such different styles and tastes.

That said, he is becoming invaluable to me in my writing. He's super detail-oriented, and I've discovered this is fantastic for bouncing off ideas, particularly anything technical or complicated. He can spot a plot hole or inconsistency a mile away. He also has a really weird imagination (think older version of Zoombie...) so sometimes his bizarre, off the wall suggestions spark my creativity. Oh, and he's a real stickler for word usage. I make him read my short stories and nonfiction articles and he will always say something like "Hmm, this word doesn't quite fit." And I realize he's right!

Anyway, it sounds like you have a good situation. If you want to write with Mr. Vagabond but he's not interested in the actual writing, per se, why not just take responsibility for that aspect of it? You'd be doing the bulk of the work, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be an integral part of the project.

Try Google - husband & wife writing, / husband & wife writing teams. There will be material there on the hazards and how to avoid them, and other things.

Or you might ask Jim Macdonald....

aka eraser said:

Or you might ask Jim Macdonald....

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I was just about to mention that, too. He co-writes with his SO. Good writing, I might add.

Besides Uncle Jim... I believe Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are a husband/wife team. There are doubtless others. I don't know them.

I haven't written anything with Mr. Shweta, but we need to write two papers together...

Carole said:

I'm contemplating it. Mr. Vagabond and I really play off one another very well, and it struck me last night that maybe we should try writing together. He writes too, but he has absolutely no will to care about grammar, format, style, etc. He has very interesting ideas, but he puts them on paper like he thinks...randomly, and with his own special brand of punctuation.

Has anyone ever attempted it? Is it doomed before it starts? Will we be divorced inside a year? Inquiring minds...

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The husband and I do on several levels.

For a local geek & gadget magazine, he's the editor, I'm the assistant editor, and between the two of us, we have different editing skills that complement each other highly, regardless of whether it's one or the other of us who wrote a first draft, or it's one of the writers who wrote the first draft. We've been doing this for close to a year and it's working out great.

We also work on fiction together. Again, we have very different strengths that complement each other highly. He's much better at logic, world building, character building, plotting, planning, so I rely on him heavily for that with my novels. I plot in advance, and heavily - I'm severely memory-impaired. I'm better at writing first drafts quickly than he is. Editing - well, that goes back to our editing skills as I mentioned above.

Overall, he's better at the overviews, the big picture. I'm better at the persnickety details, including spelling, punctuation, grammar.

We're not published, fictionwise, but we're working on it. We've been collaborating long enough that we've got a shared Groove space (Microsoft Groove - excellent software for sharing files) and a system in place that works for us.

Whether collaboration will work for any other husband/wife team will depend on that husband/wife team.

Carole said:

And he thinks an ellipse is something you have to put into every sentence, "so people will remember to breathe."

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He puts an oval-shaped geometric figure into every sentence?

David Eddings worked with his wife Leigh for many years.

But unless I decide to give black fantasy a try, my husband is not an option for me... sigh.

Me and my SO are about to start on a book together. We have some time issues, which is slowing it down, but it should do good. I like the posts in here, caused me to think.