A marriage would be the best way to describe it. Everything has its up and downs. Writing with a partner can be fun yet challenging.

The biggest thing I learned when writing The Pupil -- compromise. You have to be willing to work out your creative differences in a professional manner. You won't always agree on everything. You might have to give a little to take a little.

Communication is key too. Don't hold back if you don't like something your partner did. Talk to them about it and work it out as soon as possible. If you bottle it up, trust me, it's a recipe for disaster later on.

Plan ahead of time. The big difference I noticed is I couldn't just run off and write whatever I wanted. I had to talk to my partner about what scenes we were doing, what direction we wanted to go out, characters, dialogue, plot, etc. Two heads can be better than one but both heads have to be in the know before that can occur.

It's definitely not for everyone but if you find the right person it can be a really cool experience.

The thing about it this...

The NEGATIVITY.

In that I NEEDED it. I craved it. I wouldn't want to collaborate if everything was sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows.

The collaboration I experienced a smattering of success with in the mid-90's was tumultuous and a veritable shit-storm of vitriol and bile. One day in particular I recall... during a re-write... well, let's just say most Jerry Springer episodes contain more etiquette and leave it at that. (A folding chair flew at one point, okay?)

And yet... some great and wonderful things came out of that. And now, in hindsight, I so dearly miss those days, those brawls, those passionate screaming matches where you HAD to get your point across or die trying.

My writing, quite frankly, has never been as sharp as it was when I collaborated with this fellow, my brother in the trenches whom I, some days, couldn't even bear the sight of...

And that's what a lot of people don't tell you (rightfully so, I suppose.) The best material I wrote in collaboration is the stuff I had to kick, scream, and throw tantrums about.

In short, I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

Of course, I was younger then. If I collaborated today I'd probably be much more of a gentleman. Sadly, I fear the work would suffer though. I'm not sure greatness can be wrought from politeness, y'know?

I once tried collaborating with a good friend of mine, and it didn't work out, but I think we went about it the wrong way. We were trying to laboriously work through each scene together, and it sounds like most teams work on a detailed outline and then split up and work on the first version of the scenes by themselves, then get together to rewrite the later drafts. I might try collaborating with him again using this system.

There's another issue that should be touched upon in regard to personalities -- selling yourself.

If you're a screenwriter who is terrible at pitching and who is terrified at the thought of networking, then a partner who is good at those things will help you immensely.

My husband and I write as a team. He's great at pitching and I'm great at meeting people and keeping up with relationships. I'm more business minded as well. We also have completely different strengths writing-wise.

Of course, on the dark side of such a relationship, I've been told to NEVER EVER break up with your writing partner, or you'll lose all of your carefully cultivated credibility.

I'm not sure if this matters but when we wrote our cowritten thriller Ralphy and I just wrote 5 pages at a time. I guess I should mention keep in mind this was a 30 day exercise and we had no idea it would turn out the way it did. We would discuss what we wanted then I would write 5 pages, he would read my 5 pages then write the next 5 pages and so on until we ended up with close to 90 pages.

But through rewrites sometimes we both rewrote the same scenes and spliced them up the strong moments and meshed them together.

I've heard of people going draft for draft but I don't know if I'd be comfortable with that. A lot could go wrong or in vastly different ways by doing entire separate drafts. I think it's something you have to find out what works best for you.

"then split up and work on the first version of the scenes by themselves, then get together to rewrite the later drafts. I might try collaborating with him again using this system."

I didn't communicate clearly here. What I meant to say here was that each writer would work on separate pages/scenes, then get together to rewrite the pages/scenes, then repeat the process until the draft is done like Kristy does. I think it would be pretty crazy to try to meld two separate first drafts!