The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

Co-Writers

Almost every day, I see people asking questions about co-writers. Whether it's trying to find one, what do they do, how do you guys get in contact, what are the pros and cons, and why do people get them; they are always trying to find out the answers.

So without further-a-do, I will give you them.

How to find one: If it's online, you'll either find them through the Improve Your Writing Club's Pinned Thread Index (it has a red pin on the left side of the title) and scroll down to the comment that says "Co-Writers." That's if you want to find one on here. Otherwise, you may give out a request on your profile or on another website, looking for another writer who may want to co-write. Besides the cyber world, there is reality. If you have any friends that likes to write, maybe you can ask them? Or maybe you can join a writer's group somewhere, maybe at a library or at your school, and meet someone so they can write with you.

What do you do: There multiple ways to write with a co-writer. Either they write one chapter, you write the next, and so on; you both write the same chapter (like one person gives ideas, the other writes it down); one person writes a paragraph or so, the next does the next few paragraphs, and so on. It all depends on you guys and what makes you guys feel more comfortable.

How to get in contact: If you're writing with someone online (that you have never met before), you guys either give each other your email addresses, give phone numbers to text and or call, or message each other in PM on here. If it's someone you know in person, you can call or text them, meet with them at one of your guys' houses or at a coffee shop, and so on.

When writing, you guys are either together (sitting side by side) and working on the book or passing each other the manuscripts through emails, or using Google Doc., or giving each other the chapters through PM.

The positive side of having a co-writer:

- It allows you to get more ideas for more books.

- Challenges you to be more creative since you're also going off of someone else's ideas.

- Gives you a chance and experience with working with others.

- A new perspective.

- A new friend, possibly.

- Someone who you can go to for help.

The negative side of having a co-writer:

- If online, it's harder to get in touch as they may be somewhere else in the world. This means that when it's night on your side, it may be morning on theirs and vice versa. Not to mention, they have a life as well, and if online, they may not like to give personal awareness of their daily lifestyle.

- Two different writing styles. It's not good unless you guys are writing about two different characters. But if it's just one character, it's not that good looking. But writing with two people may be hard because of this.

- They maybe less experienced. If you're decent with the normal works of editing and story-telling, but they aren't, it can make your life a little difficult as you probably have to be the one to edit to make the story look good.

- You may have arguments. Everyone fights, yes, but with some people, they may not like your idea and you may not like theirs, which results in an argument. If you guys don't compromise, the story can be put off and possibly forgotten.

- They may drop the story any time, leaving you the decision to keep writing it on your own, to find a new co-writer, or dropping the story as well.

- The co-writer (or you) may take charge of the project because you (or they) don't feel as though it's going in the right direction.

- The co-writer may block you from writing it (if on Google Docs) and or end up not writing you back, then stealing the book to make it their own - not giving you credit.

Why do people get co-writers: The common reasons are either they want to have a friend and feel like co-writing can help with that, as they can get closer or it may be a fun project/experiment. Sometimes, some people may have trouble with writing, so they may want a co-writer to help them.

The most horrible reason I have ever heard was that the original author doesn't have the time to write, so they want to hire a co-writer to write their book... for them! This can also be a reason for selling their plot ideas to others, as I've seen that too, but the thought of someone wanting a co-writer to do the work for them? No. A co-writer is basically an author who writes a story with you, not someone who gives you ideas to write a new story, or to give you positive comments on your own ideas so you don't feel so self-conscious. And it's also not where the co-writer writes the entire story as if it's their own.

A co-writer is a job where two people or more write the story together.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of co-writing. It's a lot more fun when you're going solo.

Before you judge and say that I have never tried it so I can't say much, but I have. Twice. One time was online, the other time was in real life.

The first time I was a co-writer, I was about twelve with one of my friend's (who was also the same age as I). We were writing poems together. It didn't go well because she took over. Most ideas I threw out were taken into consideration, but she didn't like them, so she made up a new idea. Other times, my ideas were taken, but she would twist them.

The second time I was a co-writer, I was about fourteen years old, possibly fifteen. Somewhere around there. I was writing online with a friend I met through a girlie website called i-Dressup when I was twelve. We talked through Myspace and then finally, Facebook. She was about eleven to twelve years old at the time when we were writing together. She was less experienced than I, but not by much. I wasn't that great at writing either at the time. But what went wrong was that she dropped the book by the third chapter. Before I was going to write the third chapter, she messaged me through Facebook, saying that she couldn't write it anymore. So that was the end of it. Neither of us continued on writing the story.

Co-writing is difficult and it can be fun for some people. But as a personal opinion, it's better to write with someone you know and lives fairly close to you so you guys can meet.

But I'm not a big co-writing fan, as said before, but it's because I like to write my own stories. Going solo, for me at least, is best.