Our rule was that we [with Kate DiCamillo] would write everything together, literally every word.
I've never worked with a co-author before [Alison McGhee]. Writing for me is a pretty scary thing, so it was a huge comfort to have someone in the room working with me. It became less like work and more like play.
I never can understand how two men can write a book together; to me that's like three people getting together to have a baby.
Writing on my own versus co-writing kind of is the exact same thing because we don't sit in the same room when we write. We're always writing alone anyway.
I never want to co-write. People never just write a quarter of a book, do they? I don't think you can get your story across.
I never co-write. I've tried it before, and I just can't do it.
First of all, my wife writes half my act. I don't know how I could "steal" from my wife.
I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom.
Collaboration is a nice change of pace from the often solitary nature of the writer's craft.
Few things in life are less efficient than a group of people trying to write a sentence. The advantage of this method is that you end up with something for which you will not be personally blamed.
I imagine the proverb about too many cooks spoiling the broth can be applied to writing as well as anything else. The poetical or literary broth is better cooked by one person.
When I'm working with another writer, I tend to make a lot of effort. When I collaborate with a writer, I'm not interested in credit, but I'm feeding him stuff all the time that I feel is important to shaping the script.
I think most co-directors and co-writers just hold hands.
Paul (McCartney) and I made a deal when we were 15. There was never a legal deal between us, just a deal we made when we decided to write together that we put both our names on it, no matter what.
Since I can barely write two books a year the best solution seems to be co-author projects. My goal isn't to get another writer to clone me... it's more to produce a book that shares my vision of positive, fun entertainment.
I know of a few writers who are husband and wife teams.
You get to Hollywood and you are in the land of big money where they don't like to see only one screenwriter's name. It's much better if you've got four or five.
I find it somewhat difficult to write with other people, although it has happened occasionally.
I love the fact that you collaborate with your readers when you write a book.
Writing with other people is the only way I ever really work. In some ways it's great because it's helpful to someone pull you out of the loop.
We must strike down the insidious lie that a book is the creation of an individual soul labouring in isolation. We must strike it down because it threatens the overall quality and breadth of American literature.
