I've started a collaboration with someone who should be ideal to work with, a genuine eccentric who has many original ideas and who, in a social context, sparks off incredible ideas in me too... So why is it that the moment we sit down together to collaborate on something funny, we've come up with cerebral obnoxious freaks who would have done Chekov proud?

Anybody got any ideas, suggestions or creative exercises [that don't involve drink (seriously, this matters)] to get us both to loosen up and go nuts?

What type of stuff will you be writing, GC?
HB x
ps am very jealous - have lo0ng harboured a dream that I will enter into a writing partnership with a mate and we'll wins loads of awards a la Gavin and Stacey.

What type of stuff will you be writing, GC?

I had a couple of ideas when we started but it seemed wrong to impose them so they've just gone into the pool of possibilities... it depends on whether we can capture the off beat wrongness of thinking that appeals to us both without making it either too dark or too cerebral. (Currently, it is both... reading emails last night, I kept thinking of Ingmar Bergman and the Seventh Seal.) In writing this, I realise we've been thinking tv, but really radio would be a better place to start. (If you haven't listened to Clare in the Community on BBC radio ?4?, I recommend it.)

have lo0ng harboured a dream that I will enter into a writing partnership

So... what's holding you back? Find someone you think would be interesting to work with and ask the question. I've no idea, yet, what to look for in a collaborator but I'm going to guess at "different but similar".

BTW, I went to your web site and read your first chapter! Brilliant stuff.

we'll wins loads of awards

Right now, I'd be happy just to get something out there! It's a bit different to writing for a novel but I love the succinct clarity of scripts and have a longer term aim to write screenplays... So this is a step along the way.

Hey there!
Just dropping in to say, further to your earlier post about collaboration, I'm glad to see you've found a co-writer you're excited about! Wahoo! Sounds like a gem - persevere! You might just need to 'work through' the obnoxious freaks until they get the hint that they've outstayed their welcome and leave the room! I'm sure you'll settle into a writing rhythm soon - good luck with it!
JC x

Thanks JC, we seem to have moved onto supernatural ice-cream vans now, for some reason.
Is it progress?
Is it art?
Think I should put the kettle on.

Hey there. Having worked with a co-writer myself, I share your pain! I once collaborated with a fellow writer to write a comedy script. We wanted to do it in the same vein as father ted or the IT crowd and it seemed like a match made in Heaven... Until the arguments started! We just couldn't decide on characters, plot, what was funny and what wasn't, etc.

Co-writing is great and I'd love to give it a go some day. But you need to make sure the person that your working with shares the same sort of enthusiasm about the project as you. There's nothing wrong with having different ideas, so long as you make them gel in some way.

Maybe a good place to start would be for both of you to list your favourite shows/books/authors and see where the similarities meet. That worked for me one time. But good luck with it whatever happens.

supernatural ice-cream vans sound very now! I think you're onto something!
JCx

Supernatural icecream vans are certainly of the moment and make sure that you add a gothic romance element. I have a supernatural hairdresser in my novel. Good luck with the partnership - I am about to start a collaborative writing project with teenagers- but of course I can have the final say which may make it a bit easier, and if they are involved enough to want to argue then I shall be very pleased!