To collaborate or not

Every so often a writer runs across someone else’s story that has at its heart an idea they think is brilliant, but which they also think that writer has mishandled for some reason. Most of the time, the writer can take the part of the idea that

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Critique vs. Collaboration

One of the questions I’ve been fielding for years, usually from knowledgeable non-writers, has to do with the similarity between being in a critique group and doing a collaboration. Sometimes it’s buried in the assumptions behind the question (“In what ways do your critique group members influence

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Collaborating, Part 2

One of the great things about collaborating is that if you pick the right collaborator (and the right method), you can write until you get to a sticky spot, then hand it off to your collaborator and let them deal with it. In most cases, what is

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Collaborating, Part 1

People go into collaborations for different reasons…and each project, and each co-author, is a different situation. Sometimes, two or more writers collaborate because they came up with a brilliant idea in the bar at three in the morning…and next day, it still looks brilliant and fun. Sometimes,

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