(Changed because I hate the stupid note replies.)
Yeah, it really is easier. 😀 In a few different ways.
I think that when it comes to collaboration, a lot depends on what your respective expectations are going in, how seriously you’re taking it (hint: less serious is better), and how prepared you are to compromise and let go of your work.
Working on Odalisque, bobross and I are basically committed to enjoying the hell out of ourselves. As heavy as the story is, we never take the writing process too seriously. (Our notes are probably a crime against humanity, but sometimes I read through them just for laughs.) It has been amazing in a few ways.
1: Having someone to brainstorm the story out with makes the process way more fun, way more thorough, and I think has done the story a lot of good. An author can get stuck in a rut, you know, and having someone else there to shake things up and think of things you wouldn’t is fantastic.
2: When I get hung up. That’s actually how we decide when to end a section, you know. 😀 Mostly we swap. One of us will write until we get stuck and don’t know what happens next, and then we toss it over to the other—even if it’s in the middle of a scene. This? Is frankly an unreasonable amount of smug fun. Ahahaha, take THAT, writer’s block!
3: I keep discovering this, but this last chapter gave me a particularly sharp reminder about clinging too hard to my words. I’d been working on that bastard for ages, and when bob skimmed over it and tweaked it, it ended up shorter, punchier, more engaging, and generally just about 500% better.
You get to taking yourself too seriously, you know? Trying to get all your words right. When the reality is, most of the time a looser, less perfectionist approach makes for a better story (not to mention more fun). And that is honestly the best lesson, for getting over writer’s block and writing faster and just generally becoming better. Don’t cling too hard. Don’t worry about getting everything exactly right. When your co-writer has an idea, unless you really really really have a reason why something should stay the way it is, let them at it.
Everybody who’s betaed for me is either laughing or grinding their teeth now, because that is TOTALLY my biggest hangup as a writer, and as an artist. I am such a perfectionist, and it slows me down, and I think it probably saps a lot of vitality from my work. (I’m finally getting over this as an artist, but I have been drawing for about 30 years and I mean I’m finally overcoming it in the last few WEEKS.)
My favorite thing that I have drawn? I think it may be my Winter Goblin.
There’s a long story behind him, but I can tell it some other time if you want to hear it (the summary is in the description attached to the picture on deviantArt).
My favorite thing I’ve written… You know, it changes from day to day. I think the best thing I’ve written might be No Fare, just from the standpoint of technical soundness; being an all-around solid story that accomplishes everything I wanted it to. My favorite thing to write might’ve been Stringplay, because that just. Mmf, that just came right together, which is such a great feeling. But if we mean ‘favorite’ as in ‘the thing I’ve written whose existence I’m happiest about,’ I’m not really sure… Maybe Barrow Wight? Or maybe Santa Baiting, because I even made myself laugh with that one.