Sunday 18 November 2018

How to find your perfect co-writer (dead or alive) - by Lu Hersey


I’ve always liked the idea of writing a book with someone else. Someone you can bounce ideas off, who'd help with the writing and endless editing. Then I saw a post on twitter that got me seriously thinking about my ideal co-writer.


Finding a co-writer is a complex decision to make, so I’ve listed my possibilities under different categories for easy reference. Hopefully, this will form a handy guide to qualities you may want to look for in your ideal writing partner too. There may be some crossovers, especially between Funny and Dead…but I’m sure you can keep up.

Someone funny
I love funny books – but although my stories include some humour, they don’t end up being a barrel of laughs. Bearing that in mind, useful co-writers might include writers like Derek Landy, Eoin Colfer, Holly Smale or Jeff Kinney.

Someone who knows a lot more than you
A very wide category in my case, and academic types could be very useful as co-writers – people who have a wealth of well researched background knowledge, leaving me to have the genius ideas. Someone like the late Katharine M Briggs (folklore expert) would be perfect (if she wasn’t dead). Or Ronald Hutton (historian and lecturer, specialising in esoteric subject matter), or Neil Oliver (wonderful accent and loves ancient history) - or maybe Alice Roberts (especially if I could go on research trips with her).



A family member  
Family partnerships can work very well for those with suitable family members, like sisters Elizabeth and Katharine Corr, or mother and daughter writing duo Perdita and Honor Cargill. But sadly the potential writers in my family are all too busy living their own lives...at least for now.

A celebrity  
I don’t think so. Most of them aren’t the same in real life and they’d want their name on the cover IN MUCH BIGGER LETTERS THAN MINE! However, if they combined funny and VERY famous, like say, Mike Myers or Ellen DeGeneres…and we split the royalties 50/50? Hell yes…

Someone dead
Choosing a dead co-writer would be highly impractical, so this is more of a wish list. Mine would include Chaucer, Jane Austen, Robin Williams, Douglas Adams, Dorothy Parker, Stan Lee, Stella Gibbons and Sue Townsend. And probably loads more.



Your nemesis
Everyone has a nemesis. Mine is Richard Dawkins, the ultimate atheist, who also considers most fantasy fiction unsuitable reading for children. As someone who’s never met a deity I didn’t like, the plus side of co-writing with him would be that he fits the academic, Knows More Than You category (at least in science). And naturally I would counter him with faerie magic and win every time.



Bad choices
This category is for those people you admire and think you’d like to co-write with, but you know it really wouldn’t work. Like Neil Gaiman. Far too much imagination and way too fast for me. Same goes for JK Rowling and Philip Pullman. Though if any of them gets in touch, I’m more than willing to reconsider…

A fictional character – This final category is for characters you’d love to work with if they were real. That might include Dumbledore, Hermione, Elizabeth Bennett, or Matilda. There are thousands of fictional characters who’d make excellent co-writers. If you look for someone who actually exists and has the same qualities, you might get lucky – after all, there must be quite a few potential Hermiones and Matildas out there.

Reading through my lists, I don’t seem to have hit on any actual possibilities so far – but consider it a work in progress. I still hope to find the perfect writing partner one day and give co-writing a go, even if it’s only for one book. And preferably this side of death…


Lu Hersey


4 comments:

Andrew Preston said...

Must admit, almost every time I see Richard Dawkins spouting off about religion,
I think... "So anyway Richard, when was the last time you actually did some science... ?".

Andrew Preston said...

BY which I mean..., controlled experimentation, publishing, peer review, feedback..
as compared with media tarting.

Sue Bursztynski said...

What an interesting post! I don’t think I’d like to co-write, because it can end friendships. I have done it without losing anyone, but nothing co-written by me was ever published, with one tiny exception. And you’d be likely to argue with the Expert. “You can’t write that, it wouldn’t work, I should know!” When I want an expert, I just get them to read my stuff and save me from making an idiot of myself. And then thank thm in the acknowledgments.

Lu Hersey said...

That's what I wonder too sometimes, Andrew. Too busy promoting atheism with scarily evangelical zeal. :) And Sue, you're right - far better to thank them in the acknowledgments!