Collaboration and Control

After writing class on Saturday, I got coffee with a fellow student.

Our manuscripts are both skirting the edge of literary/horror and both have a medical tinge. We're both twenty-odd years younger than anyone else in class. Turns out, we also were both taught by the same teachers at the same university at the same time. Ok, she graduated *one* year ahead of me.

It was bliss talking shop to somebody else in my boat. Some who is

1. serious enough about writing to make social and financial sacrifices in an effort to make it her number one priority-- and who is in for the long haul;

2. has the training to know the basics and the jargon that makes critique so much easier and friendlier;

3. has the curiosity and imagination to do fascinating and in-depth research, as well as using the world around her as inspiration;

4. is open-minded enough to not worry about being low-brow; and

5. is my age! I never knew before trying out these writers' groups and classes how different our aesthetic is from people even ten, fifteen years older... it was a relief to be around someone who wouldn't be confused at a literary jump-cut, or flinch at melodrama or super-human violence. Not to say everyone in their early to mid twenties has the same aesthetic-- but I do find a disconnect between how people my age and people even a decade older understand stories.

We started talking scripts, and are currently doing research so we can beat out a story in a couple weeks-- the idea is phenomenal (or at least, it'll be fun and challenging to work on) and it's such a *relief* not to be in total control.

With this claymation project, it's all me: the story, the lights, the sound, the camera work, the set, the schedule, and on and on and on. With all my manuscripts and short stories, there are fewer logistics, but I still bare all responsibility. It's only my vision on the page.

Which is nice in it's way-- but it's also overwhelming--and lonely. *This* is why I thought television writing would be wonderful-- because collaboration is part of the joy. We write to communicate, right? It's easy to loose that when you have to spend all your time in your own little world, all by yourself. It's fascinating to layer visions-- the actors', director's, production crew, AND the writer's. In this case, writers'.

It'll be a new experience for me to collaborate (long-term) on a script, but so far it's invigorating. I would never have thought of this story alone, but it immediately sparked my imagination, and I do think I have a lot to add to our partnership. This will be an adventure, but the comradery alone is enough to make it exciting and worthwhile-- let alone all I have to learn from this woman, our project, and how we function as a team.