Monday, October 25, 2010

Collaborations

I'm a collaborative worker. Sure, I have a reputation for "going solo" and just doing my own thing, and that's certainly been the case for the past few years, but many in various fields also know me as a good collaborator. Not that I'm any great addition to group-thought projects, but I do enjoy them and I do enjoy working with other people. There are even a few instances in which I mandate the collaborative process (some might remember this particular rant: Film is Collaboration).

But, it's this propensity for doing my own thing that has me a bit surprised at quite a few recent collaborations. About a month or so ago I was asked to write a short script for an actor/producer who wanted something to showcase his talents. He gave me the framework: two people fall in love over the course of a complete lunar cycle, but they realize that they can't be together. That was it. That's all he gave me. And since he's a friend of mine, I said I'd do it. Given my current habits, I decided to write the story in prose before scripting it. The result?


Not exactly a collaboration, but it started the steamroll. Adding to it was the long-awaited production of a comic strip I had pitched about a year ago called Touché, Cliché. The original artist, a Hollywood graphic designer, had to drop out fairly early on, so I pitched it to another artist whose work had me intrigued: Tom at Half-Moose with a Twist. And he said he'd do it. Sure, we've only got one finished so far, but there are definitely more on the way.


Also on the way is a painting by Kelly Green of Fly Visions, who's agreed to create an image to go with my story, "Star Fall." If you check out her catalog of work, you'll see why I asked her. And I find it fitting that a story whose genesis involved inspiration from a novel, a feature film (based on a different novel), an animated short, a metaphor piece I'd written ("Stardust"), and a song will come to a creative close with a painting.

In a strange twist, another artist and painter approached me to write vignettes based on some of her work, and I must say I'm rather excited about that. Some of you visit her blog already, but many of you don't. I've recommended her site many times before and I'm going to do so again: Harnett-Hargrove. I'm not entirely sure why she asked me to write something for her, but there was no way I was gonna turn her down. That work isn't quite ready yet, but you'll know when it's up. It'll be unmistakable.

Finally (so far, anyway), there's the collaboration that I'm probably the most excited about: my first bona fide co-writing attempt in many, many years. It's with a budding writer who only recently began her foray into creative writing, and I asked her to write something with me because her style does everything that my own styles do not. Seems like a no-brainer to me. That she's also one of my best friends ever is beside the point. Our product will appear in chapters on both her blog (Creative Infanticide) and mine in the near future. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'm enjoying working on it.

Going solo is what I do. But collaborating sure has its charm.

8 comments:

Wings said...

You are keeping yourself quite busy, at the very least!

Brian Miller said...

cant wait to see....perhaps i can pick up some pointers as you have not been high on collaborative efforts i have done...

PattiKen said...

Nice. I'm sure it will be great.

Kate Hanley said...

Really liked the new story. Good luck with the collaborations. I think it's difficult to find someone to work with but you seem to have a plethora right now - how cool!

Tom said...

i've done collabs with maybe 4? different bloggers myself, and it's a lot of fun--didnt know that Fade of Tide was a collab...sweet

Baino said...

I'm in very worthy company there. I love the stuff you're doing with Tom, look forward to the painting from Kelly and we all know that Jayne's a talent to be reckoned with. I've loved doing ours as well. Although you're a bit bossy and intent on killing the characters I love! But you're lovely to work with. Then I'm biased.

Harnett-Hargrove said...

Looking forward to seeing you, not diluted, exactly, but complimented with the others.
If that was a question above in the post... I was thinking that you seem to have had very different life experiences than me and thought the angle would be interesting...
I usually do not waver from my long time collabors, but this,I reckoned, would just be for damn fun.
Off to revisit the 10thdoms... -J

Bitsy said...

I will be interested in seeing some collaborative work. I always loved the back-and-forth with Cy, even if you never did anything collaboratively. (Yeah, I know why.)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...