“Modern Writing Partners”

A guest tongue-in-cheek post by Anthony Giambusso.

In May 2015, I featured a satirical article titled “How To Write A Screenwriting Book” by Anthony Giambusso.

Recently Anthony reached out to me with two new posts from his blog. Here is an extended excerpt from the second one:

There Was a Woman, We’ll Call Her Maggie

She was a screenwriter. She spent her days in her office, at coffee shops, at the Writers Guild Library, pecking away endlessly. She did so in the comfort of being alone. One day she had a long, drunken discussion with her coworker Lisa at a Halloween party about a DIY genre-mashing thriller. Despite the tequila, the idea was actually solid, and Lisa, only a tepid friend of Maggie’s, convinced Maggie to work with her on developing the project. They talked all night about ideas, and even began making a list in a Google doc on Lisa’s phone.

The next day at work as Lisa introduced a new employee to Maggie she said, “This is Maggie. She’s my writing partner.” And then casually moved on.

The words echoed in Maggie’s head. “Writing partner. Writing partner. Writing partner.”

Maggie did not want to be officially linked to Lisa as a writer. She just wanted to write one story with her, fully intending to bail on it with the excuse of ‘things are really piling up’ if she felt it wasn’t going well.

Maggie loved the idea they shared, but she worried the entire project would disappear if she revealed to Lisa her true feelings. So Maggie did what many do in her situation; she continued being Lisa’s writing partner, and they’ll stay together indefinitely until the weak foundation of their relationship is made clear during a third act dispute, or a disagreement over a character’s age, or an argument over whose name is put on the left side of the ampersand.

Maggie’s story highlights the fact that in this modern age of writing partnerships, the rules have changed. This isn’t your mother’s writing scene anymore. Here are some things to consider when navigating the ever-changing world of writing partnerships.

Ah, modern relationships… of the writing kind. So complex. Read the article for a chuckle.

While you’re there, check out the rest of Anthony’s site and his second post: “Meet Cute Screenwriting Service”.

Twitter: @TonyGiambooyah.