Collaboration and Cronenberg

[przed]

I always used to say I could never see collaborating with anyone on a creative project.  I could only see the loss of control that such a working method would necessarily result in, without seeing the benefits.  Well, I'm currently working on a collaboration (about which, all will eventually be revealed) and I've found it to be a remarkable experience.  Together, we've produced something better than either of us would have produced by ourselves, and it's been an often exhilirating experience.  And then today, Salon published an interview with David Cronenberg where he talks about collaboration in terms that I can now completely identify with:

"There was a time when I was very arrogant about that -- you're not really an auteur if you don't do your own stuff. Then I realized with "The Dead Zone" that fusing your sensibility with someone else's -- in that case, Stephen King's -- can be quite interesting. You wind up making something that neither one of you would have come up with separately. It's like a marriage. It's like mating.

"The other thing is that you can bore yourself. Working alone, you can keep going back to the same routine, your own set of rails that might have been liberating initially and have now become a rut. All it takes is someone else to come at you sideways and you find yourself exhilarated and energized. If it feels that good, it can't be bad."

Now, I still don't know that I'll ever do a writing collaboration--my writing working method is a bit nebulous for me to consider that at the moment--but I'm far more open to the idea that I ever was before.

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I've really loved collaborating on fan works -- both stories and vids. There have been some missteps, of course, but I always learn tons, and the results are always better than anything I'd have done myself.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

A big me too on the collaboration part (like Laura I've done both vids and stories). I like the gestalt mind that appears and drags wonderful ideas and concepts out of both people. And I also enjoy the sometimes push/pull of the joint creative process. I am thinking of collaborating with xlorp on some stories - he has such a wicked way with dialog.