Should I Write a Screenplay with a Writing Partner?

The first thing you need to figure out is the type of personality that you have. Are you better having your own space? Or do you need that extra push and the bouncing of ideas with another screenwriter?

Creatively, I can’t answer that. In terms of selling you and your film, I can answer. It doesn’t really matter. However, whatever you decide, make sure you stick to it. This is a big mistake a lot of writers make. A lot of writing partners will split up and believe their career will continue at the same spot where they left it with their partner. It doesn’t work that way.

Lets say you have been writing comedies with a partner. All of a sudden you want to write on your own. This could be for a variety of reasons, maybe you don’t want to share 50% of the money, or maybe you feel you are the true talent of the relationship and your writing partner has not really contributed. Well the scripts you have written before this point can’t really be used as writing samples for your SOLO career. Any executive that gets the previous script is going to ask, “ok, I see you had a partner, who wrote what?” Even if you really are the one who wrote everything, it is still difficult to prove that. So if you do decide to break it off, you at least have the experience, but you will have to start from scratch to reinvent yourself.

On the flip side, I see many solo writers who decide to write a one-off script with a partner, but they never intend to write as a team in the future. The problem is that if the script doesn’t sell, it is useless to you if you want to continue solo. Why waste several months writing with someone when you don’t intend to keep that person as a partner? As a matter of fact, if it does sell, then you better continue with that same partner, or else it will continue to be difficult to write on your own because the agent/manager won’t really be able to use that script effectively.

Think about it this way. Imagine a writing team is a car. One writer is the engine and the other writer is the body exterior. Together, they run and look great. OK, now they want to go on their own. Take away the engine or take away the body exterior. Will that car be the same?

Bottom line, there are pros and cons about writing a script with somebody else, but make sure you think long term. Whatever you decide, try and stick to it. And like I mentioned in previous blogs, there are always going to be exceptions to this, but for the most part, this is the general rule of thumb.