I've collaborated with my friend Katie on multiple projects. She's really good at branding, copywriting, and content writing but she doesn't love doing SEO. When one of her clients needed SEO blogs on an ongoing basis, we created a partnership agreement to work for the client together. That way, the client only had one bill and contract to deal with, and we could work together. I did the SEO strategy, content calendar, and briefs. She wrote, edited, and published the content. It was a win-win for both of us!
I'm a publicist and trained journalist, and I take on ghostwriting projects for business books. Even in the field of business books, the entertainment factor has to be considered. When I took on a biographical business advice book about an entrepreneur whose success was due in part to the large network she entertained, I knew the book had to be as funny as she was. I asked a comedian friend with screenwriting experience to write the plots of the funny stories the client told us in briefings for the books. I focused on developing the storyline and business advice, while my comedy writer added the funny bits. The collaboration was very successful because each of us writers focused on our strengths and valued each other's input.
Instead of relying solely on emails and video calls, we created a joint playlist on Spotify that reflected the mood and themes of our writing project. We added songs that inspired us, which helped sync our creative vibes and provided a non-verbal way to communicate our thoughts and feelings about the work. In addition, we used a platform called "Draft" which allowed us to edit and comment on each other’s work in real time without the clutter of tracked changes. But here’s the twist: we also set aside time for ‘walking meetings’ where we’d each take a walk in our respective cities while on a call, sharing our ideas and progress. This broke the monotony of sitting at a desk and led to surprisingly productive and refreshing conversations. These strategies fostered a unique synergy, made the process more enjoyable, and significantly boosted our productivity and creativity.