In this together: screenwriting partnerships
Top Canadian screenwriting partners talk about the advantages and disadvantages, the method and the madness, of writing as a team.
By Cheryl Binning
On one of their first shows together, David Barlow walked into Charles (Chuck) Lazer’s office after pulling an all-nighter and tossed a script on his desk. “There, it’s in the neighborhood,” he said. “I’m trusting you to find the right address.” That, says Lazer, is the best thing about writing partnerships: “you don’t face the blank page and the deadline all by yourself.”
Magic can happen when two artists inspire each other: think Abbott & Costello, Lennon & McCartney, Jagger & Richards. This can be true too in that seemingly most isolated of creative endeavours –screenwriting. Writers can find their creativity sparked by a partner.
“What we write together we could never achieve on our own,” says Robert Pincombe of working with Shelley Hoffman for over 15 years. “It always surprises us.”
Safety in Numbers
Writers come to partnerships in numerous ways, though many form early in careers, when writers find someone they enjoy working with in school. These short-term trysts often blossom over time into official writing relationships. For novice writers, partnerships offer a great support system.
Richard Elliott and Simon Racioppa met at Ryerson, where they worked on several projects together. In the early years of their writing career, the pair shared “the fear.” “At first it’s scary to put your work out there and have it evaluated. So there is some reassurance in having a partner,” says Elliott.
They also accumulate credits quickly because as a duo they could take on more projects. “We said yes to everything when we started out because we knew between us we could do it,” says Racioppa. “It was great having that capacity, whereas a new solo writer could easily get overwhelmed.”
In the U.S., showrunners tend to prefer hiring junior writers in partnerships because it shows their ability to collaborate–and they can benefit from a combined strength. As a result, Julia Cohen and Lara Robinson’s partnership happened before they even realized it. Both were pursuing their own writing careers but co-wrote a single script together.
An LA agent signed them on the strength of this project and said he could sell them better as a team. “We didn’t really understand it, but by signing with the agent we were suddenly in bed together,” explains Robinson. On a practical level, writing teams typically work faster, share the workload, divide responsibilities, and best of all, can even take a vacation knowing the other will be there if broadcaster notes suddenly arrive in the middle of their trip.
When Heather Conkie was approached to write the TV movie Harriet the Spy, she wanted to say ‘yes,’ but recognized she was way too swamped as showrunner, writer and exec producer on Heartland. So she came up with a plan: her daughter Alexandra Clarke is an up-and-coming writer so perhaps they could co-write the script? Conkie sent the producers samples of her daughter’s work–without mentioning the nature of their relationship– and they agreed to let them co-write. Then she broke the news that they were a mother/daughter co-writing team. “I was worried, sure,” admits Conkie of writing with her daughter for the first time. “I was afraid we would kill each other, but it didn’t happen. We discovered an amazing partnership.”
A Variety of Approaches to Process
No two teams work exactly alike and, very often, they change their way of writing together depending on deadlines and workload. But each team has its preferred method.
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