Pictured left to right: Malcolm Spellman, Jeff Lowell, John Lee Hancock, Rita Hsiao, Phil Hay, and Craig Mazin.
Hey all, J.C. again with another article covering the Nashville Screenwriters Conference. This article is about the “Writing Alone or With a Partner: How to Make it Work” panel. It was moderated by Craig Mazin with guests Jeff Lowell, Malcolm Spellman, Phil Hay, Rita Hsiao, and John Lee Hancock. There was a lot of great content during this panel. I tried to hit the main points that would be of interest to young writers that aren’t sure about writing with a partner or not.
Mazin was quick to say during introductions that the theRobotard8000© wasn’t getting anything from Balls Out until he told them to put it on the Internet and everything that’s good that has happened is because of him.
Craig Mazin: “There are things that are universal and relate to everyone and one of them is the monumental decision of whether to write with a partner or not. I was in a bad partnership [with a] good guy. We were writing together because it seemed like a good, safe thing to do. And as it turns out, it was not. It was neither. I had five tough years where I was working with a partner and then just like in a marriage there was property to divide, money, so many issues and, of course, fear of totally being on your own.”
Mazin asked Phil Hay: Is there a type of writer who ought to be in a partnership and why? Hay: “Well, I’m not sure there is a type of writer who ought to be in a partnership, I know for me it always made sense because I think there is two types of writing partners. One is: oh, we are friends and we do improv comedy together, but we are like brothers and we have similar strengths and weaknesses. And then the other type of writing partner is where they may be very different, but they compliment each other either in their approach to writing. Ours [Hay’s writing partner is Matt Manfredi] always seemed very natural. There is nothing that I write that I think he wouldn’t be great on or a great part of. My biggest piece of advice is, if you are looking for a partner and you feel like that relationship might be useful to you, you really have to be careful and really choose carefully because in success you are stuck together.“
Jeff Lowell added, “I worked in TV for a while and worked with many teams, and as an observer of teams I saw a third kind of team, which was a really good writer who’s shy which isn’t an unusual thing about writers. They would hook up with a writer who was great in meetings but a s****y writer and make a great team. One person is great, one person talked to much. If you’re shy and thinking that person is a go-getter and great, just learn to do that, [but] don’t hook up with that person.”
John Lee Hancock: “I tried once to write with someone and it didn’t go well. Again, no fault of personality or anything, it’s just, I think, for me… I tend to be a bit of a people-pleaser and if I’m working with someone I admire I tend to not take chances. “
Jeff Lowell: “I have done it twice with two different people and both times it was really great friends of mine and it was like, “Let’s write a movie together this will be fabulous!” and both times it ended the friendship. I don’t talk to either of those people anymore. It ended badly. I worked in TV a lot and I’m a good chief, but I found in a partnership I was a very bad partner because to me every word in the screenplay could be mine and I found whenever my partner would put something in I didn’t like, I would be the dick and say, “I don’t want someone to read that and think that it was mine, so we can’t do that and you can see why I was difficult to work with.”
Mazin made a great point about writing with another writer or just writing with someone you are friends with: “If you’re going to have a writing partner you have to want to write with them because of who they are as a writer. “
Mazin asked Malcolm Spellman how he and his theRobotard8000 co-writer get through their arguments: “We gotta stop, all the time and it happens all the time. First off, me and Tim both mostly write alone and we just met recently and started this team so that has been an interesting dance to try and figure out how two people can do that. I wrote a scene first, gave it to Tim and he re-wrote the whole thing and I said “F**k You, dude. We’re never doing that again.”
He continued, “We have such different personalities, I tend to be much more thoughtful up to a point, and then more nuclear. Tim can stay simmering the whole time, so when he gets to the point where he says, “No, dude, the way I wrote it.” And he’ll never say s**t like, “The way I wrote it is better than the way you wrote it,” but I’ll say, “Tim, I’ll f*****g kill you. I’m serious, dude, don’t talk to me like that.”
Mazin asked how he deals with wasting all his energy on fights instead of writing. Spellman: “Yes, and it’s all his fault. We do lose a lot of time. It’s a special relationship because we both have other projects to fall back on.“ And then how to move past the fighting: “Number one thing is trust. I do think that most writers would benefit from working with other writers, but the personalities make it impossible. “
Mazin asked Phil Hay how he and Manfredi divide up the writing duties, as in does one specialize in dialogue and characters and the other at story. “I think we started so early as a team and found our voice together… there is no such thing as Matt and Phil, it’s just we. We can write almost the same scene. There is so much trust. Like Malcolm said, trust is the bottom line. I genuinely think that both of us think that the other is the better writer.” How touching.
Mazin asked Rita Hsiao, “I am fascinated by the thought of the writing teams that are married couples. Have you ever thought that you and Paul?” To which she responded, “No. When I give notes I’m really honest and I don’t think it would be good for marriage to give those notes.”
Spellman added, ”I tried writing with my wife once. By page 15 she was telling me, ‘You are a terrible writer.’” To which Mazin quickly quipped, “Compared to her you are.” FYI: It’s debatable but the facts don’t lie.
The topic of how Hollywood sees you if you are a writing team came up as well and it’s not a great thing to read, but it’s the truth. Spellman: “If you break in as a team, you are with that person, and if you think it might not work out, it probably won’t work out.” Mazin added, “I can tell you from my own personal experience that when my partnership broke up we had done fairly well, we had a couple movies made, we had a quote that was our price [we received] and we were an entity. Then, when we broke up, it was very scary six or seven months because the feeling is that one of you is the one and one of you is the not one. And nobody wants to hire the not one.“
The panel was also asked if a solo writer ever get notes and feedback from individuals who then want credit on their script. Mazin replied, “Writing with a partner is a business arrangement, so the one thing you have to be careful about is suddenly picking up an unwanted business partner that you didn’t have before. We are creating intellectual property. This is a real thing that I have possession of that has value. If you don’t want a business partner, then let them know right away: I’m looking for advice, not writing.“
Check out more:
Photos courtesy Kelly J. Parsons @ Kellyjparsons.com
Nashville Screenwriters Conference @ nashscreen.com
The Robotard 8000 (Tim Talbott and Malcolm Spellman) @ therobotard8000.com
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