Anyone having any problems writing with the person you're writing with? I do.

I'm a very picky person when it comes to grammar and spelling, and I HATE the use of chat speak anywhere but in a chat room, and that's just when other people use it. I never use it myself.

My partner had the job of writing the opening scene last night, and she did, but the grammar is so bad! She didn't capitalize anything, she used 'u' instead of YOU and 'r' instead of ARE. She picks putting a 'w/' for WITH and there is NO punctuation at the end of any of the sentences.

I need help to get over this, but it's something I can't look past.

Got any problems, or is everything hunky-dory over there?

It's possible that your partner is just a lazy first-drafter and assumes that one or both of you will clean up the spelling in revision. She's focused on getting that first draft on the page. Or, possibly, this might be how she writes. You should definitely bring this up with her; after all, she must know that you can't submit a script in that shape. (If she doesn't know this, then I suppose you have worse problems.)

I think it's important that writing partners' idiosyncrasies complement each other. If she's an awful speller and you don't mind copyediting as part of your rewrite, then you're grand. On the other hand, if this fundamentally bothers you and shakes your faith in your writing partnership, maybe you should look elsewhere?

I guess the litmus test is: Beyond the lazy spelling, was her opening scene any good?

--Brandon

You make a good point. I think she just assumes that I'm going to edit everything after she enters it, which is basically what I'm doing. But it takes a lot of time and I haven't even gotten a chance to write my own scene yet because I have been busy editing what she lazily writes out. I will definitely confront her about this today.

Oh, and the opening scene was okay... But I could have written it better. It seems everything I'm conforming to in this script it her idea. I wanted to write a drama/musical, but she wanted a crime mystery. I guess that's what I get for partnering with someone who wants to go into forensics... I will remember this next year. :/
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∞2010∞
NaNo '06 - Fallen (L)
NaNo '07 - L.O.V.E.: Secret Mission (W)
Script Frenzy '07 - All Things Come to an End (W)
Script Frenzy '08 - In the Midnight Moon (?)

My partner doesn't write in chat speak though she does have issues with spelling and occasionally interchanges names of characters, but I'm used to that. Tonight, however, was a bit tense. We really should have gotten a better plan together beforehand on how we're going to do this since we're writing in a totally different format than we usually do. I'm using the celtx program for formatting, which my partner is totally unfamiliar with and she doesn't have internet so she can't download. I actually brought it on flashdrive tonight, but her computer was misbehaving so she couldn't upload it.

Anyway, so we were discussing how we're doing this tonight and I don't know if we were saying the same thing with different phrases or just suffering a complete inability to understand each other, but we were not on the same page. My reaction to that is to try and spell out what I'm trying to say in better detail and take it down to the very basics so I know we're starting from the same place which she seems to take as me implying she's stupid so she starts getting annoyed and snippy which makes me annoyed and snippy and it's just bad. She wants to write out all the dialog and then edit it into formatting which is an absolute pain to do (I've written scripts before and done that - not fun). It wouldn't be so bad if I knew that part would be split but somehow I inevitably end up doing it and we've got less than a month left now. She left earlier than me (our nano group still gets together even though no one else there tonight is doing Screnzy) with unresolved tension between us and my cell phone is MIA so I can't text her, which leave me with a partial outline and the feeling she is upset at me. Grrrrr. Maybe we would have been better off writing separate scripts after all.

My partner and I split BEFORE April. We're BFFs but our plot could make up screem at each other and bite the others head off. Now we're both on our own but together for moral support always.

Me and mine (hi, KD!) are fine, though this may be something to do with us being 5,621 miles and 8 hours apart, have never met, only found out about each other's existence 4 days ago and haven't written anything yet.

Our only differences so far have been spelling (she's gotten color spelled wrong and I've got colour spelt correctly) and cultural (I have no idea if putting scallions in a skillet is cruel or illegal, and I don't think she knows what a pillock is, although apparently she does know how to snog)

In your case, I would suggest to just get over it. Color vs colour is cultural and it's effortless to fix with find and replace after you're done, and maybe stop throwing in so many cultural references and just write. Ignore the slang, explain what you need to, don't get into fights over ou/o or realize/realise, and remember you can find and replace. Both are correct. ;)

I sympathize with the chat roleplay. I don't know if my partner and I will write a co-written script again this year (we did last year, haven't started yet though we have one planned out for this year). We get caught up in RP so easily, it's how we write together. XD

And, incidentially, she spells everything with British spelling and I use American and beyond me yelling at her for using realise occasionally, we write just fine as long as we agree that afterwards I'm going to remove her extra u's. Although I have a preference for 'metre' instead of 'meter'... but none of us use single quotes when we write, so it's more logical to go with American spelling, to go with the American formatting.

But it's fun writing with someone you've never seen face to face! I've done it! (we've met now, of course) It's a blast and working with someone over chat, if you can get into that mindset, is the most fun I could ever have. I do suggest getting two windows--Yahoo and MSN at the same time, maybe, so you can do your rambly role-playing and chattering at the same time as writing. Keep the writing in one window and the rambling to the other.

Voice of experience. I know. I've been there. It's a pain seperating out writing. And if you're going to use chat, you want it in there. And it's definately worth looking at realtime, and one of you can format it. Realtime also means those things like "what's a pillock?" can be solved immediately. :)
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INT. THE NANOWRIMO FORUMS - NOVEMBER '07
ON THE EDGE 103,000/50,000 words. WON!
(2005: Through Silver Glass 50k, WON!
2006: The Legend of Scarecrow, 100k, WON!)

Tiana, this is exactly the kind of help I need. You see, I thought that 'Me and mine are fine' [talking about my writing partner] was pretty unambiguous, but there must be some subtle cultural nuance I don't know about which reverses its meaning in your part of the world.

And I just said we had 250 lines of chat roleplay and there you are, sympathising (sympathizing, anyway). I didn't even know we had a problem at all, let alone something to 'get over'. I think perhaps I'd better write to her and call it all off before it gets out of hand.

But that's the Voice Of Experience, for you, huh? I like that phrase. You know exactly what kind of person you are dealing with when they insist that they are the voice of experience. The sort of person that 'knows'. You've been there. You might even have 'done it' (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean? Say no more!), followed by a quick gander at the T-shirts.

Incidentially (that's 'incidentally' in the UK, incidentally) the last Voice Of Experience I met was in Spain - he advised me not to have the Sopa del Dia because he'd had it in some other restaurant a couple of weeks before and it was rubbish. I took his advice - he was an American, after all, and therefore well-informed about other cultures and the ways of the world in general, of course - but my companion ordered the soup anyway - when it came, it was something called 'gazpacho', and it was stone cold! She felt such a fool! :-)

So I'll 'stop throwing in so many cultural references' (I have been finding that very difficult anyway, since, as I explained, we haven't started writing yet), and I promise to remember to find and replace now I know that both are correct.

I got a partner when I started over on the 11th of April. My partner is one of my wonderful school friends and I think the world of her, but like everything in life things aren't perfect. We're each working on a 50 page script and are trading off every now and then to help each other. Here's the problem: we have 26 pages. 21 of which are mine. I think my partner's great, and I don't want to push her too much, but I really am panicking.
What should I say?
Should I assume she'll catch-up in the next few days?
I think I may just be paranoid.

You may want to ask her about it. I already know my partner's done and it's up to me. The issue with me is I let her push me into a plot I don't like. Now I want to start but over, but dangit 12 days isn't enough for me.

Just ask your partner if she's really dedicated. If not, take over and you win. If she is, tell her she HAS to catch up if she stands a chance of helping you win. Otherwise, drop her as a partner and get yourself a pretty certificate. =)

Not trying to sound mean or anything, but you've got to do what it takes to win. And if that means going at it alone, what's the harm? Y'all can still be friends!!
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∞2010∞
NaNo '06 - Fallen (L)
NaNo '07 - L.O.V.E.: Secret Mission (W)
Script Frenzy '07 - All Things Come to an End (W)
Script Frenzy '08 - In the Midnight Moon (?)

I'm just a little afraid of offending her as I fear that even I cannot write an extra 50 pages (her part of the work, which will become mine if I annoy her and make her abandon me) in 8 days. I think my partner is doing really well, I just don't want to force her to keep to the standards I hold myself to.