THOUGHTS ON REMOTE COLLABORATION

By Olga Agafonova

Over the last year, I’ve used miscellaneous tools to keep in touch and work on a screenplay with my co-author and I’d like to share some observations about that experience.

First, I want to point out that Cheron and I met in person two years ago through a mutual friend. We would not have known about each other or be comfortable enough with one another without that real, physical connection. I have seen online invitations for screenwriters to work together remotely and that is too much of a shot in the dark for me. There is a lot we do when we begin getting to know someone: we appraise someone’s character and establish trust with that person.  With writing, of course we must also consider if our writing styles mesh well together.

This brings me to my second point: Cheron and I took time to discuss her vision for the screenplay and what she wanted the characters to be like. We negotiated the number of primary characters and then I briefly outlined what I thought each character was going to do throughout the film. This was sufficient to begin writing the first draft. 

We kept in touch every few weeks by email and via WhatsApp, which gives us more immediate access to each other throughout the day than email. Initially, we used different free programs to work on the screenplay but eventually converged on Final Draft. At $249.99 per license, this was expensive but since we both plan on writing screenplays in the future, it is worth the investment. Critically, Final Draft has a simultaneous collaboration feature where multiple authors can work on the same version of the draft in real time. The auto-formatting features for dialogue, action and other screenplay parts have been indispensable as well.

Would I have preferred a weekly get-together in a café to go over the details of our work? Absolutely. Listening to someone’s feedback, their tone of voice and the language they choose, being able to read their body language – all these things are important to good communication. By that standard, however, I could not have participated in this project. Cheron lives on the West Coast and flying out there regularly is of course out of question for financial reasons.

So, would I recommend writing with someone remotely? Yes, if you feel comfortable with that person and your ideas about the work are compatible. For me, that means meeting the person in the real world first and seeing what they are like. Others may be more adventurous but the bottom line is the same: you must be comfortable with one another as people to begin and sustain your collaboration.