Have you ever written with other people? I don’t mean in the same room all quietly chipping away at your individual writing — I mean have you ever collaborated during the creation phase, writer’s room-style where you’re together breaking the story, pitching ideas, fleshing out characters, debating storylines on a shared project?
If you have done this, how did it go? What worked, what didn’t? What are the pros and cons? What did you learn about yourself?
If you haven’t, does that writing process interest you? How do you imagine it would go? What’s your ideal collaborative writing experience?
Under the right circumstances and with the right people for me, creative collaboration is my happiest happy place.
This is the first of two ASBX episodes about writing scripted audio fiction collaboratively. You’ll hear from the Soapbox Audio Collective Writing Team 1 that includes Juliana Finch, Katy Koop, Mara Thomas and me, Tamara Kissane. Together we’re writing Jesus Pancake.
This episode and the next are windows into our collaborative writing process and include things we learned, tips for other writers who might want to try this, and tantalizing details about the stories of Jesus Pancake and The Last Glacier Hotel. (Transcript available upon request. Reach out to artistsoapbox@gmail.com)
BIOS
Juliana Finch “sounds the way good bourbon tastes.” A Georgia-born, North Carolina-based singer/songwriter with strong Americana roots, Juliana earns her spot in a long tradition of storytelling songwriters with a sultry, soothing voice and carefully crafted lyrics. Go ahead. Find her on social media @writeplayrepeat. (She’s also a screenwriter and playwright!)
Katy Koop is a writer and theatre artist based in Raleigh, NC. Her plays have been produced in part and in whole in New York City, Minneapolis, and Raleigh. Her cultural criticism and personal essays have been published in Indy Week, Electric Literature, Hello Giggles, Femsplain, and more. She most recently worked as a writer on Artist’s Soapbox’s Jesus Pancake. You can find her on twitter at @katykooped and more information at katykoop.com.
Mara Thomas is a Durham-based playwright, actor, musician and teaching artist. A local musician for over 15 years, Mara can usually be found making noise in the punk group Cold Cream but, y’know, COVID. Since she can’t blast her face off at punk shows these days, Mara is channeling that energy into a Master’s program at NC State for Clinical Mental Health Counseling.
ASBX Episodes:
Dangerous: Declaration of Love Episode 7 (written by Katy Koop)
Stretchy Shorts: Declaration of Love Episode 9 (Mara Thomas, actor)
Some of Mara’s posts about creativity resources (Note: Mara has written about 2 dozen blog posts on ASBX):
- Cleaning house: Making space for creativity
- Nourish your creative self: Give your creative self a lift with something beautiful
- The importance of physical practice: Get out of your head and into your body (And here’s another)
- Community Building
- The gifts of loneliness
- Go with the flow
Listen to ASBX Audio Dramas:
Declaration of Love audio anthology
CONNECT AND FOLLOW:
Artist Soapbox on social media:
Twitter: @artist_soapbox
Instagram: @artistsoapbox
