Moonbase

I was reminded today of Me and My Ampersand, an article about working with a writing partner, found on the seriously excellent Wordplay site for screenwriters. I think a lot of what Ted Elliott has to say applies not only to writing, but to pretty much any collaborative process. And when Ted mentions his collaborations with Terry Rossio over an Apple ][e, I couldn’t help but smile and think Pair Programming:

But even with the advent of technology, Terry and I worked pretty much the same way: one at the keyboard, the other hanging over his shoulder. One of us would occasionally draft a scene in long hand while the other worked on a different scene, but for the most part, it was the same as the coffee shop (without the pretty waitresses, though. It’s true; progress has a price). Except now we’d switch chairs, the CPU and monitor being a bit bulkier than a pad of paper.