Director's Notes: 178 - Rattlesnake Rest (Patreon)

People often ask how Joseph and I write collaboratively. We have our standard answer that we talk though first what we’re going to write about, assign who writes what and then edit each others’ writing. Easy!

I mean at this point, Joseph and I have been writing things together for 10 years, so in a lot of ways it’s easy for us. And in some ways it’s always been easy for us, because we trusted each other from the beginning. Trust isn’t cautious trepidation. Trust isn’t unwavering faith. Trust is nothing. It’s the clearing of worry from the To-Do list.

Sometimes I disagree with something Joseph wrote (and vice versa), whether it’s simply a joke that I think needs punched up, or whether it’s an error in continuity, or even a passage that doesn’t make sense within the narrative. My trust in him is not that everything Joseph writes will be perfect. My trust in him is an equally weighted trust in myself. A confidence that I can communicate back to my co-writer what I would like out of the writing. Sometimes he agrees. Sometimes he doesn’t. But again, trust, is the ability to communicate your wants and to hear the counterpoint. I trust that if Joseph disagrees, he’ll have a good explanation as to why. And we can either let his writing stand as is, or we can tweak a couple of things in a way that makes sense for both of us.

Easy!

For Joseph and me, anyway. Maybe we’re lucky, having found each other. It’s the platonic equivalent of Made For Each Other. I accept that. But also, I’ve collaborated with a lot of people over the years, before and after Joseph, and many of those relationships not been as rewarding or productive. But in the process, I learned something about myself. I had to teach myself trust – am still teaching myself trust. I had to build up my confidence in my own writing and my ability to say clearly (but not aggressively) what it is I need.

So yes, easy, because I get to work with Joseph, who is easy for me to work with. But incredibly difficult, too, because it took until I was 34 years old and dozens of different collaborative efforts until I met someone like that.

All of that is to say that Brie Williams has long been one of these wonderful (lucky) collaborative relationships. She, like Joseph, is a funny and talented writer. And like Joseph, I feel an abundance of trust in whatever she does. I know when I get a script from Brie, there will be edits, as with all writing relationships, and I feel confidence in myself to have the back-and-forth that those edits require. And Brie is a delight to work with.

I don’t know. Maybe I am lucky. Or maybe I’m getting better at finding the type of people I mesh with.

In this episode, we didn’t change much. There were a couple of added jokes and details. We changed a couple of names. The character of Annette Jacoby in the original script was very close to the name of an existing author that Brie was unaware of, and I didn’t want it to sound like we were putting that actual person into Night Vale. I also changed the name of the man in the Arby’s drive-thru to “Jim Saling,” who is one of our Patreon members. (Did you know there are Patreon levels that get you a character in Night Vale? Now you do.)

But this script is almost entirely Brie. She’s fantastic, and her work so seamlessly fits into the Night Vale voice. I guess what I’m saying is: collaborative writing is easy once you get through the hard stuff.

-Jeffrey Cranor
November 17, 2020