Creative collaborations - Writers and editors

Creativity, which the culture often depicts as a solitary enterprise, is al most always impacted or even dependent upon one or another aspect of a real relationship or an internalized object relationship. This paper utilizes t he example of creative collaborations between writers and editors to illust rate aspects of co-creativity, co-construction, and mutual influence. It dr aws on Howard Gardner's observation, based on a series of biographical stud ies, that a creator during a time of artistic or intellectual breakthrough requires both an affective support system and a cognitive one. His observat ion, echoes that of child researchers who emphasize that the contour of dev elopmental lines depends not only on an. internal dynamic but on interactio ns with significant others and on cultural and social influences as well. T his paper describes both successful and problematic collaborations between writers and editors and demonstrates the strengths of such collaborations a nd some of their potential faultlines as well.