The wonderful process of co-working

Isn't it wonderful, where ideas come from? I think they float around in the air and find the nearest head to land in.

So I've no clue who had the notion that Emma Pass and I should write a blogpost together, each post it on our blogs at the same time, and see what happened. We had a quick exchange of tweets - and suddenly there it was - an IDEA - and we both ran off with it, together.

There were emails - what do you think about ... and it was (I can only speak for myself here) FUN! We were collaborating, working together, making our point jointly, and enjoying it. More evidence, if that were needed, that we need not be competitive in our writing.

It reminded me of a recent cricket match I watched - bear with me, it's relevant. The team filled with international players was soundly beaten by one comprised of people I've never heard of. And the commentator noticed that the winning team played as a team, while the others behaved like stars. What a wonderful lesson. We can be stronger when we work together, and risk being prima donnas if we always work alone.

So - thank you, Emma. It was a privilege to work with you. Especially as you must be overwhelmed with everything at the moment - for your book comes out today!!! I hope you have the best day ever!

Not met Emma before - she had a great website here.

And, for those readers who haven't come across her book yet (where have you been?) you can find it here.

(And we can say what we like about her today, as she'll be too busy launching her book to look at this.)

Has anyone else tried co-writing? How did it go?

Do you write to entertain? Or is there more to it than that?

I'm following on from my waffling about humour, and writing to make each other laugh - there were some really thoughtful comments, which had me taking a step beyond funny and wondering if we can pinpoint what we are hoping to do when we write - on blogs, or short stories, or poems (whatever!)

The more I thought about it, the more complex the whole thing seems. I suspect there are as many reasons for writing as there are writers, so I'm only speaking for myself here.

I'll begin by thinking why I read. Because I love it - yes, but that's not enough. I want to be entertained, but I want more than that. I want to find new ideas, to engage with new thinking, to be asked to look at the familiar from an unfamiliar angle. I want to understand how other people feel, to read about others tackling the daily challenge of getting up and edging a way through the day - it cements us sharing a common humanity, if you like, knowing that other people need a cup of tea in the morning, or enjoy of twinge of trolley rage in the aisles of Tesco's.

I write because I breathe - I can't imagine not writing. But that doesn't explain why I write on blogs, or publish the travel writing, or play about with poetry and short stories. I hope to entertain; it has to begin there. I'm not sure I claim to play with new ideas - though there may be readers who barely know where Laos is, so anything I say about it has to be new and potentially informative. I rarely share very personal, private feelings - though don't shy away from making fun of myself and my girliness when faced with rats (or tigers). I have the occasional rant, but would rather celebrate the fun we can have than waste energy whinging about things I can't change. If any of this is funny - well, that's a bonus. And then my thinking seems to degenerate into it being satisfying, this reaching out to total strangers (and many not so strange now, after blogging for a year or more), but I don't think I can be more specific than that.

Does it matter? Maybe it doesn't. But sometimes it's worth thinking about, given that I blog away regularly and hope others will read and enjoy it. Are there any other bloggers out there who have a clearer idea as to why they write?