Rejecting the 'lone writer' ideal

I have never been comfortable with the 'lone writer' image. For me writing works best as a collaborative experience. Writers need feedback from other writers on their stories. Critique groups are one way to collaborate as is enrolling in a writing class. A third collaborative options is co-writing stories with another writer. Writing stories together may sound risky to those writers who have not experienced this collaborative process, because our 'writing ego' gets in the way. My writing partner and I agree our co-writing experience works for us. Often she reads aloud what I have written, suggests edits, and I do the same for her. When she suggests I "kill a darling" I put my ego aside and discover I often agree with her analysis. Because we are writing a novel together, this helps me refine my characters, story threads, and offers ideas about how my characters might react to the characters and scenes my colleague writes. Co-writing our novel keeps the story moving, provides valuable feedback, and keeps me laughing as I write.