Sample Writing Partner Contract
We suggest that you begin by getting to know each other in a trial period
of two weeks in which you exchange daily writing-- 500 words a day or whatever
you agree to-- with no strings attached.
If it isn’t working out, you just say your sick uncle died and you both come back to the website to find new partners. But if you both feel it’s a match, you might use this sample Writing Partner Contract as your agreement:
If it isn’t working out, you just say your sick uncle died and you both come back to the website to find new partners. But if you both feel it’s a match, you might use this sample Writing Partner Contract as your agreement:
I promise to send you 500 words every weekday for
a month. It can be new words, old words, rewrite, a response
to “Today’s Writing Topic at Matchwriters.com,” or any
kind of junk—but I will send something.
I also promise to read what you send me in return and
reply promptly, doing my best to give you the kind of
response I would like myself. At the end of a month, we
can choose to renew the contract or let it lapse.
Or you may want to exchange work with your partner,
but not necessarily ask them to read it or respond to it. In
Truth &Beauty, her memoir of a friendship with Lucy Grealy,
Ann Patchett says that Lucy and her friend Joy swore never to
read the pieces they dutifully sent each other. “In doing this
they had the obligation without the judgment. Whoever failed
to meet their weekly quota was committed to clean the other’s
bathroom.” If you prefer this, just structure your agreement
that way.
