Both? Neither?

I can’t decide if writing is an individual or group effort.

On the one hand, all the action, all the dialogue, all the grist that the mill of my method chews up, takes place in my mind.  I can’t rent space in someone else’s head, and pull out their ideas, or run my concepts through their cognitive process to see which work and which don’t.

I sometimes can’t sleep because my head refuses to stop churning out dialogue and plot points.  In an effort to not lose them, I sacrifice a little sleep and write freehand in a notebook I keep for their capture.

On the other hand, no writing takes place in a vacuum.  As Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen farther than others, it’s because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”  My giants tend to be shoddily constructed step-ladders that I’ve nailed together myself.  But there’s plenty of time spent in research and development for characters, plots and descriptive text.

There are also the alpha/beta readers, who add their own influence.  I even had a few friends who are fans, and ask, “So when is that next book going to be done?”