this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
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Here's a list of tons of leftist movies.
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Are there any books that are written by like... Teams of people?
Books are the only entertainment medium that is entirely dominated by individual authors and hasn't turned into something where whole teams of writers work on a project. I guess the editor usually has a bit of input but still.
It also seems considerably better off for it, as a medium.
It's a natural consequence of cinema, video games, etc. that they will require teams of people most of the time because of the sheer volume of disciplines involved. Books only require one most of the time, just like painting, sculpture, songwriting, etc.
Maybe videogames and cinema are also better off with one dedicated writer, and an editor. I know "too many cooks" is already a thing that has been popularised in the past but perhaps it needs to make a return.
Several projects would genuinely be better off if the internals of the companies had a "keep your hands off" attitude to the writing, and kept it in the hands of one talented person rather than a team of people all trying to stamp their soulless addition on it while pushing and pulling internally over control.
Every example of "design by committee" can be matched by an example of a legendary writer's room (eg: golden era Simpsons)
Every brilliant auteur can be matched with an example of an "idea's man" who had to be reigned in by a team or was really a team all along with one person taking credit (eg: George Lucas).
I think it's more likely there are no hard rules for projects being better off with dedicated writers or teams of writers.
It's like asking if it's better for music to be written by singer-songwriter or a band working collaboratively. Both methods can produce great art.
But much like it exceptionally difficult to impossible to predict or manufacture a hit, I think it's probably a generally hard problem to determine what should be written by a team or a solo writer until after the work is already done.