You and a friend have an idea for a story. You have an idea for dialogue, they an idea for a bit of plot. You two start to write and you have a blast. You're both thinking “OHMIGAWD THIS STORY IS GONNA BE SO, SO, SO COOL!!” Ideas are exchanged, critiques are given. It's a nice environment for you and your friend to bond, right? You show it to some friends or family, both of you, and they like it. Then, the friend asks you if it's okay for them to share the story with other people. You jokingly remind them to not hog all the glory. But, sort of not jokingly. If you're a serious writer, that story is something you slaved over, you just had extra help, input and ideas writing this story.

Follow up:

Now, imagine that you hear somebody talk about how well-written a part of the story is. You ask, and as it turns out, it's a part you wrote! How wonderful! Wait...they're saying the friend is the really good writer. Huh? What? You check between styles, and that part's in your style. You know you wrote it, because you can recognize your writing style clearly.

It could just be misunderstanding, right? Your friend didn't sit through and go “I wrote that part...Jane/John wrote that part...I wrote that part...Jane/John changed some of the grammar...we both sort of fiddled with that part...” while the person was reading it. On the other hand, though, there's a little part of your mind (or a very big part) that tells you that you aren't getting credit. They tell you that they gave you credit, though. Even though they possibly told the people they showed it to that it's a collaboration, that's still your PART they're getting credit for.

That happened to me, and it broke my heart. Worse yet, the friend in question didn't really write as much as give ideas. While that's okay, they were the one being told that they were a good writer. This probably sounds selfish, but I'm the one who should have been given credit with writing.

If you feel as if you aren't being given any credit by the other person, speak up. No need to run around like Godzilla yelling “I AM THE ONE WHO WROTE THIS, (FRIEND) IS A LIAR AND IS A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE PERSON!” All you need to do is call/message/etc your friend about how you feel as if you're getting under-credited. Also, if you don't like how they collaborating is set up (my set up, for example, where I wrote and my friend piped up with an idea or two) tell them. If you don't like writing the story, or feel as if the ideas that the friend have are smothering your own ability to create original ideas, encourage your friend to write something by themselves.

Another issue with collaborating is whether or not you and/or your friend are serious with writing. You might be writing just for fun, but writing could be your friend's passion, or vice versa. It gets annoying when your friend says that they have a really big interest in writing, but you're the one who does all of the writing, I know. However, your casual attitude to the story/stories might annoy your friend who writes for a living or aspires to write for a living.

If you and a friend are collaborating, don't read this and instantly assume some sort of giant conspiracy. Do take some of these words to heart, though, even if you realize that your friend might get annoyed with the fact that you only give ideas. If you're in the situation that I was, or you were at one point, I'm sorry. It sucks, I know.