How can you effectively revise with a writing partner or team?

I've been writing with a partner for years now and it is absolutely my preferred method as I tend to lose interest at some point or to run out of steam and my partner is always able to contribute great ideas that get me re-engaged in the material. At the moment we're rewriting something I took over from another writer. I did a solo pass on it and, typically for me, it got much longer - too long, in fact. My writing partner is a master at expressing a lot with a little so we're ripping it apart. What is critical in that is communication. He needs to understand my intent and I need to be open to his reason for a cut and not precious about a scene or moment. On either side of that we both have to be able to express the "why." Get good at this.

Everyone has their process; A way of working that is easiest for them. My partner is a planner while I am more of a "let's just start" kind of guy who finds the story as the characters go along. Our process has evolved organically in our partnership in the way that I will often do my own pass at scenes and then he comes in and makes them better or vice versa, but unlike this prompt, we don't specifically assign any one thing to one another. It is critical to remember that the draft is one thing. It's the blueprint for the movie and it needs to be cohesive. We find that active collaboration works best (like, on a FaceTime call with FD Collaborator running) so we're working in real-time. In the rewrite or polish, we go from pp 1 to the end.

Always, ALWAYS get feedback before you go out with your material. As a consultant myself, I'm certainly not always right, but you need fresh eyes and fresh perspective to know where things are landing. I rely not on consultants generally (though I have) but on peers whose work I respect. What you should NEVER do is give your material to family or friends. In my opinion they'll always be careful, wary of your feelings. You need honest, unvarnished feedback. Again, it doesn't always mean the read is correct - art is, after all, subjective - but you can start to look for the repetitive note from different readers, and those are the ones you HAVE TO address one way or another.

Wholeheartedly agree with this prompt. Writing is hard. It's arduous and frustrating. A writer recently said, "I like writing five minutes before I start and ten minutes after I'm finished... between those times, it's miserable." It's made all the more difficult by the reality that you have to put your work out there to be judged, no one will ever truly know what it took to create it... and it can be horrible when people just start poking holes in something you've been on for weeks , months (or more!) You have to take every win and bask in it, no matter how small. Get macro. You fixed a scene! You improved a line! You "killed your baby" and were strong enough to cut your favorite (unnecessary) scene! Celebrate your wins. All of 'em.

If you're writing via a team, you really need for there to be one person who is in charge and makes the final decision. Someone has to be the project lead, and established as such up front. If you don't do this, you end up re-debating the same creative differences endlessly over and over again. Everything can be shared equally, but the final creative choices ultimately need to rest with a single person who is clearly identified from the beginning. This helps set expectations, creates a clear chain of command, and helps everyone protect their feelings about the project ahead of time, and preserves a single goal/vision for the work's end state.