collaboration

[Nick B]

Is anyone else here collaborating on any work? There must be some people on here doing it apart from me surely. If there are, how are you finding it? What do you find good/bad?
Some people have said it UST be hard but I'm finding it quite natural, also its nice when you feel demotivated and your co is there to pick you up, dust you off and get you going again.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Mouse collaborated with All My Wires, who isn't around much anymore, on Otherworld. I threatened to once, then decided I liked the world too much and ran away. But I'm not a natural collaborator at the best of times (there's a reason I'm self employed....)

 

[Mouse]

Yep, me and amw did it. Was pretty easy but we both love the same stuff and have the same ideas about how characters should be. Book got published so it can be done. If it works for you, do it.

 

[Nick B]

Thing is, my co writer and I have been friends for like 32 years, since we were 11 years old so know each other very very well. We are editing our first novel now, lots to do till its done.

 

[Mouse]

Me and amw met on here and she's ten years younger than me. But yeah, you really need to get on well with the other person, definitely!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Thing is, my co writer and I have been friends for like 32 years, since we were 11 years old so know each other very very well. We are editing our first novel now, lots to do till its done.

It's all depends on personal preference and trust. It's not something I think most writers should jump into, but long-standing partnerships can work. I have a friend, Darren Allen, who has traditionally published two non-fiction books and one novel with a close friend he has spent at least 10 years co-writing with. It works for them.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

It's something I'd love to try, but I think I need to develop my skills a LOT before anyone would be prepared to take me on as a co-writer!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Fingers twitch, ready to issue a small slap...

Some of it comes down to your make up in terms of how you work with others. I'll try a bit of theory and wonder what the collaborists think:

Does one of you tend to have a very clear idea of where you should go with it? Not come up with ideas - both can do that, a team will support more than one plant, but generally, there can only be one shaper in the team, and that person holds the vision of where to go. The other person will support it and work towards it, but if there are two people with a differing strong vision it's going to be difficult. (Actually, thinking back, I think I would have found it hard to give ground on this one nor would the other person. I certainly know I rarely do - shaper to my core, here. T'was probably for the best.)

Does one of you tend to be good at completing things? Checking the i's and crossing the t's? And does one of have the ability to sit back and appraise how it's going?

I also assume there's a healthy dose of teamworking in the mix, or you'd all walk out on each other.

 

[Mouse]

I think one of the reasons it worked so well with me and amw was, as well as the fact we get on really well - we rarely disagree - was that, because I'm older (and, well, I shout louder) I kinda got to lead, as it were. I think you do need one person to be in overall control and amw was happy for that person to be me.

We both worked on the plot together and both got our own ideas in there. Plus as we both had one POV character each, which we could basically do what we wanted with, it was all very equal in terms of writing the thing.

When it came to editing, we both went through it together. When it came to edits from the publisher, we spoke about it together but I was the one who did all the changes - with amw knowing what I was doing.

 

[Hex]

You also need time. If one collaborator is rubbish and unreliable then it's probably more a source of stress than enjoyment.

Having said that, I really enjoyed my experience of it (and I hope to enjoy it again when I stop being so rubbish). I'd agree it helps if someone has a clear idea of where the story is going (and that wasn't me).

 

[Jo Zebedee]

You also need time. If one collaborator is rubbish and unreliable then it's probably more a source of stress than enjoyment.

Having said that, I really enjoyed my experience of it (and I hope to enjoy it again when I stop being so rubbish). I'd agree it helps if someone has a clear idea of where the story is going (and that wasn't me).

Actually, that might be the killer for me. Waiting for the poor person to keep up with me...

 

[Remedy]

Actually, that might be the killer for me. Waiting for the poor person to keep up with me...

*shudders*

 

[HareBrain]

I really enjoyed my experience of it too. There seemed to be much more energy driving it than I'm used to -- it took me back to the start of my writing career.

I was aware that I was the one generally guiding the story, which I felt awkward about at the time, but thanks to springs it seems that was what was supposed to happen! But what made it more exciting than writing purely my own stuff was that even if I thought I knew where it had to go, my collaborator would chuck in stuff I would never have seen coming. It's exciting when your subconscious throws up something unexpected; when someone else's subconscious does, it adds a whole new level of unpredictability.

(But you have to work well together. I could count on the fingers of half a hand the people I could see myself working with like that.)

 

[Phyrebrat]

I've often wondered about collabing with Mouse.

pH

 

[Hex]

I think -- for me -- what worked especially well was the sense that the person I collaborated with was someone who was very strong where I tend to be weak. So, for example, things like having an idea of where the story would go was reassuring -- and knowing it wasn't my problem was great. It meant my character could do her thing and I still knew where she ended up. Also, he had a very strong sense of place that I liked, and a different way of looking at things that were familiar to me.

Some of the scenes we came up with and wrote are still right there in my head (there was a particularly freaky scene with a bus!) And it was brilliant to be able to talk to someone who was just as interested as you in what happened to the characters and how they might interact or come to a particular point.

Argh! I am not thinking about this now. I have another ms to finish.

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

That sounds exciting.

Once I have my WIP finished (and maybe the two sequels that are in first draft form) I would love to find a collaborator who is strong on character development, because that is my weak area. One of my weak areas. It would be fun to try and see how it went.

More than likely no one could put with me though.

 

[Mouse]

I've often wondered about collabing with Mouse.

pH

'ave 'ee? Can you imagine how much swearing there would be in it?!

Also, pretty sure I already know the ending.

"And then they all f*cking died. ...Or did they?"

 

[ratsy]

Don't think that a collab is something I would ever do, but who knows where the wind will take me

I read all of the Raymond Feist Collab books with authors and his Empire series and they never felt like his books. I always wondered if he took a back seat and threw his name on them or if he was active and the melding of the two, just changed the style.

 

[Juliana]

I'm not sure I would be very good at collaborating. At school, I was always the person getting fed up with group work and then just doing everyone else's parts by myself. I was very popular when it came to group work.

 

[Nick B]

We pretty much come up with the story together over many, many cups of coffee ( thanks Whittle Inn for having refillable costa coffee for just £ 2.50!) , we meet up regularly. It has been a strange process to be fair. Neither of us actualy leads the project, we sort of lead in whatever scene we write, then get advice from the other. We work together in the re-write via skype and literaly re-write every line, shaping it until we are both happy, a long process. We are at page 80something of 477 at the moment.