Let’s Get Together, yeah yeah yeah
23 Sep 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: writing
I am absolutely fascinated with the concept of collaborative fiction writing. Probably this stems from my love of online role-playing, which I was heavily involved with a decade or so ago. I imagine that it’s similar, like when you’re involved in a storyline with someone, only deeper and much, much more involved. That would be fine with me, seeing as how I could never get enough of it anyway, when working with someone whose writing I enjoyed.
Oh, I’m sure it’s more involved than I realize, but still, the idea intrigues me.
The first book that comes to mind when I think about collaboration is The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Even though I knew when I read it that it had been written by co-authors, I had no idea until much, much later that they’d taken it in turns to write. I imagine that it’s difficult for two people to write from the same character’s perspective and maintain any sort of flow in the voice. I don’t think I’d enjoy writing that way, because what I love about collaborating on a storyline is how much more authentic it is to have a separate character with a whole separate way of thinking.
Since I found out how Emma and Nicola wrote The Nanny Diaries, I’ve re-read it and tried to spot subtle changes in how each chapter sounds. Honestly, they were either twins separated at birth, or had a really excellent editor, because my amatuer eyes can’t pick up on it. Amateur I may be, but I’m pretty sensitive to voice continuity, and it never fails to frustrate me when something is not written the same way in the beginning as it is at the end.
The only way it would work for me is if I found someone who would be as obsessive about it as I am. When I’m up to my eyeballs in my imagination, I dwell on it, and would have very little patience with a partner who was half-hearted about it. It’s a chief character flaw for me, impatience. But hey, everyone should be willing to be dedicated enough to neglect things like eating and sleeping, doing their real job and seeing the sun… right? It’s not so much to ask.
Well, maybe I’m a little bit too obsessive.
But in the event that I could find someone who could share my enthusiasm for a project, I think it would be a lot of fun. A unique experience.
I’ve been having some fun with one of my old roleplaying partners today, with two of our characters that had a fascinating relationship. She’s been giving me situations to write about, and I’ve been able to get inside my favorite character’s head and write how she would’ve reacted, what she would’ve been thinking. I call it snippet writing, usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-500 words, mostly internal dialogue. It’s a form of character development for me, and I enjoy doing it that way quite as much as I enjoyed my soundtrack game* for the novel I wrote earlier this year.
I could quite literally do it all day long.
I wonder if anyone has collaborated on a novel that way, mixing role-playing with multiple perspectives. I’m sure they have before and I’m just ignorant of it, but I’d be interested to see something written in that format. Meanwhile, if anyone has a strong desire to give it a try…. well, I could miss a meal or two, and I hear the sun causes skin cancer.
*The soundtrack game was this: Since I am an audiophile, I do my best writing when I have music playing. I set up a playlist for my novel-writing in iTunes, and had it on shuffle about 90% of the time I was writing. After it was all finished and my stepmother had read the book, I told her (for introspection as much as anything else) to ask me about certain scenes, and I’d find the song that inspired me or helped me put myself in the mood of the scene. That was *fun* because it surprised me as often as it didn’t.
