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30 Day Fandom Meme Day 28
Day 28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
No. I don’t see how it’s possible! In fact, once I polled some people in HP about how they collaborated because I simply can’t imagine it working (even though it clearly does – many collaborations are just fantastic). I can’t imagine writing a story with someone else and either enjoying the process or having it come out well, even though I’ve seen that it can happen. Fascinates me.
In HP a couple of artists have done art for my stories (Lizardspots did a sort of comic strip, trekkiegrrl and yael created single scenes), not in collaboration but just because they felt like it. It's very cool to see how other people interpret scenes, and how close they sometimes come to what I was seeing in my head. I don't know if that's coincidence or simply that I described it effectively - you really can't know - but it's very cool to see how others visualize my words.
No. I don’t see how it’s possible! In fact, once I polled some people in HP about how they collaborated because I simply can’t imagine it working (even though it clearly does – many collaborations are just fantastic). I can’t imagine writing a story with someone else and either enjoying the process or having it come out well, even though I’ve seen that it can happen. Fascinates me.
In HP a couple of artists have done art for my stories (Lizardspots did a sort of comic strip, trekkiegrrl and yael created single scenes), not in collaboration but just because they felt like it. It's very cool to see how other people interpret scenes, and how close they sometimes come to what I was seeing in my head. I don't know if that's coincidence or simply that I described it effectively - you really can't know - but it's very cool to see how others visualize my words.
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Here's the key puzzle to me - exactly how did you share the linking narrative? How'd you keep pacing and plot seamless?
And in your other collaborations, exactly how did it work? I know this could be a REALLY long answer and I won't be offended if you don't want to go into it, but I'm genuinely fascinated by how two writers actually do the day to day work of stitching two different styles together - I simply cannot picture it being satisfying [which is probably just me] because I can't see how I write something, someone else writes the next bit, and they're totally happy with my bit and I'm totally happy with theirs, etc. And it's not about quality - I certainly don't suppose there aren't plenty of better writers out there - I can't even visualize working with a writer who's better than me! There's a certain investment in "my" story being mine (that's a great pleasure of fanfic for me); I can't help thinking I'd resent someone else changing it or telling me I had to change it or even simply taking it in a direction (re tone or characterization) that's away from how I feel the story should go. I can't help thinking it would leave me unhappy (and again, that would have zero to do with quality and everything to do with my personal interpretation of the story). I hope I don't suck totally at compromise (I might ...), but in a weird way I think a fanfic story is either mine or it's not mine - I don't seem to be able to visualize a middle ground.
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Then we stumbled upon interactive writing. Basically, we divvied up the characters. I wrote all the MFU characters, she wrote the Escape characters and we divvied up the OCs. I would write the narrative piece that contained my character speaking or doing, then stop. Then she would write. After a while, it became instinctual when to stop, although sometimes, it was just a line of dialogue. We did this over a dedicated computer program in the late 1980s-early 90s, then over email. Wrote four and a half volumes and thousands upon thousands of words this way.
I then tried it with Nancy Hayes. She worked faster than Nan, so we did it over AOL/IM. Same divving up, but usually as I was writing my piece, Nancy would be revising hers and material flowed in two directions very quickly. We finished an entire complicated novel, Small Sacrifices, in six weeks. Our test was Two Men Sittin' on a Boat which is on File 40. Small Sacrifices won a FanQ.
Linda White wrote equally fast and I wrote the vampire story with her pretty much the same way and in similar record time.
Fara and I like to write Solo and Angelique this way and we finished an x-rated piece similar over AOL/IM.
In each case, we esablished an overall arc for the story BUT we kept pieces and secrets from each other as we moved along. No one could tell the other person what to write or how a character should act. It's very exciting that way --like living inside a character ---and it's totally absorbing and addictive. Nan and I only went down a dead end once, and then we agreed to throw a bunch of pages out, back up and start again, re-imagining a particular turning point.
I have been lucky in finding four people with whom I'm on the same wavelength and I think they would agree it was a satisfying experience with a good outcome each time.
I can provide links to some of the pieces and we can talk further about who wrote what and how if you're interested in pursuing the question.
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I suspect this is key (not the only one, of course - but maybe a sine qua non?) - generally the same level of writing skill and the same outlook regarding story arc and level of detail - in a very broad sense, similar writing styles. I would think that without that, it'd be impossible, at least, to keep the seams from showing.
I really appreciate your articulating this!
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For reference....
An excerpt from Escape/MFU written with Nan is here and here.
"The Children of the Night Afair," written with Linda, is here.
And "Risky Business" written with Fara is here.
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Oh, this makes perfect sense, and you do have to sacrifice ego a bit. With Nan and I, we have different skill sets. I'm better at propelling the story arc; she's better at managing emotional nuance so we sort of guided each other. The narrative that emerged, we both agree, was a third voice, part her, part me.
With Nancy, our characters were set against each other so it was more competitive than collaborative, with the characters sort of outmaneuvering each other. It was exhausting but totally absorbing and the result was very sharp.
My collaborations with Linda and Fara were more like romances [the material was softer, lighter] and the give and take was a bit different.
Each collaboration was a different sort of relationship and personally, I treasure them all.
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With Nancy, our characters were set against each other so it was more competitive than collaborative, with the characters sort of outmaneuvering each other. It was exhausting but totally absorbing and the result was very sharp.
But did you agree in advance who was going to "win" so to speak (plot/character wise, not personally!)? Did you have a clear outline that you stuck to?
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What happened early on was that I had Solo react in a way I thought consistent with Nowhere Aff but not quite what Illya was expecting. Then, when Solo woke up without knowing who he was, I just followed that and acted according. Suddenly, there were options I didn't see either but I just followed the logic of it. So did she. Suddenly, she and Illya realized they were in trouble and she even brought in the first OC characters to add to the chaos.
We really didn't have a plan for this for some time and just followed the logic. Somewhere along the line, we agreed Solo should probably escape, so in that way, she had to hold Illya back a bit. But not much, since Illya would not have killed Solo anyway. Poor Illya did get pummeled however, and both she and he had to allow it to happen. We never explicitly agreed, but it was clear this would not be a death story and we would resolve it by the end. It was my idea to bring in April and then Angelique which complicated matters even further. On the other hand, she did the doctor [who ended up the antagonist] and the lab guys.
The hardest part of the story for me was playing Waverly to her Kuryakin. We didn't realize AW would be so important and it worked better if I played AW. But then I was pitted against her Illya and had to discuss philosophy and occasionally out-argue him. That was really hard and I did the best I could. The title arose from one of those exchanges.
I believe that if you're writing logically, stories fall into almost pre-determined structure see [lit theory and Joseph Campbell] . We followed the logic of the situation even as it became more and more complicated.
As with Nan, we had a lot of side huddles --- time outs in which we talked about what was happening as if we were just witnesses. Writing this way gives you a feeling of being on a team ---you and your characters -- of both acting but also simply watching the characters in action. So, yes, we did take occasional time outs to talk about where things were going, but we always share what we individually would do about them. Sometimes, it's better to allow the characters to react.
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Did you find you had to throw out chunks that went in a wrong direction, or did your constant communication keep you both from veering too far?
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As I said in another comment, I think stories have an in-born structure and that begins to emerge. And yes, you must be able to trust that your writing partner won't do someting stupid. I was in another multi-player collaboration where half the writers were "serious" while there were two people throwing monkey wrenches into the plot just for the 'fun' of it. There's no way to finish a story like that and I bailed. The project fell apart.
The only time I have ever thrown a huge chunk out was with Nan. We couldn't decide whether or not a character should overhear an argument. We decided he didn't and then kept writing and realized a couple of dozen pages later we'd made a wrong turn. So, we reconsidered, found the turning point and backed up. It was like the proverbial road not taken and the second way worked much better. If only real life could work that way :)
To answer your last point, communication is vital. It doesn't require fairly regular huddles between writers if plotting is key. I think I had fewer huddles with Fara and Linda because those stories were less plot-driven and I could speak to them *through* the characters. This was particularly true with Napoleon and Angelique.
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Yes, which is why we divvy up the characters. I loved writing my Solo with Nancy's Illya. She didn't tell me how to write mine and I didn't tell her how to write hers. The interacton between them was fascinating, however, almost like we weren't writing but just watching them interact and taking notes.
When I write by myself, I do control everything. But if you're willing to sacrifice some of that control, you gt the adrenalin rush of risk. The pay-off is like living with the characters in a real world.