Message Board Topic 12/29

[Comsie]

As there are many respected authors out there, all writing stories of their own, it's natural that some of those creative juices would cross paths every now and then. It can be a truly exciting experience sometimes! Writing your own stories, and admiring the work of your colleagues...only to match wits on the same story somewhere further down the line. It's awesome for readers to see the difference in writing styles also! Especially if it's done by some of their favorites. Can't go wrong, right?

 

But is it possible for writing styles and creative sparks to 'clash' in the process of trying to put a good story or series together? Do the varying styles throw you off as a reader? Or do they excite you even more? What do you guys think about author collaborations? And have you seen any great examples of what happens when two creative minds get together and do everything right? Let us know!

[Verm]

I think it would be cool, to have variant writing styles on one story. I've done one (last 2 weeks ago) but for my group's manga. We had 3 artists, each taking a chapter of the same story. It would need a lot of cooperation though, specifically to ensure the continuity isn't screwed up (which sadly we did screw it up a bit hehe)

[JamesSavik]

I've done one- Collision. Created the writers guidelines, characters and set up. Recruited many of the authors.

 

Won't do another one. Creative people are arseholes... myself included. Espically me.

[Graeme]

I've done one- Collision. Created the writers guidelines, characters and set up. Recruited many of the authors.

 

Won't do another one. Creative people are arseholes... myself included. Espically me.

I was part of Collision, too, so I know what James is talking about. However, that was a round robin, rather than a collaboration. While some of issues are the same (coordination, continuity, agreement on where the story is going and what the characters will do and not do), having only two people in a collaboration does make it easier to get consensus.

 

I've thought of doing a collaboration a number of times, but the mechanics involved can get scary. Is it alternating chapters? Is it each person gets a scene? How much can one author suggest/make changes to the other author's work to make it all fit more seamlessly? Would it be two equals, or a senior and junior author?

 

While it could be done electronically, I think a collaboration would be much more effective if the two authors could sit down together from time to time to work out issues in the story.

 

Just my two cents (Australian) worth....

[Comicality]

Good points made all around. And I agree with a great deal of it. Sometimes it's really difficult to get a bunch of creative individuals on the same project. So keeping it down to just a few choice authors is probably best. The less, the better.<p>

 

But I still don't think it's impossible for a round robin type of story to work. It just takes a lot of work and communication to pull it off. As I believe that I was warned about that before starting the "Lost In Shadow" story on my website a year or two ago. ::winks::<p>

 

As for a smaller collaboration, I really like the idea of it. I think the matching of styles and ideas would really be something amazing if it could be pulled off. Something like that takes a lot of hard work and planning, but how would that be any different from a lot of well written online stories? You know? I think it's just a matter of 'constant' communication and discussion, and most important of all, compromise. Which is extremely hard for a lot of authors. But not impossible. I'd love to see some match ups come together, you know? Great minds could do amazing things when they work together.

[Conner]

Another option is to have one author's story character show up in another author's story. I've only seen it once - CJ and Shadowgod are the authors. I enjoyed it, frankly. It added another dimension to what was a good read in the first place.

 

Characters for rent???

[Verm]

Quick edit to warn: OMG big wall of text! tl;dr

 

I agree the most important thing is communication. CONSTANT communication and discussion. In my previous collaboration, the other artists and I had very little discussion about the project because the other two were busy with studies, and I was busy with work. In the end, things were a bit haphazardly done. I was lucky that we were drawing them and not writing, so I had visual aids, so to say. I had the first artist show me her last two pages, and the last artist show me her first two, and I came up with the middle part of the story. It was hard, but it was also easy, because we had total freedom to what we wanted to do. The hardest part was that we were doing it at the same time, not chronologically, because we had a time limit to send the finished work to the printers. All of us finished the night before it was sent to print, so we couldn't have had time to repair anything with the story, as we had to redraw any mistakes.

 

I guess if I were to write and collaborate with authors, I would probably ask to do it in order of chapters, and not have the other authors write at the same time. This way we could coordinate the flow of the story better, having the first author set the pace.

 

I also agree with Conner, and would like to elaborate the point a bit. Personally, I think one of the important thing in a collaboration comes to the characters that will be used. Most (if not all) creators of the characters, whether they be authors or artists, are very, VERY protective of their characters. Some creators do not like their characters to be...out-of-character (OOC). The usual way to prevent this is not to let other people use them. The only way to reach a compromise, that I've used before and know of, is to let them use a character that I don't mind...abusing. In the sense of their portrayal of course, not in the violent sense. This gives room for some mistakes with the character that I don't really mind other people doing. Of course I can write a basic guideline or character sheet for the character, but sometimes there could be things that isn't detailed in them that the other author/artist might want the character to do, thus making them act OOC. This way would make the other authors/artists feel less scrutinized and they could work their way around it more freely and creatively.

 

I find that different artists don't really have to match their styles to make a great collaboration, but it does help the audience to familiarize themselves easier with the project. I don't know about authors though, but I do believe it isn't a big of a concern. I think that I would enjoy a story more if it's done in different styles. I came to this conclusion because I think if the styles of different authors are the same, I might rather just stick to one as it might read out the same and lose the writer's personality. But I dunno, I'm just wired like that so it might just be me hehe. The trick might be to get an author of a certain style to get to write a chapter or part of the story that would best showcase their talents. For example, getting an author with a flair for drama to write a part of the story with the same element, or an author who writes good comedy for the more lighter parts of the story. You know, all that divide and conquer thingy.

Edited January 3, 2009 by Verm

[Dolores Esteban]

Authors might also pick a theme for their stories and develop it over time. For instance, the story might start start in Ancient Rome and end in contemporary USA. Thus, the writers of historical fiction would have to start, while the authors, skilled in describing effectively contemporary events, would have to finish.

 

[JamesSavik]

One of the big bones of contention over Collision was how dark we allowed the plot to get.

 

Some of the authors wanted it to stay rated G. I like to address sociological issues/social trends in my writings- prehaps allowing some people to see how the other half lives or see something in action that they've only heard about and probably never thought much about.

 

When I suggested that one of the characters had been abused and filmed under the influence of the date rape drug (GHB) as a possible MOTIVE some of the other authors responded like I had cloven hoves and a forked tail.

 

Then we had the old debate: if you write a murder mystery are you advocating homicide or is it simply an element of the plot. Some people have a real problem with that.

 

If you are going to do a collaboration, then you've got to know where the boundaries are. Otherwise it will be the seeds for a fight that could potentially wreak the project.

[Mark Arbour]

One of the big bones of contention over Collision was how dark we allowed the plot to get.

 

Some of the authors wanted it to stay rated G. I like to address sociological issues/social trends in my writings- prehaps allowing some people to see how the other half lives or see something in action that they've only heard about and probably never thought much about.

 

When I suggested that one of the characters had been abused and filmed under the influence of the date rape drug (GHB) as a possible MOTIVE some of the other authors responded like I had cloven hoves and a forked tail.

 

Then we had the old debate: if you write a murder mystery are you advocating homicide or is it simply an element of the plot. Some people have a real problem with that.

 

If you are going to do a collaboration, then you've got to know where the boundaries are. Otherwise it will be the seeds for a fight that could potentially wreak the project.

 

You do have cloven hooves and a forked tail. See how writing brings out our true selves?

[Mark Arbour]

Some great ideas. Personally, I think it sounds like a lot of fun, but I think the group would have to be pretty flexible. Think about the group in here so far: Comicality (who approaches god-like status), James (who is patently evil), Graeme (the ultimate diplomat), Dolores (my fellow pal in historical fiction), and me (boundaries? WTF is a boundary?). What a blast! If you go for it, count me in.