Collaborative Writing

The idea of writing with someone else(s) makes me break out in hives, so I'm no analytical help...

I just wanted to say that an app for collaborative writing sounds really cool for people who like that sort of thing.

I've done it in two casual ways only, one as a party game of exquisite corpse (poetry version) which I adapted to the classroom many times, and another writing an actual story with a partner, a two POV story where we switched off until we decided it was over (sold it, too). I have never done it seriously, but I am open to the idea. I'd want talked-out, agreed-upon rules first.

I'm not sure what an app would be; interested in hearing what you mean by that.

The only collaborative writing I've done was round-robin stories where we were basically trying to make each other laugh.

I couldn't say whether an app would help serious collaborative writers, but you might get some mileage out of something that is a combination of writing and social media.

ShortStoryZ said:

Developing an app for group writing. What are your thoughts? What do you like/dislike about collaborative writing? Why do you do it? Why don't you do it? Your input is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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When times are slow, my writing group does 'relay writing', where we take turns writing chapters based on an initial premise. The result looks nothing like a finished novel, but it certainly takes some creative turns. One of our members is ready to try to turn the stack of chapters from one of these exercises into a novel.

I have taken part in all sorts of writing that could be described as collaborative. I was in an amdram group and we wanted to put on a murder mystery. All those who wanted to take part in the mm wrote out a brief background history of their character. I took the 'characters' away with me and used them to write the plot of the play that was eventually put on. During the first rehearsals there was quite a bit of improvisation and this was eventually scripted.

The second time was on a message board where a group of us wrote a story chapter by chapter. We had a running order and a time limit. Basically a list of names and you had to post your chapter within a specific time frame. It was great fun as we never knew where the story was going or how it would end. The group did quite a few collaborations, some where plotted and some were not. We also did collaborative stories as birthday presents for each other - they were done in secret with one of the group overseeing it. Some of the group were artists and/or photographers so there were pics as well.

Last and most recent was writing Shakespeare Sandwich for the Mere Players, the local amdram group. It was written by myself and the director/producer. It really was great fun and I enjoyed it, although we did have to meet up to discuss where we were going with it.

I have enjoyed all off the collaborative writing I have done and, mostly, found it stimulating to bounce ideas about. I also found that I could not be precious about my work and had to go with the group feeling even if it went against mine.

There were three things that were annoying and frustrating. People who said they would take part, insisted that their take on the plot/story line was the correct one and then said they did not have the time to write their chapter. Badly written and careless work, not spell checked and just thrown at the rest of the group with a cyber shrug of the shoulders! One chapter, nearly three thousand words was written entirely in lower case and with no punctuation. Lastly there were some group members who did not bother to read at least the chapter before the one you had to write so the chapter submitted made no sense and did not fit in. Sometimes the chapters would have totally different characters and locations.

Done it on three novels (Veil of Deception, Whispers of Innocence, and Distant Obsession), always with a female author budette whose writing I respected. Difficulties included the different ways a man and woman view life, love, etc; establishing rules for revising the other authors chapters; and making the separation in voices not so pronounced.

The good news is that the end result is amazing in terms of realistically reflecting both genders POVs, especially stories with a romantic base. Not just my perspective. We received five star reviews that reflect the same benefit in realistic characters and POV.

ShortStoryZ said:

Developing an app for group writing.

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Have you looked at Gobby or Etherpad?