Team effort

Status
Not open for further replies.

aadams73

A Work in Progress
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
9,901
Reaction score
6,428
Location
Oregon
I don't care how many people wrote the book, so long as it's a good read. So I don't think it really matters. Two people can write as well or as badly as a single writer.
 

seun

Horror Man
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
9,709
Reaction score
2,053
Age
46
Location
uk
Website
www.lukewalkerwriter.com
What Alex said. It doesn't matter how many writers work on a book - a good read is a good read either way.
 

alleycat

Still around
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
72,873
Reaction score
12,224
Location
Tennessee
I assume you're talking about fiction. In general, I tend to think less of book written by two people (James Patterson comes to mind); however, I wouldn't refuse to read it just for that reason alone.
 

swvaughn

adrift
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 17, 2006
Messages
2,037
Reaction score
593
I tend to think, "Oh, those poor writers, having to work together on a project, how did they ever survive the process? I think I'd end up killing a writing partner, or we'd both end up killing each other, like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas in War of the Roses..."
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
47,985
Reaction score
13,245
I read quite a few Nicci French books before I realised Nicci French is two people. A married couple, though, so they've had practice at getting along!

Although the copyright page does mention 'Joined-Up Writing' Ltd so it seems obvious now...

I couldn't do it. I always believe the ideas I have for the book are the best ideas, and I'm right, 'cause it's my damn story! I ain't sharin'!!!
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
47,985
Reaction score
13,245
I assume you're talking about fiction. In general, I tend to think less of book written by two people (James Patterson comes to mind); however, I wouldn't refuse to read it just for that reason alone.

You're probably thinking of ghosts. I don't mind collaborations but ghosted books are generally rank.
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
47,985
Reaction score
13,245
Righto. But ghosting and collaborations are two completely different animals and one can't always 'see the joins' in the latter.
 

alleycat

Still around
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 18, 2005
Messages
72,873
Reaction score
12,224
Location
Tennessee
Righto. But ghosting and collaborations are two completely different animals and one can't always 'see the joins' in the latter.
True. And I said I wouldn't refuse to read a book just because it was a collaboration. However, my first thought when I see one of these done in fiction is to question why the writer(s) couldn't write a book by himself, and that it's a little like writing a book by committee. So, for me, a book written as a collaboration already has a strike against it before I even open it. This is just my feeling, I'm not trying to change anyone else's point of view.
 

Kate Thornton

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
2,809
Reaction score
899
Location
Sunny SoCal
Website
www.katethornton.net
I wrote in a collaborative team for a while - we turned out several books and it was a fun process. My writing partner wrote the bones of the story - the plot - and I went back over it and wrote the dialogue, descriptions, etc. We spent hours talking about the characters and what happened to them and it was an enjoyable and succesful project. My writing partner was nearly blind, but could see everything in her mind.

The books came out under a pen name and I signed over the rights to her (it was a gift when she had to move to a different city and her eyesight deteriorated further) I have to admit - it was 10 years ago and I still think of the experience with pleasure.
 

ChaosTitan

Around
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
15,463
Reaction score
2,886
Location
The not-so-distant future
Website
kellymeding.com
I have co-written two novels. It was a fun, exciting collaberation, and we are planning a third. We did not team up because one of us was a bad writer, or because we couldn't do it on our own. We teamed up because during a random conversation, we unknowingly began to plot. Location, characters, situations, timeline, all if it just flowed.

It was exciting. We fleshed it out and wrote.

It amuses me that someone would judge a book (or the authors) because two names appear on a cover. What about writers like LA Graf, who is two people, but uses a pen name? One name = better book? *giggles*
 

Birol

Around and About
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
14,759
Reaction score
2,998
Location
That's a good question right now.
You people keep sending my mind off on tangents!

I was just thinking, reading Chaos' post, that unless I'm looking for a specific book, I don't really look at author's names when I'm just browsing the bookshelves. I wouldn't even truly process that the book was written by two people until I'd already started the pre-read selection process and wouldn't think of it much one way or another -- except I guess I do sorta glance at the author's name. So, now, I'm wondering, how many people are like me and how many are like Alleycat?

When you're just browsing and not seeking a specific book -- and answer honestly now -- what do you really look at? The cover? The inside text? The title? The author's name? What makes you pick up the book?

For me, I walk along the aisles, if the books are front-facing, the cover might catch my eye and then the title, then I might pick it up, noticing the author's name somewhere between glancing at the title and picking it up, but I'd only process it if there was name recognition, then it's open it up and the leaf through, then the flab/backcover blurb. Sometimes the leaf through and reading the blurb are reversed.

If the books are spine out, it's the title that catches my eye. If it's something that sounds interesting, I glance at the author's name as I pull it off the shelf, process it if it's familiar, ignore it if it's not, then it's the cover (sometimes the cover and the author's name are reversed), then the cover blurb, and leaf through (sometimes reversed.)

Strange, I just realized that if the book is spine out, rather than front-facing, I tend to read the blurb first and if the book is front-facing, I do the opposite.

[/twaddling]
 

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Messages
11,724
Reaction score
2,085
Website
peterdamien.com
I have no problem with collaborations, have done it a couple of times myself, and have plenty of books on my shelf written by more than one author. I think it generally works out just fine.

The only time I find myself looking for the seams between writing is if its two authors I really love separately who are writing together. With Good Omens, I try to spot the bits that Terry Pratchett wrote and the bits that Neil Gaiman wrote. Likewise when Stephen King and Peter Straub write together.
 

Birol

Around and About
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
14,759
Reaction score
2,998
Location
That's a good question right now.
I think if both collaborators are good writers, they're going to be able to imitate each other's styles to a certain degree and make intelligent and conscious decisions about how they use the tools of the trade to achieve a unified voice throughout the work. If they're really good and enough time passes, they might not even be able to definitively say who wrote what.
 
Last edited:

ChaosTitan

Around
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
15,463
Reaction score
2,886
Location
The not-so-distant future
Website
kellymeding.com
When you're just browsing and not seeking a specific book -- and answer honestly now -- what do you really look at? The cover? The inside text? The title? The author's name? What makes you pick up the book?

If it's facing out, usually the cover grabs me first. If I really like the art and the title, I pick it up, glance at the author's name (to see if I've heard of them or not), and then read the back cover blurb. If I am iffy about the blurb, I'll look at the scene sample that most paperbacks have in the front, and check for blurbs about other published novels the author might have. After that, I skim the pages. I love dialogue (I was a Communication major, makes sense, right?), so if the book has chunk after chunk of exposition, it goes back to the shelf.

If the book is spine out, the title grabs me first. Then the same rules apply. :D
 

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
2,719
Reaction score
2,056
Location
GA
There is a certain Christian series that is mostly co-authored. I've only read a few of them, but after a while it became clear to me that I was not interested in reading any more of the single-author titles in the series because clearly, the other author is the better writer.

I'm just saying.
 

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
8,424
Reaction score
2,554
Location
In the toidy.
I'm not sure how I feel about it - I tend to notice the author's name secondarily, unless I'm looking for something written by someone who's name I know. But the few I can recall knowing for sure were done by collaboration did kinda bug me in the sense that, knowing one of the authors and not the second, gave me a false impression of how well the second could write.

I read something by her alone and didn't like it one bit.

What bothers me is when you read a book, then find out it was 'conceived' by one writer, and penned by another. It feels like one writer is 'riding the coat tails' of the other as an unfair advantage.

But that's just a personal tick of mine. I can't imagine collaborating, myself.
 

ChunkyC

It's hard being green
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
12,297
Reaction score
2,135
Location
trapped between my ears
I have read a number of 2+ author books, and have enjoyed them immensely.

Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven have collaborated on a number of exceptional science fiction novels: Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall, The Mote in God's Eye, The Gripping Hand ... they've even written a number of books with a third author. Fallen Angels, written with Mike Flynn, is a great book. There's also a series of Beowulf books written with Steven Barnes, but I haven't read any of those.

Pournelle and Niven are probably the most successful collaborators in science fiction, at least that I'm aware of.
 

Dave.C.Robinson

... with the High Command
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
2,130
Reaction score
186
Location
At the computer
Website
www.daverobinsonwrites.com
It depends on the writers as to how the collaboration is done. Some do alternating drafts-- some have one set the skeleton and the other drape over it.

Some collaborations work really well-- others I can't stand. For example, I like David Weber, John Ringo, and Weber-Ringo collaborations. However if either of them collaborates with Linda Evans I find the resulting book is almost impossible to read.

I don't see collaborations as a turnoff-- though I'm not sure when I'll be ready to write one.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.