So maybe Ninja from Die Antwoord doesn't like to collaborate...

[BiscuitHammer]

But what about y'all? Would you collaborate with another author on here? And if so, whom?

 

[TxRad]

But what about y'all? Would you collaborate with another author on here? And if so, whom?

Yes, I've collaborated with a write from the AH. The problem is, she is no longer with us. I miss her greatly.

I guess a link is appropriate. Gentlemen, Please Start Your Pussies by Sarah_and_Tex

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Already have and would do it again...Blind_Justice on a impromptu Author's Hangout contest. Great guy, great writer.

 

[_Lynn_]

I have and I would do it again. It was a great experience.

 

[SimonDoom]

For people who have collaborated on a story: how did you do it? Did you allocate different chapters to each other? How do you maintain stylistic continuity? I'm curious how this works.

 

[KindofHere]

.............

 

[TxRad]

For people who have collaborated on a story: how did you do it? Did you allocate different chapters to each other? How do you maintain stylistic continuity? I'm curious how this works.

With the story above, I had the story started but didn't feel it was going where I wanted it to. I asked Sarah to have a look at it and see what she thought from a female point of view. The next thing I knew, we had it open in google word and a text messenger open so we could discuss things.

We changed all the text to red to start. she wrote in green and I wrote in blue. Then we went over each section. When we agreed on it, we changed the font to black. Her being an English teacher helped with grammar and such. Our styles of humor being close help tremendously.

On a whole the story became so much more than I ever expected. The chat was almost as much fun as the writing. Trying to keep the story from being too over the top was probably the hardest part.

I'd love to have wrote more stories with her but someone outed her and she had to leave.

 

[lovecraft68]

About four years ago (wow) I ran an unofficial lit contest called the tag team competition. We had twenty to start buy a few dropped off. I think we ended with 14 and an impartial person-ladyver- drew names and messages people who their partners were

We did it like the fawc all stories were submitted under the same name and I think we have it a couple of weeks for the high score.

I can't remember who won but the prize was an official tag team belt graphic I made up

I wrote with xelliebabex and our story republished under her name won a monthly.

It was a challenge but a good 0ne and everyone got along throughout.

 

[SimonDoom]

Interesting comments. Not having done this, when I think about collaboration on a story my first thought is of a legendary and hilarious tandem story one can find all over the Internet, including here: http://thechive.com/2010/04/13/creative-writing-assignment-goes-hilariously-awry-1-assignment/.


Obviously, the actual process is more nuanced and apparently much more successful than that.

 

[shabbu]

For people who have collaborated on a story: how did you do it? Did you allocate different chapters to each other? How do you maintain stylistic continuity? I'm curious how this works.

sr71plt and sabb, both authors here, collaborate on stories. They converse (from different sides of the world) daily and sometimes stumble on a scenario they want to write about. Their collaboration account, Shabbu, just won the Lit. Valentine's Day story contest with "The Forever Men," which originated from sr71plt's comment, upon visiting Sydney, Australia, of seeing the word "Forever" written in colored chalk on city sidewalks. Sabb, who then lived north of Sydney, said this was a takeoff of an Australian legend of a man who had written "Eternity" on the Sydney sidewalks for years. sr71plt compared this legend to the one of a bottle of cognac and dozen roses left on Edgar Allen Poe's grave every year on his birthday. They decided to merge these legends--fictionalized--and write a collaborative piece.

Once they have a scenario in mind, one of them writes a first chapter, which identifies the major characters and sets forth a setting and dilemma. Then each of them picks a character to write from--not always a major character from that first chapter. Those two characters then become the interacting "couple"--although sometimes one of them takes more than one character to write from and the perspectives become more than two. They then write a chapter/section each in turn from the perspective of the character they've chosen, taking the story wherever it goes. The other has to continue from where the counterpart has left the action (and, more often or not, backtracking to give the character's perspective of a scene written through the eyes of the other character before moving into new territory), until, eventually, they converge on a resolution. Then sr71plt polishes up the story, resolving outstanding threads, they both do technical edits, and then they publish it. They can take anywhere from a month to over a year to complete a story, which often becomes a novella or novel. Thus far, they haven't abandoned anything once started, although considerable time might spin out between the delivery of chapters/sections and once or twice they've had to retreat and slough off a false pathway, by agreement.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Should our story volumes ever decrease...

Chloe and I have discussed possibly writing stories about that same sexual encounter, but from a Hers and His viewpoint. That'll prove all kinds of entertaining, should we find the time...

 

[Blind_Justice]

For people who have collaborated on a story: how did you do it? Did you allocate different chapters to each other? How do you maintain stylistic continuity? I'm curious how this works.

@Lovecraft: Best contest experience I had, just so you know. That's when Zeb and I were tossed together.

Zeb and I worked out a general outline together, then assigned parts to each writer. After the skeleton was built, we edited the fuck out of it until it was a finished story. People didn't appreciate our approach to Hollywood action scripts with fucking in it that much, but it was a very pleasant piece of work. I think during the creation of the story, we wrote in excess of 200 emails within two weeks. Fun times. Would do it again in a heartbeat, contest or not, although I can be a bit difficult to work with. Virgo AND German.

Zeb was kind enough to let me keep "The Big Catch" and it still sits at a comfortable 4.59 in Erotic Couplings. If you're curious, here's a link:

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-big-catch

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

Die Antwoord scare me at times.

And no, I could never write with another person. My best friend who writes similar to me once was editing a story of mine and she changed some stuff up and it just didn't sound right.

 

[Blind_Justice]

Die Antwoord scare me at times.

I like some pretty extreme metal AND some stress-inducing electronica, but Die Antwoord are a bit too hyperactive and extreme for me. Give me Napalm Death or Meshuggah any day, but I'm too much of a wimp for these two.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I like some pretty extreme metal AND some stress-inducing electronica, but Die Antwoord are a bit too hyperactive and extreme for me. Give me Napalm Death or Meshuggah any day, but I'm too much of a wimp for these two.

If Die Antwoord is a little too much, never check out Gräusame Tochter, from Berlin's underground core scene- her concerts are downright diabolic.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

I like some pretty extreme metal AND some stress-inducing electronica, but Die Antwoord are a bit too hyperactive and extreme for me. Give me Napalm Death or Meshuggah any day, but I'm too much of a wimp for these two.

My 12 year old likes Die Antwoord. Doesn't that mean The Answer? Pretty sure it does in Dutch, but they're from South Africa I think.

 

[Gentleman_G]

My 12 year old likes Die Antwoord. Doesn't that mean The Answer? Pretty sure it does in Dutch, but they're from South Africa I think.

Well, they do speak Dutch in South Africa anyway. Well, sort of. The origin of the language comes from Dutch at least, but it ended up becoming its own language, with its own quirks. Usually it's still understandable for people who speak Dutch, kind of like a funny dialect.
And yes, it means 'The Answer', but that's how the people there apparently pronounce it, whereas the Dutch use 'Het Antwoord'.

I couldn't ever work with another author. Probably because I have no clue about what I write and whenever I create an outline the story ends up being something else. I can easily imagine a co-writer getting bald from pulling the hairs out of his/her head when I derail the plotline or twist the character personality for the umpteenth time...

I tried to do a co-writing thing a long time ago with a friend, but that never started in the first place. Last thing I heard of him he got accused of pedophelia, making me wonder if it was a good thing the collaboration never started ...

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

Well, they do speak Dutch in South Africa anyway. Well, sort of. The origin of the language comes from Dutch at least, but it ended up becoming its own language, with its own quirks. Usually it's still understandable for people who speak Dutch, kind of like a funny dialect.
And yes, it means 'The Answer', but that's how the people there apparently pronounce it, whereas the Dutch use 'Het Antwoord'.

I hate the het and die, I get confused which to use when.

I am learning Dutch to be able to talk to my best friend. She knows English but I think it's only fair if I learn her language.
Also dabble in Portuguese.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I've collaborated with a friend (not here) but it's hard to mesh writing styles. My partner and I beta-read one another's stuff and throw plot bunnies at one another, but she's a "draft and then redraft" type and I'm an "edit as you go" writer, so collaborating in detail would be hard.

 

[SimonDoom]

This is a very interesting topic to me. I enjoy reading how others approached collaborating. A few more questions on the subject:

1. Does it work better to collaborate with someone whose writing you regard as a lot like yours, or someone whose style is more complementary?

2. Did you learn something writing with your collaborator? What?

3. What was the biggest challenge writing with someone else?

4. Was it more time consuming writing this way?

5. Were you pleased with the result? How do you think the end result was better than if you had not written the story as a collaboration with another author?


Obviously, it works, because Shabbu won the Valentine's Day contest with a collaborative story that was very good (you should read it if you haven't), and somewhat unusual in style and subject matter. I'm not sure how I would go about doing this if I were to try it, but it's worth considering.

 

[lovecraft68]

I like some pretty extreme metal AND some stress-inducing electronica, but Die Antwoord are a bit too hyperactive and extreme for me. Give me Napalm Death or Meshuggah any day, but I'm too much of a wimp for these two.

I'll just take some Cradle of Filth and King Diamond, with a smattering of Zombie and Manson to keep it 'light'

 

[JasonClearwater]

This is a very interesting topic to me. I enjoy reading how others approached collaborating. A few more questions on the subject:

1. Does it work better to collaborate with someone whose writing you regard as a lot like yours, or someone whose style is more complementary?

I collaborated with Electricblue66 on a story a while back, just to see what would happen. Our styles are very different, so I tweaked mine towards his. But we took turn and turn about, mostly writing from our own character's viewpoint, and then tweaked our own characters' action or dialogue if it didn't fit our image of our characters. I had a personal rule of not writing too much dialogue for his character, or leaving a gap for him to fill that in. That said, I think we knew each other and each other's characters well enough to be able to write with a fair amount of confidence.

2. Did you learn something writing with your collaborator? What?

I learned that Electricblue66 is a dick to guys stuck in bathrooms. Joking aside, I was surprised by the intensity of the scenes we wrote. There was no plan, so it was all first-reaction to whatever the other person had written - intentionally so. We weren't setting out to impress anyone with a carefully crafted story, more just curious to see what would happen. That made the process enjoyable. [edit] The learning from that, was how to craft scenes I hadn't attempted to write before.

3. What was the biggest challenge writing with someone else?

Waiting for them to HURRY UP AND WRITE YOU OUT OF THE BATHROOM.

4. Was it more time consuming writing this way?

Yes. We'd add to it when we felt inspired, between writing other things. But there was no set timeline, and neither of us cared how long it took.

5. Were you pleased with the result? How do you think the end result was better than if you had not written the story as a collaboration with another author?

I enjoyed the process, and the result was something I certainly couldn't have written by myself. I can't judge how 'good' the result is... that'd be up to the readers. It's sitting at 4.69 with 3K views, so not highly visible, but definitely not a disaster.

As a first experience of collaboration, it was very positive.

I've talked about collaborating with other people before, but my key frustration with them is that they talk a lot, give lots of suggestions... and write nothing. So, I would say, choose a collaborator who's less full of their own ideas, and more keen to work those ideas on paper. I can't stand writers who talk more than they write. [pet peeve].

 

[ChloeTzang]

Chloe and I have discussed possibly writing stories about that same sexual encounter, but from a Hers and His viewpoint. That'll prove all kinds of entertaining, should we find the time...

Although I fear after my next story you'll never think of me in quite the same way.... but yes, could be fun.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I hate the het and die, I get confused which to use when.

Ag nie, jou praat die taal? I loved Afrikaans. It sounds so cool. Especially those g's

 

[Blind_Justice]

To answer SimonDoom's questions:

1. Since I have been part of only one successful collaboration so far, I can't talk much about preference in style here. Zeb and I made it work somehow. No idea if my style is distinctive enough to make a difference either way.

2. Yeah, several things actually. Do more research. Write better outlines. And some valuable lessons in compromise

3. The biggest challenge for me was "working with laser focus on that one thing for two weeks". Normally, I'm a spurt writer. When things click, I can push 5-6k words in one sitting, when I struggle, I can't put two decent sentences together for months on end. Having to be on top of my game consistently that long was hard. Working within a narrow timeframe was hard, too.

4. In the end, no. The opposite rather. I tend to let my stories gestate between edits. Some took more than a year from first draft to release, so having a ~30k word epic out in about two weeks was new and exciting. We did go through a lot of iterations, but the turnover times were pretty short.

5. It was a great experience. Normally, writing is a solitary experience, not counting these dAmN vOiCeS and getting to know another writer, butting heads about how to move the story forwards, celebrating cool ideas and getting almost instant feedback, even writing in an entirely new genre (for me)... the social aspect was fantastic. Without the collaboration, I wouldn't have tried to get out of my comfort zone in many ways. It helped immensely that Zeb was easy to work with. He never lost his cool with me, which isn't always easy.