How not to co-author a story

[jfinn]

WRITING PROJECT
Do you remember the book "Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus?" Here's a prime example offered by an English professor at an American University. At the beginning of the class, he announced the writing project for the day: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."
The following was actually turned in by two of his English students, Rebecca and Gary.
-------------------------------------------------------


(First paragraph by Rebecca)
At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago.
"A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his trans-galactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
He bumped his head and died almost immediately but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterward, earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things round her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.
------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Little did she know that she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its Lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret Mobile Submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!"
-------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F***ING TEA??? Oh no, I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels."
-------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
A**hole.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Bitch.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
DICK!
-------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Slut.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
Get f****d.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Eat sh**.
-------------------------------------------------------
(Rebecca)
F*** YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!!
-------------------------------------------------------
(Gary)
Go drink some tea - whore.
***********************************
(TEACHER)
A+ - I really liked this one.

 

[wishfulthinking]

LOL!

Love it.

 

[Guest]

LOL. honestly, too funny. thanks for sharing.

 

[Extreme Bohunk]

Very funny.

 

[rgraham666]

Snicker.

Kinda sad though.

 

[Guest]

LMAO!

I'm impressed with the teacher as well. A+? Excellent!

 

[carsonshepherd]

i'd have blown up the bitch, too... chamomile tea? WTF?

 

[Extreme Bohunk]

LMAO!

I'm impressed with the teacher as well. A+? Excellent!

I agree, on the surface, it seems funny.
But if they wrote it purely as fiction, within the
context of the assignment, it's brilliant.

 

[impressive]

LOL! Glad to see Bel & I did a better job. We must both be from Venus.

 

[jfinn]

LMAO!

I'm impressed with the teacher as well. A+? Excellent!

Well ya gotta admit it did fulfill the assignment.

Jayne

 

[jfinn]

Snicker.

Kinda sad though.

I don't know, it could be the start of a beautiful relationship--or at least an average marriage.

Jayne

 

[jfinn]

i'd have blown up the bitch, too... chamomile tea? WTF?

You have something against brewed weeds?

Jayne

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I know, it's a joke, but it's also a perfect example of why so many writing exercises make such an efficacious garden mulch.

I had a similar idea, of a linear pass-around story.

I was thinking about inventions and folk music, and why inventions always get better as they're kicked around from engineer to engineer and each one adds his own improvements.

The same thing happens with folk songs, which are almost always good because they're passed from hand to hand and each person adds or subtracts from the tune and so polishes it up. It's kind of the way committees are supposed to work but never do.

I was wondering if the same thing could be done in literature, whether we could take a story and pass it from hand to hand and let everyone modify it and polish it, whether that would make it a better story or a hopeless hodgepodge of different styles and ideas.

Sequential co-authoring. There's a catchy name!

 

[carsonshepherd]

I was wondering if the same thing could be done in literature, whether we could take a story and pass it from hand to hand and let everyone modify it and polish it, whether that would make it a better story or a hopeless hodgepodge of different styles and ideas.

Sequential co-authoring. There's a catchy name!

just a thought: isn't that the nature of writing? we see a story and think "I could do better..." so we sit down and improve on it...

 

[Quiet_Cool]

just a thought: isn't that the nature of writing? we see a story and think "I could do better..." so we sit down and improve on it...

Mostly, but not entirely. That's how you can tel a writer from a non-writer in my experience. non-writers tend to think originality is the key. i don't see that originality has anything to do with it, or ever has.

Funny paper, BTW.

Don't know what I could have written in response to chamomile...

Q_C

 

[Remec]

I know, it's a joke, but it's also a perfect example of why so many writing exercises make such an efficacious garden mulch.

I had a similar idea, of a linear pass-around story.

I was thinking about inventions and folk music, and why inventions always get better as they're kicked around from engineer to engineer and each one adds his own improvements.

The same thing happens with folk songs, which are almost always good because they're passed from hand to hand and each person adds or subtracts from the tune and so polishes it up. It's kind of the way committees are supposed to work but never do.

I was wondering if the same thing could be done in literature, whether we could take a story and pass it from hand to hand and let everyone modify it and polish it, whether that would make it a better story or a hopeless hodgepodge of different styles and ideas.

Sequential co-authoring. There's a catchy name!

A lot of the old bulletin boards I frequented (and, actually, on several occasions around here) had threads devoted to this sort of thing. A global BBS named ThrobNet actually had a string of forums that were structured similar to a chain story...ie, schedule of authors set up in advance in a round-robin sort of thing...except that each author built on what had gone before them rather than writing their own seperate story.

It's sort of what the whole SRP is all about when you think about it.

 

[Kassiana]

Chamomile and valerian do nothing to me. Books all the time say that they can be used as sleep remedies/relaxants. Ha. Every time I read some stupid "historical" novel that has someone falling asleep after having valerian, I laugh. That is so very untrue. If the person did, s/he was already tired.

 

[Belegon]

LOL! Glad to see Bel & I did a better job.

...and the next one will be better still...soon as we find an idea...

 

[jfinn]

I know, it's a joke, but it's also a perfect example of why so many writing exercises make such an efficacious garden mulch.

I had a similar idea, of a linear pass-around story.

I was thinking about inventions and folk music, and why inventions always get better as they're kicked around from engineer to engineer and each one adds his own improvements.

The same thing happens with folk songs, which are almost always good because they're passed from hand to hand and each person adds or subtracts from the tune and so polishes it up. It's kind of the way committees are supposed to work but never do.

I was wondering if the same thing could be done in literature, whether we could take a story and pass it from hand to hand and let everyone modify it and polish it, whether that would make it a better story or a hopeless hodgepodge of different styles and ideas.

Sequential co-authoring. There's a catchy name!

It's sounds good in theory, but I'm not sure how well it would actually work. I've collaborated on several projects and it's always a challenge even when you're dealing with only one other author.

For one thing you'd have to be willing to put in a lot of work on something that wasn't your original idea and may not be all that appealing to you--there's an old saying that collaboration doesn't half the work, it doubles it. Even if everyone was willing to work their butts off, how well would the writers before you react when their ideas were trashed however well intentioned? Look at all the discussions we've had here about writers egos with editing. This would actually be much worse because all the writers would be invested in their own particular take on the story. I'd think it would have to be an extraordinary group who were absolutely clear on the ramifications of that kind of collaboration.

Still it's an interesting idea. I just think that you'd have to do a lot of planning and a lot of discussion to make sure everyone knew what they were really getting into.

Jayne

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

. . . folk songs, which are almost always good because they're passed from hand to hand and each person adds or subtracts from the tune and so polishes it up. . . . Sequential co-authoring. There's a catchy name!

The communal collaboration upon folk music, as opposed to story assignments in a creative writing class, differs on one important point.

In folk music, an already-created song is adapted by a new singer, for a variety of reasons: to improve (in the adapter’s opinion) the song, to adapt it to the writer’s sex, conditions, or even vocal range. Sometimes, changes are made for no real reason other than (using my father’s expression) peeing in it to make it their flavour.

For a creative writing class to do similarly, the student could not merely be assigned a story written by a classmate. As in jfinn’s humorous example, the rewriter probably would not even consider the original story to be worth the effort to improve.

Instead, you would have to allow them to choose an already published story to adapt to improve it.

 

[gauchecritic]

which would mean the first author writing the whole of the story (maybe an outliine) and then each successive author re-writing and then adding their own two penn'orth.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

A lot of the old bulletin boards I frequented (and, actually, on several occasions around here) had threads devoted to this sort of thing. A global BBS named ThrobNet actually had a string of forums that were structured similar to a chain story...ie, schedule of authors set up in advance in a round-robin sort of thing...except that each author built on what had gone before them rather than writing their own seperate story.

It's sort of what the whole SRP is all about when you think about it.

More or less what we do on the ORP board here. It can bomb out pretty easily depending on who you work with. I've had several threads die in seconds, but a group of us have the Star Wars thread going (two of them, actually, but one has ended) and we work well together. It's coming along fairly nicely. Polished up with some editing, it might be submittable is the novels/novellas section here as a fanfic.

Q_C

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

which would mean the first author writing the whole of the story (maybe an outliine) and then each successive author re-writing and then adding their own two penn'orth.

Not quite what I had in mind.

To emulate what happens in improving folk songs, the writer would have to choose an already published story that s/he thinks worth the effort, and write what would be (in her/his estimation) an improved version.

This is essentially what Shakespeare did with his plays, but that would be frowned upon today. Did I say frowned upon? Rather, it would get her/him beat upon, even if it did work as well for our writer as it did with Shakespeare.

Try screening a film that has been remade a number of times, in all its versions, and see whether each remake is always an improvement.

The improvement in folk songs which Zoot pointed out, is the result of years of evolution, the improvements being kept, while the bad versions are allowed to die out.

Survival of the fittest — the fittest songs, and the fittest revisions.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm not talking about everyone writing their own version of the same story. I was talking about someone taking a story, handing it off to the next person and having them make their changes, them handing it off, etc.

No, I don't think it would work either. I know I'd be indignant as hell if someone screwed up my exquisite metaphors and flawless prose in order to make the story more readable.

Where it might work is with the story itself. In other words, people could improve the content of the story without messing with the style.

In fact, I'm sure that goes on with jokes all the time, which are passed around and polished and changed. It sure goes on with urban legends.

Okay, here you go:

A woman comes home to a dark apartment. She's attacked by a man and sexually assaulted, but instead of fighting back, she really gets into it. It turns out the attacker is her husband.

Anyone want to make a modification?

 

[gauchecritic]

modification

A woman comes home to a dark apartment. She's attacked by a man and sexually assaulted, but instead of fighting back, she really gets into it. It turns out the attacker is her husband.

Anyone want to make a modification?

A ginger (red) haired woman, maybe it's a wig, maybe not comes home. She's left her key at home knowing that her husband should be there when she gets back. After three flights of stairs she is becoming quite vexed that the apartment is apparently empty. She enlists the help of a neighbour to 'break in' to find only darkness. She is suddenly attacked by the neighbour and another man who has been hiding in the darkness. She finds that the ensuing struggle is really quite thrilling and gets into being roughly handled. It turns out to that the attack is planned as a fantasy threesome fulfillment, by her husband and the neighbour.