Would anyone like to try a collaborative writing exercise?

[Zeronix]

I've recently been thinking that my writing's sort of stuck in a rut - my story ideas feel like they're just retracing old ground - and I'm looking for ways to take my writing to the next level. So recently, I had an idea to try writing a piece collaboratively with someone else.

Why do I want to do this?
- Mainly I think it would be fantastic for getting exposure to new ideas, habits, processes, philosophies, and how they work. I do a very similar thing in my day job - I'll collaboratively write code with another person, and I often learn a lot from noticing the ways that they do things differently from me. Sometimes, somebody will have a solution to a problem I hadn't even noticed. And most of the time, there's something to take away.
- Also, I think it'll be fun! Writing can feel lonely at times; I think it'd be fun to form a pair (or small-ish group) and collectively write something.

How might this work?
- I'm not fully sure, but it could just look like bouncing ideas off each other; discussing characters, settings, plot points etc.
- Or maybe think a chain story, except that you pass it back to the other person every few hundred words or so.
- I'm very open to suggestions here!

What kind of story would we write?
- I'm quite open to new things! Let's discuss

What do folks think? Does this sound like a good idea? Have you ever tried anything like this? Would you be excited to try something like this (either with me, or with someone else)? Let me know!

P.S. More about me specifically:
- I'm a new-ish writer. Started posting here earlier this year, and so far have 14 published stories under my belt. I've been told I have some modicum of talent; so I have some confidence in being able to do my part in any collaboration
- I'm uselessly sappy and I love a cute romantic story, full of tenderness, positivity, and intimacy! Almost all of my stories feature this
- That said, I also have a kink for dom / sub dynamics and a lot of my stories will feature elements of this.
- Have mostly written gay male content so far
- That said, I've branched out a couple times into hetero content:
https://www.literotica.com/s/the-way-she-held-me - a romantic story about self-improvement, dedication, and the ephemerality of love
https://www.literotica.com/s/daddy-daycare - a femdom story (featuring mind control)

 

[ElectricBlue]

What do folks think? Does this sound like a good idea? Have you ever tried anything like this? Would you be excited to try something like this (either with me, or with someone else)? Let me know!

I've written collaborations with three different authors. In all three cases it happened through an existing friendship here on Lit. The first collabs (one and a half stories) were written with a beta reader - at the time I had two - and my other one said, "You two should write something together," so we did.

Jason is bi, and a wee bit sub, so I got one hell of an education into tops and bottoms and power exchange dynamics. Turns out my Adam character is a natural top, but I didn't know that. Anyway, The Floating World Part 4 is the result. Our approach was simple: I started with a thousand words or so, and lobbed it over the fence. Jase ran with it, no planning, no handover notes, and wrote the next section. To and fro like that for 20k words. The only rule we had was the right to say, no, my character wouldn't do that, and edit the previous section. Now, I can't easily spot the transitions, and I doubt anyone else could either.

We then started on An English Summer's Tale, using our own established characters. Jason found it too hard to write, too close to home, so he let me finish. His Lucy is one of my (our) hottest women.

@LoquiSordidaAdMe and I then wrote American Girls Downunder, where again we each took established characters and put them together.

My last collaboration was with @stickygirl, after I approached her for help with a transgender story. She fell in love with my Jude character, and went on to write her into a story with her own character, Hannah. We then wrote Hannah and Adam into a combined story, Transgendence. Finally, Sticky and I wrote Their Summer in France together, which I think is one of our most delicate stories.

These collabs came from liking each other's writing beforehand, not from an open invitation like yours. Your approach might work, I don't know. One thing for sure, you've got to put any preconceived ideas aside.

I know of several other collaborative pairs here in the AH - how they work together I don't know, but the results are always worth it. They might chime in with their own comments.

 

[Omenainen]

I remember when I was new here on the forums, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and someone posted a thread much like this. I read the title and was like oh, collaborating, that I haven’t tried yet, I wonder if I it would be fun! So I opened the thread, and turns out the person wanted to write about, and I quote, “kidnapping and raping young women.” So I went and quietly backed out of the thread.

Which is so many words to suggest basically the same as EB: find someone you gel with first and see if they want to collaborate second (like I did with AMD, we even have a separate joined account for our collaborations.) I doubt you’d be up to writing positively anything with anybody anyway. Which I kind of tried too, later, by participating in a chain story with some folks here from the forums. But chain stories is a dead category and I haven’t seen one tried before these two that we did this year, so it’s not really an option.

 

[Zeronix]

Thank you @ElectricBlue and @Omenainen , that’s great advice!

find someone you gel with first and see if they want to collaborate second

I agree with this. But part of the point of this post is to find people who I might gel with. Discovering authors I like is a long and difficult process, especially because I have less time to read than I would like. I'm hoping to streamline it a bit by inviting people to shamelessly self-promote.

I have previously tried to find people who I would gel with: see https://forum.literotica.com/threads/any-“gay-male”-authors-wanna-be-friends.1636356/ and https://forum.literotica.com/threads/looking-for-gay-male-authors-like-artisticbiguy.1634247/. But they’re either tied up with writing projects (@Kumquatqueen) or inactive (@artisticbiguy). So I’m trying to cast a wide net; the most basic requirement seems to be “are you excited to try something new?” I think I could try to work with anyone who seemed passionate and genuine about their interest.

Separately from this I am going to DM some people I know, but I figured I should have a broad-outreach thing I could link to and also as a catch all for anyone whom I don’t already know.

Maybe this post just won’t get any bites, just like the previous ones I’ve put out - and that in itself is useful data. I’ll draw the appropriate conclusion at some point.

 

[FrancesScott]

But part of the point of this post is to find people who I might gel with. Discovering authors I like is a long and difficult process,

I doubt it will work. Co-authoring is based on friendship, respect, trust, and suppression of egos. None of that can be short cut IMO.

 

[Zeronix]

I doubt it will work. Co-authoring is based on friendship, respect, trust, and suppression of egos. None of that can be short cut IMO.

I agree - and I’m not trying to shortcut becoming friends. I’m trying to shortcut finding people who seem receptive to becoming friends. Maybe your point is that this, too, is misguided - which I will accept, if that’s how reality plays out

 

[FrancesScott]

I agree - and I’m not trying to shortcut becoming friends. I’m trying to shortcut finding people who seem receptive to becoming friends. Maybe your point is that this, too, is misguided - which I will accept, if that’s how reality plays out

I’m not trying to rain on your parade. And I’d imagine co-authoring erotica has additional hurdles to overcome. When I have collaborated on non-erotic work, it has always emerged organically and many months or even years after first making contact with someone.

 

[Zeronix]

I’m not trying to rain on your parade. And I’d imagine co-authoring erotica has additional hurdles to overcome. When I have collaborated on non-erotic work, it has always emerged organically and many months or even years after first making contact with someone.

Sorry if I came across as confrontational, I do appreciate the feedback. I guess I'm currently stuck in a place where I'd really like to experience the sense of community on Lit that some other people experience, and I'd also like this to happen faster than in several months' time (who knows if I'll have time / motivation to continue writing then?).

Somehow I'm not really finding 'my people' here. And they say insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results, so I'm just trying a bunch of things like this. Will it work? I dunno. At least doing something is better than doing nothing...

 

[Omenainen]

Good luck! I do wish you find what you're looking for. Collaborating is amazing, when it works. No shame in wanting to have a go.

 

[Bamagan]

Sorry if I came across as confrontational, I do appreciate the feedback. I guess I'm currently stuck in a place where I'd really like to experience the sense of community on Lit that some other people experience, and I'd also like this to happen faster than in several months' time (who knows if I'll have time / motivation to continue writing then?).

Somehow I'm not really finding 'my people' here. And they say insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results, so I'm just trying a bunch of things like this. Will it work? I dunno. At least doing something is better than doing nothing...

Perhaps you can try adding an afterword to your stories to see if any of the people reading them are authors interested in collaborating. The people who frequent the AH are a pretty small slice of the pie, after all; more of a sliver than a wedge. If someone liked your stuff enough to get to a post-script, you'll have at least that much in common to start with, so finding mutually interesting projects to work on might not be too hard.

You could include a link to the forums and invite interested parties to contact you here. And if they turn out to be creepy stalkers, well, that's what the ignore button and restraining orders are designed for!

 

[AwkwardMD]

Good luck! I do wish you find what you're looking for. Collaborating is amazing, when it works. No shame in wanting to have a go.

Collaborating is amazing when it works.

 

[yowser]

^^ Sounds like marriage.