Have you ever
thought about collaborating with another author? If so, who would you pick, if
you could pick anyone?
In a previous life, I would occasionally be involved in collaborative
writing projects. But it was business writing, either consulting reports or
proposals for new business. I remember one large submission for a multi-million
dollar systems project that required at least ten if not more people, each
writing a section of the multi-volume bid. As the proposal manager I also held
the editing pen, so not only did I have to ensure that everything made sense
and was well written, but I also had to make certain there was an overall consistency
in the writing, in addition to the fun task of pulling all the bits together by
writing the conclusion and the executive summary. Since most sections of a proposal or report
were fairly self-contained, it was relatively easy to write them collaboratively
and given the size of some of these papers, it was the only way to get it
completed within the proscribed time period.
Fiction writing however is an entirely different matter. Everything
is inter-related. Seldom if ever does anything stand on its own within a novel.
Characters and their unique voices interact with each other as they wander from
chapter to chapter as the story line unfolds from the hook of the opening
sentence until the satisfying sigh of the last one.
I can’t for the life of me conceive of how more than one
person can write a novel and live to tell the tale, so to speak. But they do
and some are very successful at it, such as the all pervasive James Patterson,
who publishes I don’t know how many block-busters a year. I believe the
approach he uses is to hire someone to write the story based on his outline.
Once completed he takes over the final editing pen to shape it into his style
of writing.
Other collaborative writing adventures with which I am
familiar are family affairs. Curiously they involve a parent and a child, like
the mother and son duo of Charles Todd or the mother and daughter duo of
Victoria Abbott. I believe Michael Slade is a father and a daughter duo, although
he has collaborated with his wife…hmmm wonder if they are still married… and
also his law partners. Perhaps the family connection makes for like minds and
thus a similarity in writing style and story telling.
I do know of a couple of ‘friends’ partnerships, one of
which is successful, Sparkle Abbey, while the other has hit a rocky road. It
likely isn’t as easy to sort out differences between friends as it would be between
family members, because let’s face it, there are going to be some knock ‘em
down, drag ‘em out differences that can lead to splattered coffee and slammed
doors.
I understand in most of these collaborations the writing is divvied
up either through taking on different characters or different subplots within
the overall story line, rather than both working on the same chapters at the
same time.
But have I ever considered doing a collaboration? You
guessed it. My answer would be a resounding ‘NO’. I can barely get along with myself while
writing a book, let alone having to get along with another writer. I’m afraid I
like the writer’s solitude too much. The thought of breaking my train of
thought to share it with another while I am writing would have me shuddering in
my moccasins. I would think to be successful a collaborative writing venture would
require a well thought out and developed outline before the writing even began
and the discipline to stick to it. As an acknowledged pantser, this is way
beyond my capacity. Anytime I have tried an outline, I have diverged from it
before the first chapter is finished.
I wish all those collaborative novelists out there much
success, but this is one writer who’s going to continue to go it alone.
What about you? Have you ever considered writing a novel with
another person?
