Collaborative Writing

In my previous post, I lamented my ability to stick with the daily routine of writing that I enjoy while participating in NaNoWriMo.  It reminded me of something I tried a couple years ago as a means by which to establish this daily habit - writing with a partner. Now, as for why I thought that might be a good idea...

The seed for the idea was planted a couple years ago. I was trying to remember something from the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, books I'd read ages prior. (They're an interesting read, intertwining just about every conspiracy theory you can imagine into one wild story.) In trying to find my answer, I ended up at the Wikipedia entry, and stumbled upon this little nugget about how they came to write the story while working together as associate editors at Playboy (where they handled numerous conspiracy-laden letters to the editor from their readers):

They had a lot of access to research staff. And so under the guise that it would be helpful writing articles for Playboy (I don't think it was really) they got into the Illuminati. Wilson would bung these memos to Shea as material came in from the researchers—like the memos in the book. When they got to memo 23, Shea said, "If we imagine a New York cop came across these memos, I think we've got the basis for a fine thriller!" So the next one Wilson wrote was episode one of the thriller. Shea replied with episode two. They were playing a game really. Like, I bet you can't continue this! The answer is, "No I can't, so we'll continue with this!"

Sounds like fun, right? Well, of course, you'd need the right partner for that sort of collaborative effort. Fortunately, I had just someone in mind - +Mark Palise, best friend, fellow would-be writer, and long-time brainstorming and editing partner. We had never tried to write anything together, but this sort of back and forth format seemed like it might just work.

I proposed the idea with the following guidelines:

• Each writer takes a turn, writing between one and two pages.
• Ideally, turns would last one day.
• No discussion about ideas for the plot or characters was permitted - the only discussion allowed was to clarify previously mentioned material or to correct things that directly contradicted something mentioned earlier.

Mark readily agreed and we were in business. From my perspective, I was intending to write my 1-2 pages on this project when it was my turn, and on alternate days I would work on finishing my NaNo project. I got to write with my best friend and be held to some level of accountability for writing output, all while establishing a daily writing habit. 

The effort itself, while eventually fizzling out, turned out much better than I anticipated. It started innocently enough, but quickly ballooned into a wonderfully complicated mess of time travel and magic, alternate timelines and wrecked ones. With neither of us knowing where the other was trying to take the story, it kept taking unexpected turns. Each day's entry tended to end with a bit of a cliff-hanger, or by writing the other into a corner to see how he could weasel his way back out.

As I mentioned, the story eventually ran out of steam. I think the complexity of it did us in more than anything - we were having to re-read the material a lot in order to keep things straight, and we reached a point in the plot where things really needed to start coming together but instead continued to expand in scope. The effort was enjoyable enough that we took another crack at it, starting fresh, but that's a story for another day.

 

Off the NaNo Clock

I’m going to credit NaNoWriMo with one thing - it gave me the nudge to actually tackle writing something of novel length. Okay, two things - it also got me back into the groove of writing at all. Admittedly, that groove tends to be rather irregular and littered with months-long spans of neglect, but it’s better than the years-long droughts I had previously endured.

The downside to NaNoWriMo is that I now have a collection of half-written novels (I always reach the 50,000 word count goal, a number that unfortunately never coincides with the end of the story). Six of them, to be precise. Only one out of seven started is actually done, and it’s just the first book of what is either a three or four book series...so, in a sense, it's also incomplete.

So why do they remain abandoned? After putting in so much work, why not finish them? Surely it's easier than starting a new novel from scratch?

For several of the novels, I’d gone into NaNo with a nugget of plot in mind, but no idea how the story would end. Even after getting to know the characters and the story through a couple hundred pages, I usually only had a vague notion of how it might end. No story had been railroaded into a dead end plot-wise, but when combined with the burnout following the binge of writing that is November I just lacked the energy to figure it out. My one finished novel, in contrast, I knew exactly how it was going to end and what most of the major remaining plot landmarks along the way were, and I’m sure that was a key difference.

The second issue is that aforementioned burnout. Much as I love the sense of accomplishment in getting my 1667 words (give or take) down each night, it’s a difficult grind. Television shows go un-watched, chores and family are slightly neglected, and I start to slack off on my running. By the time I’ve recovered, that head of steam has long since vanished.

And my third and probably greatest problem...well, I’m highly motivated by a fear of failure (missing deadlines, in particular). When I sign up to do NaNo, there is absolutely no way I won’t finish it. After I reach the word count goal, however, I no longer have that outside accountability pushing me. Yeah, I could tell myself that I have until the end of December or January to finish the first draft, but it’s just not the same. I can’t convince myself to work under such regular daily or weekly word goals, even if lessened to a more realistic number, when I’m off the NaNo clock.

How to crack that nut of realistic personal accountability? Hmmm...

Wild Cards short

Woot!

One of my all time favorite series of books is Wild Cards, a massively sprawling series helmed by George R.R. Martin and including dozens of contributing authors that sets a high bar for "super hero" fiction. I was drawn into the series by its somewhat more practical approach to explaining why super powers exist - an alien-engineered virus, intended as a means by which to enhance the innate telepathic abilities of said aliens, was tested on humanity (near genetic match, with some hand waving). The initial dispersal happened over New York City back in the '50s, but the spores of the virus spread worldwide and continue to create random outbreaks from time to time. It's not contagious, but does re-write the genetic code of the afflicted as a recessive trait that can be passed on. When the Wild Card expresses in a person, there is a 90% likelihood of a very quick and ugly death ("drawing the Black Queen.") Of those who survive, 9 in 10 "draw a Joker" and are mutated in some usually unpleasant manner. The remaining few, the lucky 1%, draw an "Ace" and are gifted with some manner of super power.

On top of having a single origin source to avoid the multiple-origin implausibility that's prevalent in traditional super hero comics, the powers themselves tend to at least behave somewhat within the known laws of physics. Powers are mostly telepathic or telekinetic in origin, even if the actual expression of the powers is highly variable. Many powers seem to derive from the victim's subconscious, reflecting their personality in some way.

Oh, and there are very few "super heroes." Characters who try to fit the stereotype find that it doesn't work so well in the real world of litigious lawyers and paranoid politicians. Stories are often dark and gritty, the world has a new class of oppressed in the freakish Jokers, and events have lasting consequences.

All in all, I highly recommend the series, even if super heroes aren't usually your thing. Some of the older books are starting to get a new lease on life in reprints and digital. I guess Mr. Martin's success with a certain television show hasn't hurt the exposure to some of his other projects.

Anyway, that brings me back to the point of this post. I just stumbled across a new short story from one of the most prolific of the Wild Cards authors +Daniel Abraham . Looks like it just went up on Tor's site a couple days ago. Nice little read, giving a good insight into how things really are for public Aces. Oh, and it has some sweet cover art!

When We Were Heroes

Formative Inspiration

I was thinking the other day about what books had the greatest formative influence on my writing. These aren’t necessarily my favorite books (okay, most are still right up there), but more the ones that left a lasting impression during my most impressionable years. They established tastes in genre, characters, and scope. Here are a few of the heavy hitters and the reasoning behind each:

Dragonlance Chronicles (Margaret Weis and +Tracy Hickman) - First read in my late grade school years, this was my real introduction to fantasy after dabbling in D&D with my friends for a couple years (the red boxed set). It read like the most epic, coherent game imaginable, with the rules practically establishing the framework for the story. What I really stuck with me from the story, however, was how the death of major characters raised the stakes for everyone else. If the authors could kill Flint and Sturm, who else might die before the dust finally settled?

Hitchhiker’s “Trilogy” (Douglas Adams) - Don’t think much needs to be said about this one. In a sense, it influenced me away from ever trying to write anything humorous, as I would inevitably hold it up to this standard and immediately toss my drivel. Can’t overstate how much I loved these books, though, and how they allowed me to take everything in life a little less seriously...as it should be.

Riftwar Saga (Raymond Feist) - Read this series while in junior high and it immediately became my favorite series of books, necessitating a couple of re-reads. I loved the development of Pug, struggling between highs and lows as a magician’s apprentice. The series managed to balance some pretty epic power creep between Pug and Tomas by shifting focus to Arutha and Jimmy later in the series. The series instilled in me the importance of epic action set pieces and great ensemble character development.

Snow Crash (+Neal Stephenson) - I read this one in high school, after re-shelving it a few times while on the job at the public library. One paragraph in, I was thinking to myself “whoa.” By the end of the first chapter, I adored it, but feared the rest of the book couldn’t possibly live up to the beginning. As I finished the book, I flipped back to page one and started again - the first and only time I’ve ever done that. There are so many things about this book that are difficult to pull off, and yet Stephenson managed it brilliantly - satire, mythology, action, and cool. If there was one aspect of the book I would call out as a takeaway, it would be “internal consistency.” The book was unlike anything I’d previously read, but its own universe was so brilliantly realized that I never once felt like I was slipping out of the story.

While putting together this list, I tried to think of any little known work I could call out. Alas, there wasn’t much that came to mind, or at least to which I could recall the title. There was one book involving kids trapped in a three dimensional maze like lab rats who had to engage in arbitrary rituals to get food. Another I can distinctly recall the title, yet nothing of the plot - Surfing Samurai Robots. Maybe that is just a lesson in the importance of finding the right title?

Anyone else out there have some good formative reads to share?

Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest

So, on top of my dabbling in writing fiction, I've also considered writing screenplays. Movies, in particular, as I'm not sure I'm necessarily cut out for the format of a television series. I took a couple wild cracks at movie scripts during the Script Frenzy "contests" - usually achieving the intended page count goal but not finishing with anything resembling a complete script. Each attempt was fun and educational, though, and I still have that nagging desire to see one through to the finish.

Which brings me to another contest - this one much more legitimately deserving of that term - that I've had my eye on for a year or so now, the Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest. This one is targeted primarily at new, aspiring writers, and has a low barrier to entry - you only have to submit the first 15 pages of a script for a logline provided by someone well established in the industry. Ten finalists then work with one of the Writers Store's staff over the course of a couple months, getting valuable feedback with each new set of pages added to the script until finished and then a winner is chosen. Really does sound pretty ideal for a first timer.

Well, with each new round of the contest, I've sat down a brainstormed a few different sketches for the logline. Some had a bit of potential, but none sucked me in and demanded to be written. And, thusly, I have yet to try to enter the contest.

A new round of the contest just began and I'm in the process of working up some ideas. The logline was provided by Edward Saxon (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and others) - "After a storm destroys her small farm, killing her mother and father, an adolescent girl is sent off on a journey of survival."

Not bad. It provides quite a bit of structure, while remaining wide open. I immediately discarded the first couple thoughts that came to mind, most surrounding tornadoes in the mid-west (something with which I grew up) and the recent hurricane disasters, figuring it was best to head in an unexpected direction. I now have three very rough ideas, two are hard sci fi and one is magic fantasy, and in most all variants of these the "small farm" has nothing to do with produce. There are lots of different kinds of farms and I wanted to use an unexpected interpretation.

Now the tricky bit - fleshing these out to see if I can get one to suck me in and demand to be written...