A question for the writers....

[kellifer]

So...

If you have written collaboratively before or have thought about it, what would be the best approach?

Looking for ideas on how to truly write a mooshed story with someone.

Any advice/ guidance / war stories would be appreciated... ;)

Oh my god... remix/redux is really soon. Yikes!! Just got my s/d ficathon assignment and one of the prompts was something I've thought about writing for a long time so keen!

Comments

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Well, an IM program has been a must, for me.

Usually, it devolves two ways.

1. Both people take a character/side to write, and construct successive paragraphs, dialog, whatever--this is really akin to the way some RP stuff gets done.

2. You write everyone, and just do it more of a round robin style. You write some, the other person writes some. Just... what flows.

The other thing is: melding your styles. With some people, this can be easy, with others, not so much (I still have issues with melding lucyparavel and I, because she's intensely descriptive and a bit flowery at times, whereas I... am not.) The best way to tell if it works is to remove all names, and then have someone else read them to see if they work coherently.

I also know of people who will take it chapter by chapter. One author writes one, then the other, etc. OR, they split the characters and write scenes from one side, then scenes from the other (there's a never-finished, rather awesome X-Files/Excalibur crossover out there where one girl wrote Scully and Mulder, and the other Kitty and Wisdom. sigh.)

Mostly, the big thing is: to not beat each other up and end up hating each other. Communication, as the Ancients in Crichton's head once said, is the key.