Sabtu, 26 Juli 2014

The Value Of Collaboration Fiction

By Sharron Cantu


Team writing has many benefits as well as many challenges. Authors often consider collaboration fiction as contrary to their vision which is to create unique works that could only be written by them. There are indeed attempts to create this type of story that fail spectacularly. On the other hand, when authors succeed in such an endeavor, they can produce works with a richness and cohesive style that are a pleasure to read.

Collaborative works are produced for a number of different reasons. They can be attempted as an educational exercise thus helping all the participants to develop their writing skills. Writing groups often produce such stories. It is also done for commercial purposes where experienced authors decide to work together for various reasons.

When working together in this way, as with any other project requiring people to work together, everyone has to relinquish total control. The unique skills and ways in which each individual works have to be taken into account. Each individual has to be open to encouragement as well as criticism. This can only happen if there is mutual respect. If there is a creative synergy between authors, this can speed the process of writing and increase the motivation of each person.

One of the difficulties of working in this way is to achieve a consistency of style. A trust and mutual respect needs to exist between authors to make working in this way possible. Each author needs to give up total control and rely on the skills of others. If there is a mutual respect, the particular skills of each author can be utilized. One may be better at driving the script forward and another at providing shape and form to the text, settings and dialogue.

The way the work is divided between the authors should be done as evenly as possible. Problems can result if one author ends up doing most of the work or another feels that his work is not appreciated. Sometimes a plot is created at the beginning but other authors may work individually on chapters, characters or sub plots and only then decide how to put them together.

When this type of work is attempted, problems can easily arise as is the case with any act of collaboration. One author may be too domineering and another may not contribute enough. One may feel as though he is doing too much of the work and another may feel he is not doing enough. This is where communication becomes vital for success of the project.

There are websites where anyone can contribute to an ongoing story. This type of collaboration is interesting but as visitors to sites vary so much in talent and background, the results produced are often quite incoherent. Another example of collaborative writing is produced by developing the narrative between characters from role-playing games.

Works produced in such a way where each author has relinquished total control have the potential of being better than what can be produced by each individual. On the other hand, there is also the possibility that the final effect is inconsistent and unsatisfying to read. Like any other type of fiction, there is a place for it and the best attempts are rich, creative examples of what is created when authors work together.




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