Okay, time for my take on the overall process of our collaborative novel writing experiment thus far:
First, I’m quite pleased with how it’s going and am impressed with the work that’s been coming in from all involved both for its quality as well as the fact that producing that amount of writing each day can be a challenge for some folks.
Personally, I often use more than 1500 words just to order lunch at Oasis so that part is not too difficult for me but this might not be the case for everyone so hats off gentlemen (and lady!) for keeping this going in earnest so far.
I’m glad that my contribution was the one voters selected us to run with but not for matters of ego. (Okay, maybe there’s a tiny tiny tiny bit of that involved, sue me.)
No, I’m glad my opening was selected because it had, I think, the most linear narrative of all five submissions and, hence, that makes it the easiest one to “run with” novel writing wise especially given that it’s five people writing it.
All the submissions were great but some of the more thoughtful or contemplative or more “literary” submissions would have been harder to collaboratively work on because they might not have had a more traditional “hero on a journey” linear beginning/middle/end plot structure.
Also, the “cop thriller” “police procedural” type of fiction this began as (who knows how it will end up?) is something that, culturally, we’re all familiar with given the vast amount of books, films and TV, etc cut from this cloth.
Even if we’re not all fans of the genre we all have a little Ed McBain or John Sandford in us so we at least “know how the game is played” and can do our best when called in off the bench to play a few downs.
I was initially worried (before the daily submissions started coming in) that some of the other authors might take the story off in another direction (style wise or plot wise) but, so far, everybody is honoring the mood/tone/plot that we started with but all with their own quirks and styles.
This makes it even better than I had anticipated (though I had no real idea of what to anticipate) as it’s kind of like Dave Matthews stepping in to sing “Memory Motel” with the Rolling Stones: a classic song that we all know and love but spruced up with his own unique style.
While we may be writing a certain “style of novel” (Tara’s comment in an email was “holy God what a dude novel y’all are writing!) each of us brings our own take and tune to it and this is a strength rather than a weakness.
Like any good Jazz ensemble we each play our own part but, when heard together, it’s a unified sound. . (Am I blending too many metaphors here? Probably, but I’ve never written a blog post before and I wanted to get this up before the Bears game starts.)
As to the cliff-hanger element of it that I started I’m pleased as punch that everybody else has adopted this for two reasons:
1) It makes for more compelling reading, especially since we are serializing this online; and, 2) I think it might make it easier for each individual writer to have an “end” to their given day’s writing obligation as it make each day’s 1500 word almost “stand alone” pieces of writing even though they’re all part of a larger narrative/story arc, etc.
That’s my report so far and I’m sure I’ll have more to say later as we enter week two and I’m anxious to hear what the other participants have to say about their experience thus far as well. (Nudge, nudge, hint, hint.)
And, of course, thanks to everyone reading our book in progress as it grows a little more each day!
