Two Are Better Than One? The Process of Co=Writing.
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| Title: | Two Are Better Than One? The Process of Co=Writing. |
| Creator: | Dasha K |
| Date(s): | 2001 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Two Are Better Than One? The Process of Co=Writing. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Two Are Better Than One? The Process of Co=Writing. is an essay by Dasha K.
It was linked at the X-Files website Working Stiffs where it was given the title: "How do I collaborate with someone on a story without killing them?"
Some Topics Discussed
- writing fanfiction with another fan
- some disasters and successes
- The X-Files stories by Dasha K: In the Closet, After Eight, Blinded by White Light, Momentary Lapses, The Professional, and some unnamed fics
Excerpts
Writing a fan fiction story with another writer can be exhilarating, exhausting, frustrating, maddening and hilarious, often all at the same time. I should know-- I've co-written four stories (with part of a fifth that was never finished) with three different authors.
A lot of people have asked me how it happens that two (or more) writers end up working together. Sometimes a writer gets stuck and asks for another writer to provide some fresh perspective or take over where the she's currently trapped. Or two writers become friends, think of an idea that so demented that they just have to do it together. Or maybe once in a while two writers get kind of drunk together and think it would be a really neato idea to have Skinner eating lime Jell-O off Mulder's body...
My first co-writing experience was an unmitigated disaster and frankly, I'm damn surprised I ever had the guts to do it again. Let me set the scene for you. I was pretty much a newbie, with some rather shaky writing skills to go with the lack of experience. I got what I thought was just the grooviest idea ever. What if Mulder and Scully woke up in a hotel room bed together, buck naked and with absolutely no memory of each other? Even though the story was set in the fifth season, I wanted them to, in their minds, think it was 1992, just before they were paired as partners. Much angst would ensue as they tried to figure out what happened to them and what had happened over the past five years.
Trouble was, it was a much too ambitious project for where I was as a writer then. I banged out the first part and ended up sending it to a writer who I'd become chummy with. He had been around the scene for a while and was a damn fine writer. He sent back some very insightful comments and in a moment of whacked out bravado, I asked him if he'd liked to co-write with me. To my endless delight, he agreed but also added that he was in the middle of a work in progress (which nearly a year and a half later still isn't finished) and a collaboration with another author (which has, to this date, not been posted). He warned me that he wouldn't have a ton of time to devote to the project, but that he was excited about it and ready to start. My warning bells should have gone off, but like I said, I was a newbie and thought everything would be just fine.
So, we knocked out an outline and I started working on it. We were going the traditional co-writing route: I'd write Scully's POV and he'd do Mulder. I got to business and put together four or five parts over the next few weeks. My co-writer sent back comments on those parts but from him I got nothing. He apologized for his general state of business and finally coughed up a little scene. But shortly after that he basically disappeared. Didn't answer my email, didn't send anything, didn't say why he'd disappeared off the face of the planet. Crushed, I gave up the project and pretended it didn't exist. The writer and I stopped talking, for the most part. Later, I cannibalized bits and pieces of the story for other stories and even part of the memory loss concept for Blinded by White Light.
Yet, I was thrilled when a writer friend of mine, a few months later, offered to co-write a story with me that would combine the universes of two stories of ours that were very similar in theme. Trouble was, looking back on it, I don't think we really saw the characters and their interactions in a similar fashion. The story, to me, was never really satisfactory and I've never felt that our styles meshed well to me. It seemed very obvious to me who wrote which part. I've removed the story from my page, just because it's never sat well with me. But at least we got the story done, right?
I figured that I'd never co-write a story again, but then I found Plausible Deniability. We'd become friends through feedback and soon belonged to the same private list. I was on a road trip with my best friend when I read her one of his stories. Being a little absent-minded, when the story was over, she said, "Wow, great story, Dasha!" I laughed, but she said that our styles were so similar that she couldn't really tell that I hadn't written it. That got me thinking. I'd just finished a Scully POV story called Momentary Lapses, and was flirting with the idea of doing a Mulder POV sequel. Instead, I emailed PD (he'd beta read the first one) and asked if he'd like to write the sequel. He agreed and produced a story that was a thousand times better than my own. That led to my doing the third in what was now a series and him writing the fourth. We'd been leading up to a climax of a sort in the series (no pun intended) and I thought it would be a cool idea for us to co-write it.
This time, co-writing was everything it was meant to be. We got the general idea for the story, but didn't do an outline. And the story just flowed-- I'd send a part, he'd send back comments and the next part and then I'd do the same. When we were done, we were entirely thrilled with the process of writing together and swore to do it again.
It took nearly six months to settle on an idea for a new story. One great thing about collaboration is that you can try something new and not feel so alone doing it. Neither PD nor I had ever written a case file before and felt very intimidated by the process, so we were able to lean on each other for support as we wrote The Professional.
I'm not saying that all was roses as PD and I wrote our case file. Sometimes we disagreed on aspects of characterization and plot. Sometimes he thought I was too bossy. Which I'm sure I was. But the thing was that we were always respectful of each other's choices in the story and able to communicate our ideas and opinions and in the end, I think we wound up with the story we wanted to tell.
The fun thing about writing The Professional was that instead of the very traditional "You write Character A and I'll write Character B" style of collaboration, we both wrote all three of the POVs of the story. Part of why we did it was simply to see if people could tell who'd written which part. The other reason was that by this point, we were both feeling more confident of our writing skills and our ability to write from the POV of Mulder, Scully or our original character, Amy. The funny thing is that six months later, I can read parts of the story and not really be able to remember who wrote certain parts. And actually, there were scenes where we both wrote that POV. Either one of us got stuck and handed it over for the other writer to pick up where we left off, or else the other writer took the scene and did a little judicious re-writing. There is no way we could have done this without having an outline so that we knew where we were going with the story.
The feedback I most loved for that story was when the feedbacker told us that he or she had no idea who'd written which part.
Since then, PD and I have written one other story together, called After Eight. This writing experience was much different since, to admit something terrible, both of us wrote most of it directly in email, while at our respective offices. But it was a blast to work together again and have fun writing silly, frothy holiday fun.
There's been one other story that I've done with another writer and that's In the Closet, which was a sequel to Gwendolyn's fabulous Crawl Space. I think we got the idea one day when we were chatting via IM and I suggested that as a sequel, Mulder and Scully should do the deed while in Skinner's office closet, with his secretary hearing the whole thing through the wall. She laughed at that and told me that if I had the time, I should write the part of Kimberley, the secretary. It was almost too much fun to write with Gwen. Our styles worked well together and we just plain had a big old party trying to one-up each other with silly humor.
So-- will I ever do it again? Sure, I'll definitely collaborate with another writer again, but only if I'm sure of a few things that I think are good guidelines for writers who want to work together. And if either Gwen or PD crook their little fingers at me, I'll come running...