  Short Stories
This week: Collaborative Writing Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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Collaborative Writing
Working with a partner can be frustrating, but also rewarding!
Have you ever collaborated with another writer or creator on a project? |
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This week, I've been thinking a lot about collaboration! I just commissioned some art from an illustrator I really admire, and she outdid all my expectations. I'm also beginning work on the second part of a series that a friend of mine likes to work with me on, and she just sent me the first few pieces of that project, so I have a lot of gratitude in my heart right now for people who understand how to work as a team to keep things running along smoothly.
I've done a number of collaborations in my writing experience, some more robust than others, and I've found it really helpful! Working with other creative types can be very freeing, as it allows you to divide up the creative responsibilities and have twice (or more!) fun and imagination to work with! My writing process, even when I'm the only one doing the actual writing, is often helped even just by talking out my ideas with other writer friends. I definitely recommend cultivating your friendships with people who have similar interests and like to write things that are maybe not too similar to you, but from whom you can draw inspiration and hopefully offer some inspiration of your own to them!
We have a lot of tools for creating collaboration right here on Writing.Com, and I've often felt like it was these tools which make Writing.Com such a unique place to meet other authors and create. Short stories can be a little challenging to craft this way, but think of using an In and Out, Interactive, or Campfire to craft a story one sentence or paragraph at a time! Short bursts of writing that pivots back and forth can give you ideas you simply won't come up with any other way!
It can also be fun to collaborate with a visual artist or creator to commission drawings, paintings, photo-manipulations, music... you name it, there is a way to cross-pollinate your work! (For the right price, if it's a commission!)
That's not to say that working with other writers can't produce some challenges. I would say the biggest challenge I've personally experienced with collaboration is simply not having the same vision for the completed story. Creative differences have broken many a partnership, but it's worth using as an opportunity to learn how to work collaboratively. Everything about publication is collaborative (yes, even in self-publishing, the "self" part is an anachronism for the most part)! You will have to learn how to share creative work through resolving conflicts with creativity and compromise.
Making sure that everyone feels like their contributions have value is the best way to collaborate. Be a good partner and listen to what they have to say! Make sure that the collaboration is a dialogue, with everyone's voices given the appropriate weight. We all have to work together in the writing world--a rising tide lifts all boats, and that's especially true in publishing.
Until next time,
Take care and Write on!
Jay
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Feedback from "Description as a Writing Tool" :
conformonot  submits the following story, "Consummate devotion" [18+] with this note:
This is not to seem rude so if it comes off that way I apologize. Are the editor picks, meant to be good, or to be open for suggestion? I mean this with all seriousness, I read one on the last news letter that was terribly punctuated, ran together with a weak plot and very simple description. I found myself wondering if it was an editor pick so the community could read and give feedback to help the author, or because the editor thought it was good? I truly mean this in the least snarky possible way, I promise and hope the question does not offend you!
Hi! I'm not sure whose newsletter pick it was as there are many editors aside from myself! I'm pretty hard to offend in general, so I would spend less of your letter worrying about that next time.  I don't know the story in question, so I don't know if it was a story I chose or if it was chosen by one of my fellow editors!
My personal philosophy for selecting Editor Picks: I want to put forth the breadth of what is here to be read on Writing.Com. The reality is, as these stories are presented by the writers themselves, sometimes they will have errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation. As our community is focused on reviewing and offering help to one another, I figure that presenting stories as they are, warts and all, and allowing the reader to decide if they want to offer feedback to those members, is in the spirit of what Writing.Com is all about.
I always try to pick stories that I think are interesting, and preferably pieces which have some kind of ending, though sometimes I think a story that could be improved by having some more eyes and opinions on it will win out.
I'm less concerned about grammar or spelling and more concerned about structure and plot. Structure and plot is the hard part of writing. Grammar and spelling could be perfect, but if the story isn't interesting to me in *some* way, it's hard to justify that that's a "better" story just because all the commas are in the right places.
In an ideal world, all of these features are honed and polished, but the reality is that this is a community for folks to learn the craft.
Hope that helps! If the other editors want to chime in, I would love to hear your philosophy of Editor Picks.
RICH writes:
Thank you for the 'pick'. This being a true story, it is 'easier' to write to some degree. The emotion was there, no need to imagine it. The end of this story is something I still have to hear about, a foot-note should follow one day.
Nice! You'll have to share it with us when you have a chance.
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Short Stories: December 07, 2016 Issue [#8018]
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