Why Collabs Are Real Difficult (For Me)

[Arch9CivilReactor]

My personal reason for being unable to continue a collab with someone always boils down to two reasons: Unfamiliarity with the co-writer, and not having good memory. The latter is obvious why since I can’t remember details not written down.

Be it story, world building, character… I just can’t hold my memory of them when I come back after a long day of work. It’s like a hard reset that makes me only able to vaguely remember a bit of details. That kind of note taking isn’t popular.

A lot of writers tend to be the Gardener types.

They like putting in plot beats that could grow.

The ‘unfamiliarity with the co-writer’ part is a bit different. There are many who simply say they don’t like an idea and refuse to elaborate. Their likes and dislikes are either too vague or way too specific. Like only liking one character type in a story and completely disregarding the rest.

Fellow writers are a weird bunch to talk to.

They do not know what part of it they find fun.

If I had more familiarity with them just by talking alone, then we could probably be good friends beyond the collaboration itself. After all, you can’t expect a collaboration to work well if it’s based on reason… rather than love for the craft.

That’s what experience taught me anyway. When you see book writers write a story jointly, you usually hear that they are good friends before being writers. Which is why they can talk about each other’s preference honestly and openly.

People who have just met on a forum simply don’t have that.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

 

[melchi]

It is hard to do successfully. The ones I have tried seem like two stories going in parallel. It kinda defeats the purpose.

 

[Arch9CivilReactor]

It is hard to do successfully. The ones I have tried seem like two stories going in parallel. It kinda defeats the purpose.

I understand what you mean. Two people just want to stitch two separate stories together regardless of consistency. They also can’t agree on a main character.

 

[Tsuru]

The ‘unfamiliarity with the co-writer’ part is a bit different. There are many who simply say they don’t like an idea and refuse to elaborate. Their likes and dislikes are either too vague or way too specific. Like only liking one character type in a story and completely disregarding the rest.
Fellow writers are a weird bunch to talk to.

They do not know what part of it they find fun.

If I had more familiarity with them just by talking alone, then we could probably be good friends beyond the collaboration itself. After all, you can’t expect a collaboration to work well if it’s based on reason… rather than love for the craft.

That’s what experience taught me anyway. When you see book writers write a story jointly, you usually hear that they are good friends before being writers. Which is why they can talk about each other’s preference honestly and openly.

People who have just met on a forum simply don’t have that.

Correction.
Its simply Internet 2024. "Modern internet". With toxicity and tribalism over the top. Kindness is a weakness. And kind people will learn that by getting scars.

Just look at danbooru comment 15+years ago and how cordial each other were with total randos VS comments now.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Have tried to do collaborations in the past. Usually either wind up doing all the work or, when we get together, we find out we were taking things in such different directions that we'd be better off just being editors of each other's work and doing our own thing than trying to work together. The few times it has worked were when one of us abandoned a project and another picked it up and finished it.

Would love to do something "In the Round" some time - a small pool of writers get together, hammer out an outline, and draw straws for first chapter or first X amount of words. The next author steps in and does a chapter or roughly the same number of words, and it keeps going until either it gets close enough to the planned ending - and everyone has had the same number of "turns" - and it ends, or it winds up straying so far afield a new ending has to be agreed upon.

 

[melchi]

Have tried to do collaborations in the past. Usually either wind up doing all the work or, when we get together, we find out we were taking things in such different directions that we'd be better off just being editors of each other's work and doing our own thing than trying to work together. The few times it has worked were when one of us abandoned a project and another picked it up and finished it.

Would love to do something "In the Round" some time - a small pool of writers get together, hammer out an outline, and draw straws for first chapter or first X amount of words. The next author steps in and does a chapter or roughly the same number of words, and it keeps going until either it gets close enough to the planned ending - and everyone has had the same number of "turns" - and it ends, or it winds up straying so far afield a new ending has to be agreed upon.

That is about how scribblehub high school goes. It is a hot mess.

Bullying sola or anon could be a drinking game.