Hello, writers. Many thanks to the doughty mettle fatigue and the equally doughty bonetti for their diaries over the last two weeks. Mettle fatigue wrote about the index she’s created for the Write On! diaries; be sure to check it out.
Bonetti’s diary on lessons learned from NaNoWriMo has this year’s final tally. Roughly half the participants met their goals, and some far exceeded them. But just about everybody got some writing or revising done, and has more than they did a month ago. Well done, everyone!
Is there interest in doing DaKoWriMo (Daily Kos Writing Month) again in January? A lot of us have found that’s a better month for writing.
I’ll be gone part of the month on a research trip, so WO! <s>is looking for hosts. Let me know if you can do 1/9 or 1/6:</s> will be hosted by:
1/2/20 mettle fatigue
1/9/20 bonetti
1/16/20 dconrad
So, I spent some of the time I was gone collaborating with a co-author on a book that I’ve already pitched to my editor.
Collaboration is a bit different from what I expected. I always imagined it as one writer writing one chapter, the next writer writing the next.
Or like what I imagine tv writers doing— Sitting around a table shouting out ideas, and then picking the best one. (Or, you know. The worst one.)
But this is a bit more dovetailed than that. The book we’re working on is set in China. I know bupkis about China. (All right, not bupkis, but only slightly more than bupkis.) My collaboree, for her part, is not a novelist, but she was born and raised in China.
I suspect the combination is more comfortable than if two novelists collaborate. We each respect the other’s area of knowledge. No toes are getting stepped on. (So far, anyway.)
In the midst of this, I had lunch with my editor and gave her a report on how the project was going and got her input as well, which was also a kind of collaboration.
So far, I’m enjoying the process.
What about you? Have you ever collaborated on writing anything? Would you?
Since the above doesn’t lend itself to a tonight’s challenge, try this:
Write a scene in which toes get stepped on, literally or figuratively. Engage at least three senses. Try to limit yourself to 150 words.
Write On! will be a regular Thursday feature (8 pm ET 5 pm PT) until it isn’t. Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware