Six Takeaways From Dueling Writers And Collaboration Battles
A fun way to write a story and make new friends
On April 25, 2020, I published a story called “Chaws” The Beat Poet. It was a “pantser” story I wrote so I could write a Tanka poem at the end. It told a story in first person of a beat poet named, well, Charles Roast, who pretentiously pronounced his first name “Chaws.”
After I published it on Illumination, one of my writer friends, Holly Jahangiri, thought it would be fun to “riff” off the story and asked if I minded.
Of course I minded. I said, “Yes, I mind! Who the hell do you think you are, riding my coattails to fame and fortune?”
No, that's a lie. I told her I didn’t mind at all. But she had to pay me half of all she made on her chapters of the story. I think I ended up owing her money.
In truth, I was looking for someone to collaborate with on a story so I could expand my writing depth.(Can you “expand” your “depth?” Maybe I should say “deepen” your “depth?” Or, “expand” your “waistline?”).
Oh, look! A squirrel!
I wanted to try something new, learn a new writing style, and take artistic chances. And Holly is a good writer, quick-witted, and far smarter than I am. So, yeah. I was a winner any way you looked at it.
Collaboration means the action of working together with someone to create something. It’s also a fun writing exercise. Don’t be scared. It’s not “that” kind of exercise.
From this “exercise” with Holly, I came up with some takeaways about collaborating with another writer.
My six takeaways are at the bottom of the article, by the way, and there is NO WAY to skip the other 1500 words to get there, so don’t even try. I have activated Medium’s new “Prevent Skimming” thingy.
Besides, you wouldn’t want to miss the breakdown of our collaboration efforts before you read the takeaways.
Okay, back to me. I wrote the first chapter, which was intended to be just an weird article that led up to a Tanka poem at the end of the article. Holly asked if she could “riff” off of it. I said sure. I had no idea what was to come.
Before I knew it, she had her follow-up story, based off of my original story, published that very same day! It is called The Performance Artist.
After reading it, I realized she had taken the story I wrote in an entirely different direction from what I had imagined, and wrote it from the perspective of a different character. Damn!
After reading it, I realized I had to respond quickly, or my character’s reputation would be ruined. She was challenging me. . .guess I better be careful what I wish for in the future.
She completely surprised me, and made me work to develop the Third Chapter into something that brought sympathy back to my character. That same day, I hustled and bustled and finished Chapter 3, which I called Poetic Moments in the Betrayal of “Chaws”,
In that story, I brought the two characters, “Chaws” and “Nicci,” together and returned to my original intent, which was to create a character who used poetry. In the ensuing meeting between the two characters, who were former lovers, a poetry battle took place which, of course, I won, er, I mean, my character won.
I did, however, incorporate parts of Holly’s story into mine, and had to work to explain some other things. She added some mystery to her story as well, by creating choices the characters made that I didn’t know existed, but had to find a way to address.
So, three chapters published, all on the same day. It was getting later, so I thought I could finally rest and refresh my brain overnight, continuing the modern day “write off” the next day.
Nope, Holly wrote and published her second story, the Fourth Chapter, soon after I published my chapter. It is called Hey, Electrical Banana, Stay Down. Using essentially the same alley setting and time frame as my previous story, she tells of the meeting between the two of our characters from the quite different viewpoint of her character Nicci, the former girlfriend of “Chaws.”
Holly was giving me no quarter. Once again, sympathy for my character, “Chaws,” was beaten to submission. I couldn’t let that stand.
Now remember, we’re four chapters into this story and we’re still on Day One of our collaboration. I’ll admit, I was exhausted and getting lazy and tired.
But I couldn’t let Holly think she had bested me, so I had to come up with something good. The ball-point pen was back in my notebook, so to speak. I had to put out, and put out good.
But it had to wait, because it was late, and I had nothing.
Keep in mind that, during this collaboration, there was very little actual collaboration in the sense that we never really discussed character development, story plotting, direction, sub plots, arcs, and all that other stuff I have no idea the meaning of. We just responded to each others stories, with the exception of one small exchange on Slack.
Two days later, I published Chapter 5, When the Bum Sings. The title reflects a brief moment when Little Willy, a street transient, walks past “Chaws” and sings “Little Willy won’t go home,” switching Willy with Chucky, my characters name.
When this happens, “Chaws” is hiding in the shadows in the alley outside the back of the bar where Nicci just performed. He overhears some things that, once again, change the course of the story.
I think I managed to bring back a little dignity and respect for my character, and added a little intrigue myself. I threw the pen back at her. She was ready. She caught it in her teeth, ferocious growl escaping as she put fingers to keys and proceeded to, once again, knock me from my imaginary pedestal.
The next day, Holly published Chapter Six, called Voyeur. In it, Nicci and her girlfriend plan a new performance designed to humiliate and destroy “Chaws” the Beat Poet’s reputation. I can’t back this up with evidence, but my bet is the “performance art” she describes in her story was something Holly herself actually performed somewhere. It was that good.
Especially the lighted vagina thing. No, not a misprint.
But I had something better planned. I know what you are thinking. Better than a lighted vagina? I doubt that! Well, Doubting Kevin, you lose.
After reading her story, I was able to merge her ideas into my character’s story arc and throw a few explosive surprises in there. Personally, if I do say so myself, by the end of my story, Chapter Seven, “Dying Is An Art.”, I think I won this “write off.”
Seven chapters in 4 days. Practically a whole book, sort of. My butt was sore for days after this. From sitting!
Of course, I took advantage of the fact that I started the series and warned Holly that I couldn’t continue because I was spending too much time in front of my computer and not enough time doing nothing with every one else in my house. Thus, the end of the story. Holly was deprived of her chance at kicking my ass with another chapter.
Takeaways
Okay, you made it. Phew!
I strongly urge others to try this collaboration method that I think I invented (sorry, Holly, “Precious is mine.” Gollum, Lord of the Rings).
Let’s call it the “Charles Roach Method of Collaboration.” And, no. I don’t care how much you ask, I will NOT be selling this as a course or tutoring for a fee.
Here are my six main takeaways:
- Collaboration: At least two ways to do this. 1) No discussion on the direction of the story line, or character development (both back story and future path). This is what we did and was actually pretty exciting (spoken like a true writer without a life). I actually wrote some”sex stuff” and used language I don’t normally use in my writing. 2) You can work together to “plot” your story and character development. To me, not as much fun. But if I were writing a book with someone, this would be the way to go.
- Corroboration/Continuity: When stories are published so quickly and so close together, small things in the story can cross wires. Like time lines, character personalities, names of things. One of my mistakes was, I didn’t plot a timeline before writing about the past. So, take the time to re-read ALL of the previous Chapters to maintain some continuity. I tried, but missed some things because I rushed it.
- Agree on when to publish the next chapter: Spontaneity is good, real good, for s “pantsers.” It forces the creative juices out at that moment. But if the two writers agree to a publishing schedule, say three days apart, your writing will be better and the plot development will be less rushed. This could be good or bad. For me, a little time between stories would have been helpful because I work full-time.
- Length: Try to agree on length of story and number of Chapters. As you can see from this article, and some of my others, I am not as concise as I could be. But then again, my fans demand long stories so they can spend more time with me. They loooove me!
- Genre: For me, what started off as a humorous story leading up to poetry took a dark turn at the end. Most of my work falls into the “satire” or “humor” vein. This collaboration took me out of that comfort zone and made write some “sex” stuff, saucy language, and, well, maybe a little violence. Again, good. Again, Holly’s fault, ’cause she started it. Besides, you should write outside of your comfort zone once in a while, IMHO.
- Ending: I took advantage and ended our story. I messaged Holly and told her to be prepared for it because I just couldn’t keep up. That’s my bad, because I chose to respond to her chapters too quickly, and I had to go to work, and I avoided some other responsibilities. I felt if I didn’t end it, I’d lose the two fans of the story who might support my character if I waited too long. (Except that traitor Kevin Buddaeus, who seems to revel in Charles getting his ass handed to him!) Holly was gracious, as she is, about me choosing to end it. However, she intimated that she might just use what she wrote to keep writing about her characters.
So, in the immortal words of that famous humorist Charles Roast, “Just do it!” It will be fun, it will entertain your 2 fans, and you might make .07 cents for your kids college fund.
Oh, and if you need any advice, please sign up for my mailing list and for $5 a month, you’ll have complete access to absolutely nothing helpful but repetitive advice you already know but feel better about because you are paying for it. And I’ll make $5 a month off of you, and we’ll both feel better.
PS: Medium, I don’t have a mailing list and I am not really asking for $5/month.
Chuck Roast is a humorist (“humourist” for those of you who like the “incorrect” spelling)for the publication Illumination, a Top Writer in Satire and Humor, owner/editor/writer of his own Publication, Dad-Bods, which is currently sitting idle while he develops his social media skills and gains more exposure through manipulation of said social media, and now an Expert Writing Coach in Collaborating With Other Writers. He is available to speak at your book clubs and Toastmasters’ meetings. Please have snacks. Here are the links to his accounts, LinkedIn, Twitter. Comments are always appreciated. Thanks for reading. Write On!