The title misled me: I though this would be useful if me and another person decided to write a piece of fiction together.
Apparently this post is for people who write things and let other people comment on them, make little changes and suggest edits. But there is still one main author.
(Since writing has trouble carrying intent: I genuinely feel bad that the title I chose caused you to believe something that wasn’t true. I wish I was smart enough to have come up with a title that more precisely communicated what I was and wasn’t discussing.)
This is perhaps a case of different projects being best served by different practices. There’s certainly nothing stopping you from making a Google Doc where two (or more) authors have editing permission (as opposed to commenting permission).
But it’s absolutely true that I’m writing from the perspective of having one primary author. This is because every piece I’ve worked on has had one primary author. Paul Graham writes: “Design usually has to be under the control of a single person to be any good.” Indeed, almost all books of fiction I’m aware of were published by one author. A quick survey indicates that even most TV shows—which have writing staffs—usually have one author, although it’s somewhat more common to have several people collaborate as equals to put together a story, which is then written up by one person. This was more or less how Buffy got written, as described by Jane Espenson.
It would certainly have been a major breakthrough if I’d discovered how to have multiple authors consistently work together to make good work. But that’s above my pay grade; if a bunch of professional writers who have been in the business for decades have a strong preference for single authorship, I see that as a strong indication that I should generally prefer single authorship.
Also, if this piece comes off as having collaborators mostly making small edits, that’s partly because it’s true, but partly my own bias. Certainly, in In Fire Forged, we had one or two people who primarily worked with the author on macro level issues (plot, characterization, thematic consistency, etc), while I worked on the micro level. But it’s also partly because it’s true; outside of two fanfics (plus a poem), I mostly work on nonfiction blog posts. In these, the author knows what they want to say and have said it, and just need to say it better. They may or may not benefit from a fact check (usually not, at least for the pieces I’ve worked on), but beyond that, most of the room for improvement comes in the form of little changes.
Lastly, I have to thank you. This is the first thing I’ve actually published. An earlier draft contained a section discussing what I’ve just said, but I cut it because I didn’t think it contained material that was useful to either author or collaborator. Obviously, I was wrong! So, now I have a slightly better sense of when cutting stuff goes too far.
The title misled me: I though this would be useful if me and another person decided to write a piece of fiction together.
Apparently this post is for people who write things and let other people comment on them, make little changes and suggest edits. But there is still one main author.
I’m sorry my title misled you.
(Since writing has trouble carrying intent: I genuinely feel bad that the title I chose caused you to believe something that wasn’t true. I wish I was smart enough to have come up with a title that more precisely communicated what I was and wasn’t discussing.)
This is perhaps a case of different projects being best served by different practices. There’s certainly nothing stopping you from making a Google Doc where two (or more) authors have editing permission (as opposed to commenting permission).
But it’s absolutely true that I’m writing from the perspective of having one primary author. This is because every piece I’ve worked on has had one primary author. Paul Graham writes: “Design usually has to be under the control of a single person to be any good.” Indeed, almost all books of fiction I’m aware of were published by one author. A quick survey indicates that even most TV shows—which have writing staffs—usually have one author, although it’s somewhat more common to have several people collaborate as equals to put together a story, which is then written up by one person. This was more or less how Buffy got written, as described by Jane Espenson.
It would certainly have been a major breakthrough if I’d discovered how to have multiple authors consistently work together to make good work. But that’s above my pay grade; if a bunch of professional writers who have been in the business for decades have a strong preference for single authorship, I see that as a strong indication that I should generally prefer single authorship.
Also, if this piece comes off as having collaborators mostly making small edits, that’s partly because it’s true, but partly my own bias. Certainly, in In Fire Forged, we had one or two people who primarily worked with the author on macro level issues (plot, characterization, thematic consistency, etc), while I worked on the micro level. But it’s also partly because it’s true; outside of two fanfics (plus a poem), I mostly work on nonfiction blog posts. In these, the author knows what they want to say and have said it, and just need to say it better. They may or may not benefit from a fact check (usually not, at least for the pieces I’ve worked on), but beyond that, most of the room for improvement comes in the form of little changes.
Lastly, I have to thank you. This is the first thing I’ve actually published. An earlier draft contained a section discussing what I’ve just said, but I cut it because I didn’t think it contained material that was useful to either author or collaborator. Obviously, I was wrong! So, now I have a slightly better sense of when cutting stuff goes too far.