The Why of Co-Authoring
Hey everyone - I’m your guest author, Helen Corvis. Steaphan and I are writing a serial fiction together called “In the Arms of the Void”, available on Kindle Vella. I wanted to share my thoughts on our process and hope you enjoy this blog series about how to write together. If you prefer an audio version, you can check out the podcast here (Spotify / Apple) .
Today’s topic is all about why? Why would anyone choose to co-author with another person when you know they’ll get to see your terrible ideas play out on the page and you’ll also have to discuss them. Even worse, you have to witness them do the same.
The short answer is because you hope you’ll create something amazing together, something more than what you could have done alone. And if you are lucky, people will read it and get something out of the experience as well. As for the long answer, here you go…
0. A warning - you want to co-author with someone that you are compatible with. And that means you need to be someone they can work with as well. So just hold on that that mindset as you go forward, because it’s not about you anymore - it’s about the collective ‘you’. One tool I jokingly recommend but also find helpful is the traditional D&D alignment chart. When it comes to writing, you probably want to co-author with someone who feels similarly about the process. For a comparison - Steaphan is lawful good and I’m chaotic good. So we’re a little different but a lot same same : )
Shared accountability: Having another person there can make even slow parts of the process more fun. Now you have someone to meet with on a regular basis, you can share the things you made, and can talk about obstacles together. We don’t let our friends down, do we? What’s also nice is that you can factor this other person into any of your habits that need prompting. If I know that Steaphan gets distracted from writing during the week, we agreed its ok for me to ping him occasionally.
Creativity++: When you collaborate and workshop on ideas together, things can turn out in ways you never expected. It’s common for me to crank out a few thousand words, and then when Steaphan adds his content and rework, I’ll discover he picked up a detail that I hadn’t explored and expanded the universe in an awesome way. What I also love is that sometimes, he’ll mention a plot twist that is just bananas and I give myself permission to go with it and make it “ours”. What do I need to make this thing happen? It makes writing exciting and productive.
Obviously it’s not all sunshine and roses, you have to compromise; that’s just part of the co-authoring journey that I’ll be posting more about. So if you are looking for a boost of accountability and creativity or just find yourself wanting to try something new, give co-authoring a try.
Art is what you make along the way,
Helen C.