Writing a Story With Multiple Authors

[Jessica]

Got any tips? Stories? Advice? Spill it all here.

[Emma]

I often tried to write with other people. I hate it because neither of us like where its going. And then it goes nowhere and is terrible.

Other times my friends and I do this 'game', I suppose, where we start writing a story and then pass it to the person on our left, then we have to read their story and continue writing... it is sometimes very serious, or sometimes hilarious.

[Shlomo]

What I feel while writing a story between multiple authors would be something like this:
1. Before even starting to write a story, it's more important to have the authors brainstorm on what the idea of the story would be.
2. After the initial idea has been accepted by all, all those involved would brainstorm on what plots and sub-plots the story could be implemented on. This also involves mentioning the advantages and disadvantages of the plots and sub-plots with regard to various aspects of the story, such as settings, character development, historical, emotional, events, etc.
3. Once all of the brainstorming on the plots are done, nominating for the best by all authors would regard every selected plot as unbiased selection for the story. With the first 'N' (eg. could be 1 or 10 or anything) top plots nominated, a sequence in the timeline could be drawn out.
4. The characters and settings could then be brainstormed and discussed.
5. The basic structure of the story's outline could be constructed by every author and the best-voted one would get selected in the approach of writing the entire story.

The above procedure would eliminate any bias towards a specific author. And when the outline of the story is agreed upon by every author, there shouldn't be any conflicts between authors on writing the actual drafts in details. Finally, every plot / sub-plot written would be read by every other author and add their thoughts as well. And after modifications and iterations, a strong and successful plot along with sub-plots would be in hand. And this would lead to a successful story written by multiple authors.

Of course, there may be some other issues I may have missed on. But I guess I only wished to put up a general format to reduce conflict between multiple authors.

[Tara ♪]

Thanks, Shlomo. :) That's helpful.

I tried to write a story with two of my best friends (who also happen to be writers) but they lost interest. I've pursued the idea, though. :)

[Sybil]

Better to leave this to the non fiction fraternity.

[Sybil]

Better to leave this to the non fiction fraternity.

[Selena]

I'm actually in the process of doing this now with an idea a friend came up with. She has since abandoned it and some mutual friends are trying to team up to write. So far I've been doing the writing since the rest admit that they are better at other parts of the writing process. We've all been brainstorming and world building, but othe aspects have been pretty much split it up into "You world build", "You write and we'll help" and "You edit."

[Briana]

Ethereal UndergroundI have a story I have written with my best friend. I think it is important to write with someone who is like you. Of course, we have been writing together for over ten years, so it was easy for us. We each took on different character POVs and each character was from a different world, so we were each responsible for a character and a world. FUN! I'm attaching a link in case anyone wants to know what I'm talking about. I did Ash, she did Annalise.