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007, Chiun, Collaboration, Douglas Adams, Editor, Good Omens, James Bond, Lethal Weapon, Literary Magazine, Neil Gaiman, Poetry Group, Remo Williams, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Richard Sapir, Sequels, Sinanju, Space Opera, Terry Pratchett, The Destroyers Series, The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, Warren Murphy, Writers
My part I blog about collaborating dealt with critical readers and editors. This blog concerns writers working with other writers on a project, or as I call it: Collaboration Part II: The Revenge (maybe not, just forget that whole ‘The Revenge’ thing). To get back to what’s important; the hypothetical project in question can be a novel, short story, or even poetry. It might even be two separate projects, but with rules and a defined structure this version is set in a shared universe.
Maybe this is a question I should have saved for the end, but have you ever tried collaborative writing and does it work? I’ve seen examples that have, but personally all collaborations I’ve been involved with have not.
In my own experience, every time I tried collaborating with other writers, it never went very far. Some of it was due to my own faults and failings as a writer who wasn’t quite there yet or not organized enough. Part of it was with my partners faltering or losing interest. So a collaborative writing project has to be a labour of love, because it’s a lot of work and effort. I have two examples of my own experience and where it just did not work out. And two that have (just not from me).
My first example comes from when I was part of a poetry group. We usually just read and shared our pieces, but decided to write a group poem. This type of poetry could probably be considered a party game, but the hope at the end was to have a work that, when finished, would be submitted to a literary magazine that many of the participants contributed to, some even as editors. Someone drew a short straw and they were to write the first line to start things off. From there they would mail it to the next person on a random list that was generated. That person, using the previous line as inspiration would write the next line and then forward to the next person. And so on, and so on. The last person who finished the poem would read it out loud to us at the poetry reading after everything was completed. We were to edit it if necessary and then submit it. Actually I thought it was a wonderful writing exercise, very creative, and a lot of fun. I was even able to contribute to the piece and send it forward. Unfortunately, two or three writers after me, it stopped. Someone either forgot about it, or maybe dropped out of the poetry group and didn’t bother to pass it on. We never got a chance to complete the poem. Shame.
The next example happened before the poetry exercise, but this situation is probably more common, writer to writer – two people working together on one project. I was involved in a coauthor project with a very good friend. It was going to be our The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The idea was to do a parody using two intergalactic, interdimensional, time-space bounty hunters. It was of course heavily influenced by Douglas Adams. We would skewer Space Operas as well as the buddy cop/male adventure genre (Lethal Weapon the movie and The Destroyer novels were paramount in our thoughts) and add all sorts of quirky characters in funny situations. We would also fill the book with our own private jokes. It started off strong and we had several chapters written. But both I and my writing partner just sort of lost steam and we never even got to finish the first draft. Such is life. We were both to blame because we were young, both immature not only as people, but as writers. We just weren’t committed.
I’m not disheartened. I’m older now, more mature as a person and a writer and I think with the right partner I could complete a project and get it published.
So I talked (I know I know I actually wrote, really do we have to get into that now) of my own failures with collaborative writing. Unfortunately I do not have any successful stories…yet. Instead I’ll draw upon better writers than I and glom onto their success in collaboration for the purposes of this blog.
In my opinion, probably the most popular collaboration that comes to mind is Good Omens, coauthored by two fantastic writers, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. For those unfortunate to have not read it, the novel is a comedy about the birth of the Antichrist, the end of days, and the two agents of Heaven and Hell (an angel and a demon) who try to stop the destruction of the human race because get this, they actually like humans. It also includes the original Hell’s Angels (the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse). I highly recommend it. But to go back to the fact that such a fantastic book is a collaborative effort, it astounds me. Even more so is the fact that you have such fantastic men of letters, who put aside ego (of course from what I heard both have very little ego and are great guys) and they made it work. And they made it work really well. Gives me hope for future projects.
The other successful collaboration is a book series in the male action adventure genre, The Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, at least initially; eventually they both moved on (Sapir passed away in 1987) to other projects, and used a number of ghost writers in their stead. The book series continues on even today in one form or another. Basically it’s about a secret American intelligence operative called Remo Williams, aka The Destroyer, who was trained in a mystical martial art called Sinanju (the sun source to all other martial arts that followed) by the last master Chiun. Chiun becomes a father figure to the orphaned Remo. The series had its highs and lows, some books better than others. It was originally developed in the 60’s with the book series printed in the 70’s, so some of the stories probably wouldn’t be published today because of political correctness. Murphy and Sapir continued working together until the late 70’s and Sapir moved on. It was in the 80’s that Murphy started using ghost writers, though from time to time he returned to write books. A movie based on the series was produced, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. It was a lackluster release and the hopeful film franchise ala James Bond 007 movies never appeared. And while having a creative falling out the two stayed friends, but they also launched a successful series and worked on a number of books together before splitting ways. Unfortunately nothing lasts forever but they were able to create something that sustains. So it too encourages me.
So, are there any writers out there that want to give me their view on writers collaborating together? Are you for it? If so why? If not, again I want to know why.
Lastly, what are some of your favorite collaborations that I haven’t mentioned?