[UA] Collaborative Novel

Twist0059 at aol.com Twist0059 at aol.com
Wed Dec 22 22:30:05 PST 1999


In a message dated 12/23/99 1:10:14 AM Eastern Standard Time, Jonw at flink.com 
writes:

> > Also, I thought I'd throw this out: A good way to  it might be to have
>  > each chapter be told from the first person point of view, and each one
>  from
>  > a different perspective.  That way the inevitable jarring changes in tone
>  > are a feature, not a bug.
>  
>  Not that I know anything about writing a novel, but it seems to me that
>  rather than have each person concentrate on their own chapter, a good way 
to
>  start would have each person create a fully developed and interesting
>  character for the story.
>  
>  Put 5 or 6 solid characters together and a story will begin to work itself
>  out...
>  
>  Also, I think that it is often better to start at the *end* of the story 
and
>  work backwards. If you know how you want the story to end, it's a tad 
easier
>  to figure out how the characters got their in the first place.
>  
>  Jon Williams


This brings up a good question:  Just how much of the plot should the writers 
know beforehand?  I was going off the theory that the story would build 
through the chapters, and that each writer could take it in the direction he 
wanted to go.

But, maybe that would result in too hackneyed a novel.

Instead, maybe we could have maybe a single paragraph of plot desciption....

What does everyone think?

Oh, and here's the current writer list (not including John, Greg, Tim, Ken, 
or Time, who I'm still waiting to see if they'll join):

Gareth Hanrahan
Aaron Stimson
Joe Iglesias
Dan Pond
James Palmer
Tom Adams (that's me  :-)


If I've screwed up and left somebody out, let me know.

If everyone gets onboard, the novel would have 11 Chapters.  Which could be a 
bad sign (Chapter 11 and all) or a good one (in a creepy way, 11th Hour 
stuff).   Where's that chick who tells the future from dollar bills?  We 
could use her help about now.




-Twist

_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua




More information about the UA mailing list