Except that neither of us would turn it down if writers come knocking at our door, and I was doing this sort of collaboration 30 years ago — bits of it are in my short story collection on Amazon. So, if you want an experienced coach, hire me. :P
I’m kidding. Well, I think we’re both kidding-not-kidding, just like I was sorry-not-sorry for handing Chuck his roasted butt in the back alley.
But in all seriousness, this was a lot of fun. I agree with your take-aways. I think the only thing I’d quibble with a TINY bit is the schedule and the idea that this wouldn’t work for a novel. It would, but it takes a TON of editing to really smooth out the rough edges. Deadlines? Pantsers tend to chafe at the idea just as much as we desperately need them. So to “strike while the iron’s hot” is a good thing; it does not, however, create a demand that the other writer keep up the SAME pace. You were trying to kill us both, and thought I WAS. I was hoping you’d take the week off, like you promised! LOL (See, folks, we really didn’t plan this. At all. Or even talk about it much behind the scenes.) If you have more writers playing, it can be even crazier.
But here’s the thing — I could have written two Stories back to back, if you’d taken the week off and I’d gotten bored waiting. Another writer could have jumped in as Willy, or Alice, or Steve, or Jimmy, or made up someone new. The only “rules” we used to have, the first time I did something like this, were “no murder, no rape, no sex at all unless the other writer consents behind the scenes, and no ‘invincible superpowers’ to deal with any situation thrown at your character by another writer, and no prematurely ending the whole story without agreement by all.” Which means you can write out your own character (if you created it) and be done with the whole thing, but you can’t write “THE END.”
In general, if anyone tried to jump in and do any of those things, we all had a choice: write around them or ignore them — that typically applied to 13 year old kids who tried to insert themselves as invincible super-heroes or super-villains. If they got abusive, the equivalent of a Report and banning from the site — and guess who had those superpowers? See
Fun times.
