So, I just sent off an email with a few paragraphs of a story to my local writing group. This was inspired by a suggestion made a few weeks back about doing some cooperative writing. But due to life getting in the way, it was never getting started and so I (perhaps unwisely) volunteered to send something out on Sunday. Well, today is Monday but better than not at all, and maybe the ball will start rolling.
But if not, that is fine. It is not a bad story to be honest, a lot of different ways it could go and plenty of freedom to explore, etc. Still, even at this early stage, the hardest part was letting go. I was tempted (and successfully dissuaded by my wife) to give suggestions on how the plot could progress. In the end, I only said where I imagined the story was set, which hopefully isn’t too much.
Anyway, fingers crossed it moves forward. We have some excellent writers in the group, with very different styles/perspectives, which I think would make the story richer. And if it should ever rotate back to me, I think it will be a good sort of challenge to try to compliment their styles and perspectives as I add to the story in turn.
Just so you know, the rules we have set up for the cooperative writing are pretty straight forward. In fact, I think it might just be one rule: you have 30 min. No word counts or plot points. Just give it 30 min and then send it along. I should apply that to other areas in my life.
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