From: Douglas MacDougall <dougmacd@thecia.net>
To: "Tenchi Masaki" <mr_otakki@HOTMAIL.COM>
CC: Fanfic Mailing List <ffml@fanfic.com>
Subject: Re: [FFML] [Ranma][Fanfic] Heart's Desire, parts 6-10 of 11
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 1999 20:04:46 -0400
"Tenchi Masaki" wrote:
Kudos, to all of my partners in crime (if you can call this fic a
crime, that is... o.o;;;). I really enjoyed the challenge of
working the entire thing out. The next collaborative fic I ever do
will be very different, and will most likely work out very
differently logistically - for fairly obvious reasons.
After the last part is posted, it might be interesting to see the
premise you all had to work with. The idea, ground rules, etc.
A good point. I'll try to make sure this happens, though I'm sure my
colleagues in this particular project will be able to remember better.
^_^;;
(Uh) Assuming such a document exists...
Well, I don't think it exists per se. Maybe in a log for the FFIRC or
something... o_o;
Also, perhaps the writers can suggest the things that they felt did
and didn't work, as a guideline for future authors who attempt
colloborative writing.
Well, since you're asking for my personal opinion... Here goes.
Stuff I think people that are working as a group should keep an eye
out for, and perhaps how to work as a group to get a collaborative fic
done.
-When I started my own chapter, I figured I'd read what had been
done before and then go from there. Whie I kept it within what I
thought would be canon for the fic (internal consistency), I should
have checked in more often. I certainly should have had the others
try to spend more time checking everything in the fic for consistency
and for maintaining ideas that might continue throughout the fic as it
was being written by everyone else. One thing that I -did- do that
was good was that I handed my fic off to the person who was working on
the next segment of the project and tried to make sure my chapter
didn't conflict with what he wanted to do and that it would tie in
easily enough. Particularly for how he'd start his chapter.
-I think, as a group, we failed to communicate enough. If I ever do
a collaborative fic again, I'd try to communicate more. Easy to say
and be hyppocritical about, but it's true. It's something that needed
to be done and it was obvious we didn't talk together enough.
-Everyone had their own idea of how the plot device (the guffin for
lack of a better term). It was basically the same for everyone, but
there were twists and little subtleties, and not so-subtle things
people assumed or believed was correct. Some kind of agreed
convention on what was possible and what wasn't possible would have
been nice to refer to - certainly as something to refer to
consistently throughout the writing process.
I think that's about it. I probably repeated myself in there multiple
times (repeatedly redundant?), but you get the idea(s).
I'm sure the others have something to add or take out, but again, this
is just my opinion.
Doug
----
Douglas MacDougall Art and fiction available at my homepage:
dougmacd@thecia.net http://www.thecia.net/~dougmacd/fanworks/
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