[child|writing] Collaborating with my kid: jaylake

[child|writing] Collaborating with my kid

After a tentative start last week, last night

the_child and I began efforts in earnest to write a collaborative story. It's an idea she had a while back, and a darned good one. At the time I told her I wished I'd thought of it, because I could easily get a novel out of the concept.

We're working together literally line-by-line. That's not my usual modus operandi on collaborative work, but it allows us to sit side by side and discuss story, writing process and line level language. So it's a good bonding experience for the both of us, and hopefully a good fiction writing tutorial for her. So far we've discussed the structure and pacing of plot reveals, the technical merits of first person versus third person, and a number of finicky language issues. Plus the composition of pennies.

Interestingly, writing is such a solitary act (even most forms of collaboration are serial solitary acts combined, like having sex by postcard), yet this is a profoundly mutual experience. I hope we can shepherd this piece to completion and find a publication home for it. Whether or not we succeed, this is a lot of fun for both us. I love my kid, and I love writing. What's not to like?

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