Guest Post: Nove Swapping by Tam
This week’s guest post comes from Tam of Fighting With Writing. I’m hoping that the reason for his infrequent posts at the moment are because he’s winning his fight and is too busy actually writing to blog about it (although I do rather miss his blogging) but either way, I’m delighted he’s taken time to contribute here.
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The other day, Catherine wrote a post entitled Finding the time, where she shared her frustration with the difficulty in mustering the motivation required to complete her various writing projects.
Today I’m going to write a lengthy comment that follows on from that post, but I’m going to leave it here so that I can pretend it’s a guest blog.
From what I’ve seen in my travels around the blogosphere, and indeed from a quick inspection of the back of my own filing cabinet, I know that Catherine’s problem is fairly common.
It reminds me of the old cliché that every man has at least a half dozen DIY projects on the go at any one time, most of which will be left incomplete indefinitely. The man’s wife may wage a campaign or two that employs the use of tactical nagging, but still those shelves will be left on the shelf.
We can write when we need to, we can write when we want to, yet we can’t write just because we feel we ought to.
No matter how much we nag ourselves, if the proper motivation isn’t there, then work shall never proceed any faster than a Spanish motorway maintenance crew at midday.
Catherine’s post had me thinking about how many people out there are struggling with multiple noves. (A nove is a piece of writing that needs a little more work before it becomes a proper novel.) I began wondering how people might get on if they started to swap their noves with one another.
You might have hacked away at your nove for weeks, months and years. Even the thought of picking up where you left off makes you both nauseous and guilty.
To the other person though, your washed-up, burnt-out and tired old nove will be a completely clean slate. They can look it over with a fresh mind, become excited about it, and take it to the places the nove needs to go.
It’s also easier to write for another person than it is to write for yourself. Take this blog entry for example. I’m tired at the moment, and if this were my own blog, I might down tools and grab some shut eye.
As it is for Catherine though, and because I told her that I would have it finished two days ago, I guess I’ll just have to stick on the kettle.
Now I know this nove swapping idea is fraught with potential problems. Not least of them being that the style of the prose changing half-way through the book will frustrate the reader.
Or how about situations whereby one person puts a lot of effort on their side, and secretly resents the other party for not reciprocating similar levels of graft. Maybe such resentment would not remain secret, maybe accusations such as “you couldn’t even write a cheque” will start to fly.
I would hope that such an endeavour would yield positive results though, helping to turn two dusty noves into a pair of shiny novels.
A more realistic, but still positive outcome, would be that someone else massacring your vision will motivate you to get in there and fix it yourself.
A big thanks once again to Catherine for letting me sit in her blogging chair. Now pass the shoe horn please, I appear to be stuck.
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on May 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
You raise a very good point–it is much easier to write for someone else than it is to write for yourself. I find that to be very true in my life. I have an online writing job where I have article assignments that must be completed within a certain time frame, and I have no difficulty finishing those on time. Yet I know that if I were to attempt to write those very same articles on my own for submission, I wouldn’t make the time to write even half of them. The motivation just wouldn’t be there.
on May 21st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Good point, Michelle! I find it a lot easier to write for work than for myself, even though my own writing is probably more enjoyable.
Anyway, following up on this guest post of Tam’s… When he suggested the topic to me, I wasn’t too sure. All I could see in the idea of swapping ‘noves’ were the cons. However, he’s listed some definite pros in his piece.
I’m still not convinced though. Perhaps if I’d started something with the intention of it being a collaboration, I wouldn’t mind, but turning one of my long-term projects over to someone else always make me feel anxious (for work projects as well as personal ones). However, I have collaborated on plenty of things in the past (online text-based roleplaying and its adjuncts being the most obvious one to come to mind) and it can be a lot of fun as well as very productive.
on May 21st, 2008 at 8:11 pm
This is similar to having a critique partner, isn’t it? When you have a CP who’s genuinely interested in your story, that motivates you to write more too, simply because you love having them “hooked”!
MM
on May 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Compliment to Tambo for such an original idea - I really hadn’t come across it before.
I have to say it scares the doo-doo out of me. It reminds me of straight co-writing.
I’ve tried co-writing a few times and the self-loathing you feel when you hit a lazy streak or miss a self-imposed deadline is exacerbated tenfold when your writing pard goes and does it.
Ken Armstrong’s last post: The First Night of Alien
on May 23rd, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Three years ago, I would have been aghast at the suggestion that I trade noves (love that word, btw) with another writer. Then, I got involved in a critique group that eventually narrowed to one other writer. She and I have been meeting every week for several years, and it’s been hugely helpful to my work, and hopefully hers. She’s become my “ideal reader”, the one I write to please. If she doesn’t respond the way I expected, I know I’m in trouble. When she loves the words, I glow for a week.
Lately, she’s been tossing out suggestions for my story. As much as I’d like to say that’s stepping over the line, the fact is they’re great ideas. It turns out that having someone around who’s not so ego-invested in your story is a huge boon. She sees possibilities that I missed, and picks up on the subtle hints I left myself and then promptly ignored. Finally, I understand how people can co-write.
I can’t stress it enough; if you don’t already have a writing partner, seriously consider finding one. The right partner is the best thing that’ll ever happen to your words.
Bill Womack - Words for Writers’s last post: Dialog Throw-down
on May 25th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Wandering back to this post and the further comments that have been made…
I don’t think I’d be comfortable with someone else finishing my novel, even if I had creative control - unless we’d been collaborating on it right from the start, which is a whole different game.
I do agree with Bill that having a writing partner can be helpful and productive, and that getting people you trust to read your work can be good too - and I’ve found that works at an early stage. I sent the first chapter of the novel I’m re-working on at the mo to a few friends last year, and several of them identified things I’d just tossed in there for fun/filler as things that could make significant plot points.
I know a lot of writers don’t like sharing until they’re finished though, and that’s their prerogative. But I do personally find that getting some input all the way through is helpful for me.