Collaboration and Community

I've been spending most of my time this weekend (and Monday) getting my short stories ready to send to the lovely, lovely people who volunteered to critique them for me (and attempting to clean my house, burning out the belt on my vacuum, deciding to forget housecleaning and making baked doughnuts with the kids instead), but I did scratch out enough time to read through The Floating Admiral.

Have you heard of it? It's a joint effort by the Detection Club (some notable members: Agatha Christie, GK Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Croft ... etc) to see if they could detect a mystery without knowing the end. Each person wrote one chapter, and then handed it off to the next without any hints. Anthony Berkeley had the unenviable task as the end of trying to make sense of the preceding tangle of clues and evidence, and wrapping it up in a tidy solution (which he did BRILLIANTLY), and then in an appendix at the back, each author revealed his or her own solution.

It was fascinating. I loved it. Both as a mystery fan and a writer. As a mystery fan, it was delightful to see each writer try to guess where the previous writer had been pointing, and to contrast the different styles of writing and detection. As a writer, I loved seeing the way they played off each other and used each other to make their own writing stronger. My favorite part, honestly, was the appendix where they all revealed their solutions, because it showed so plainly the way each of them crafted their stories (Agatha Christie's solution, by the way, was the most preposterous, and yet you KNOW that if she had written the entire thing, we would have swallowed it without hesitation). From Sayers' complex and tidy backstory and timetable to Clemence Dane's frank admittance that it was all a muddle to him and he just tried to leave it open so that Berkeley could finish it off in any way he pleased, it was great.

Trying to read it as one cohesive detective story would be fairly exhausting, and judging by some of the negative reviews I've read of this, that's where many people go wrong. Reading it for the enjoyment of seeing all these authors work together and blend their many different styles (the main detective in the story, Inspector Rudge, ends up being a character of so many layers and great depth, simply because he is written by so many different people - just watching his character develop was half the fun for me) is the way to go with this story.

I've been plotting a joint fanfiction story with two of my good friends (Adrienne and Cathy, we really need to get moving on this!), consisting of letters and journal entries between three cousins. It's not the same premise as The Floating Admiral, but much of the idea is the same - we each have our own idea of our character's story, and the fun and challenge will be weaving them together into something cohesive.

This is one of those aspects of writing that thrills me. As much as I love crafting stories and bringing characters to life on my own, I also love the thought of being part of a community of writers. The very idea of the Detection Club makes me happy, much like the Inklings (if given the option of going back in time and sitting in on only one meeting of those two groups, I'd be hard-pressed to pick between them). Can you imagine if the Inklings had written a joint-effort fantasy like the Detection Club did with The Floating Admiral? It would have been amazing and hysterical, all at once.

Twitter and blogs are a wonderful way to build writers' communities; one of the reasons I'm thrilled to have critique partners for my short stories is because it is yet another way to build that same sense of community. Ultimately, though, nothing quite beats in-person meetings of a regular sort, to discuss and laugh and help each other become better writers.

Maybe someday - for now, I'm thankful, so very thankful, for these internet communities I can call my own.

Critiques and Connections

I had a lovely long phone conversation with my dear friend Laura two evenings ago (while taping up our tattered board books so they can last another couple years, hopefully), talking about, among other things, writing. Laura does technical writing for her job, and enjoys fiction on the side, while I can't imagine ever attempting any kind of technical writing. However, our interests and experience blend enough that talking with her always leaves me eager to get to work on whatever project I currently have going as soon as we're off the phone (which admittedly doesn't often happen, because usually we talk so long that I go to bed as soon as we're done).

Which, in turn, led me to thinking about the importance of having at least one person to bounce ideas, rough drafts, plots, dilemmas, et cetera off of. I have often heard of the importance of joining a critique group, and I think that is marvelous, if you have the option, but even if you can't find a good critique group, at least have one person you can use as a sounding board.

Unfortunately, I'm preaching at myself mostly here, because my options for sounding boards are: Laura, with whom I talk (sadly) only once in a blue moon; Carl (my husband), who is always willing to listen, but whose interests lie more in theology and philosophy, and so doesn't have much experience regarding fiction (especially YA fantasy); my mother, who loves to talk about research, but is so immersed in her own studies that we rarely get a chance to do more than just share with each other our current projects; and my father, who is the most encouraging person I know but has the delightful habit of thinking everything I write is wonderful.

Put all together, and I end up having a fairly broad base, but it's not quite the same as having one person (or more) serve as a knowledgable, critical judge. Not to mention that all of the above, save perhaps for my husband, always err on the side of kindness, which is lovely but not always helpful for preparing for the harsh reality of attempting to get published (Carl has always believed that truth is kinder than a false statement, which is why I have always, even before we were married, been able to rely on him for an honest opinion).

One of my goals through blogging, Twitter, and other social media is to start making connections with other writers, and hopefully eventually meet some people who will act as a good sounding board, and for whom I can do the same.

Are you part of a critique group? Do you know of any good online groups to join? Do you have one person whose judgement you trust enough to submit your works to, or do you have to spread it out over a disparate group of friends and family, like I do? Do you find your friends and family to be too kind when it comes to your work, or are they able to put aside personal feelings and be objective? Have you made good connections through blogging and social media, or is this more a shot in the dark?