My First Collab: What I learned and Lessons for Next Time · 11:27pm Nov 29th, 2017
Well, the collab I cobbled together is finally fully posted. I want to say thank you to everyone who participated; thanks not just for participating, for putting up with my blunt and occasionally obtuse criticisms, but also for sticking it through and finishing it. I never expected the response I got, and I think that, together, we made a story greater than a single author could have.
But I often say that writing is not simply a matter of doing things; it is a constant quest to learn from our experiences and apply that to future projects. So with that in mind, here is a blog post covering some of the things that I personally learned from the project. And I welcome and encourage any of the other contributors to add in any lessons or thoughts they have as well!
Have a plan to make changes to: There is a fine line between having a plan, having a vague idea of a plan, and having no plan at all. During this project, I mostly ended up in the latter camp. I ran under the assumption that my contributors would bring ideas of their own, and that we would create a plan together.
This was optimistic. While soliciting ideas and advice from the group was a good idea, I failed to realize an important thing. There needs to be a default plan to make changes and adjustments to. In the even that no one has any ideas or changes, then a plan still needs to exist.
So lesson one: make a plan and change it later, don’t expect one to appear. Accepting criticism and direction from your peers is important, but don’t rely on it.
Plan for the best and worst case scenarios: This is a lesson that I learned very quickly. When I first posted the announcement blog, I assumed I might get one or two people interested and we could proceed over PMs. I also posted it right before going to sleep, so I couldn’t check my messages until the next day at work.
I should have assumed a lot of people would apply (regardless of how realistic that was), so that I could make appropriate preparations ahead of time (like making the group and directing people there).
So lesson two: Being prepared ahead of time takes less work than fixing it afterwards.
Make scheduling as clear as possible: This ties into both previous points. I thought people would bring more ideas to the table, and so my only timeframe was a vague one. If something is time-sensitive, then that fact needs to be made clear to participants. The deadlines ended up being set by group discussion (like I wanted), but this also wasted time in some ways. It made people less prepared for deadlines, and made leeway and adjustments harder.
So lesson three: make a schedule and show it to everyone.
Build buffers into every part of your plan: However much work and time you think it will take, it will always take more. As above, you need to have a clear schedule and everyone needs to be aware of it. But it needn’t be inflexible. Of course, that doesn’t mean you necessarily need to tell everyone that it’s okay for their stuff to be turned in late.
I was reading an article by Mark Rosewater (the head designer for MTG) about his days as a runner/errand-boy in Hollywood. One story he told talks about how the assistant director gave him 20 minutes to find a cooked swordfish. After he jumped through five hoops to get it done in 20 minutes, the assistant director actually needed it done in 40 minutes. She just told him otherwise to make him do it quickly.
Ironically, I was perhaps the biggest stopgap in workflow. I overestimated my ability to edit the entries (and my internet also got shut down for two weeks), so I was often the biggest delay in people getting their chapters done.
So lesson four: build buffers into your plan (but also don’t let people take advantage of them).
Treat everyone as equally as possible: This is perhaps the mistake I’m least proud of in this project. My participants often turned in their drafts at wildly different times. One person turned in a first draft early and didn’t edit it until final drafts were due. Others turned in a first draft and quit, while still others missed the first deadline and I told them to hurry up or don’t bother.
Make your standards and procedures apply equally to everyone. If person A turns in something late, then note how you handle that situation and also do it when person B turns in something late.
Again, this also comes back to having a plan. I didn’t have a predetermined procedure for how to handle late submissions or unresponsive writers, and so I winged it with some people and didn’t follow through on a similar course for others.
Lesson five: determine how you are going to handle a situation once, and handle it the same way every time.
So there you are; five things I learned—five things I might improve on—for the next time I do a collaboration like this. And those who have read the epilogue may notice a not-too-subtle sequel hook in there.
To anyone else who participated, again, I welcome you to share your lessons and experiences in the comments!
I quite liked the story, and I hope the sequel hook pans out.
I haven't read the finale yet, but Break Away is easily one of my favorite fics of 2017. Superb premise, great execution from all involved, and the inter-chapter continuity holds it all together deliciously. You did a great job. :)
A few of the chapters felt like they took place in a significantly different world than the others. Do you have any thoughts on that? I'm wondering if there was an issue with weak guidelines on the premise, or with authors not sufficiently coordinating with each other.
4737934 I intentionally told the authors to try and make their entries more like self-contained vignettes. Some of them took it a bit farther than others, and only a few took the initiative to integrate other people's chapters with their own.
Ultimately, this comes back to me not having a concrete plan or stronger guidelines. My policy was intentionally lax and that directly led to those issues.
If I do another collab, then I plan to make a full story bible/outline that provides more cohesion/unity about the world, setting, and characters.
In hindsight, I don't think an object as the center of a quasi-anthology was a great idea. I remember a common problem a lot of us having was how the Amulet was supposed to act, what its characterization was supposed to really be, and it definitely took some blood and tears to get the story out of the "pony in room talks to Amulet" hole.
Maybe a setting or theme would be better next time? Speculating.
4738267 Yeah, this was definitely an issue. I think this also went back to my own inability to commit/lack of direction.
The Amulet definitely ended up with a character; it's a compulsive, self-serving liar, and it does all sorts of selfish and manipulative things in order to get other to put it on. It's amoral to a self-destructive degree.
We did sort of ask these questions about it beforehand, and that's why it has a multiple choice past. If we (or I) had decided on this earlier, however, given its character more concrete direction sooner, I think it would've saved some time.
Sorry if my exams were a problem.
Yikes.
If you ask me you treated me fine.
This is a good retrospective with some good lessons. Wishing once again I could bookmark blog posts.
4739508 Almost all the contributors had real life stuff to deal with (myself included). Again, it wasn't an issue with any individual, it was the fact that I did not create a plan beforehand and didn't always handle everyone's problems in an egalitarian manner.
4740296 Thanks.
I ended up just bookmarking blogs in my web browser