Collaborative Writing Part 2: letter games

All while writing my post last week about collaborative writing in the form of real-time collaborative writing, I was thinking about my original collaborative writing project: letter games.

It all started when I came across a book by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. 

The authors wrote the book entirely by sending letters to each other from the point of view of their characters. The picked a setting ahead of time… and then were not allowed to discuss plot at all, just let it develop naturally. And yes, it has to be real letters. Or else it's not quite so fun to get the story in the mail.

The idea of not knowing where my plot is going today makes me want to hide under the kitchen table with a mug of hot cocoa and a flamethrower to use on anyone who tries to take my outlining away. But five years ago, when I was young and carefree, it seemed like a bold adventure.  So I roped in my good friend and fellow writer Teri, and we got to work.

Teri and I ended up working on two letter games. The second never quite finished, which is entirely my fault, unfortunately. But it was amazing to watch how these letters and the plots involved.

Even then, I tried to plan and steer the plot certain ways. But Teri, living thousands of miles away in North Queensland, Australia, often failed to heed my attempted psychic transmissions on how to shape the story. She'd end up taking the plot somewhere fantastic but entirely different. And thus I was forced to abandon my supposedly brilliant plan and come up with something else - which invariably turned out to be better than my original idea.

I love the places you can go from writing a generic letter from an interesting character. And thus, a headstrong businesswoman in future LA and a colleague in Australia turned into an international conspiracy of government magicians, mysterious pendants, and an epic showdown in a South American jungle. AND, I got one of my first published stories out of Sasha, my character (in combination with a Hatrack Contest). The story, called "Tacos of the Apocalypse" was published at the (appropriately titled)

For the second game, a young woman in a convent and her roving warrior lover turned into the ultimate battle of good and evil featuring elves, dragons, and a game with the devil itself. That's the one we didn’t finish, even though I came up with the Best Ending Ever for the game Sage plays with the devil).

I do miss the letter games, particularly Sasha. Sasha was hilarious, and a very easy voice to slip into. I suppose she's a little bit of a clichéd character too – her hardass quality is rather overdone. But maybe I need to worry less about characters being a teeny bit of a caricature, because a strong voice is more important? What do you guys think of that?

And despite silly statements about me and flamethrowers, I do miss letter games. Maybe I should go write that last letter in the second game now. We'll see if Teri forgives me for the three year break.