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.
