-
28 things we’ve learned since starting this novel
It’s one of the great things about writing a novel. Your imagination leads you into strange places. And those strange places, when one’s personal knowledge fails, leads to the need for research. Heide and I, throwing plot ideas back and forth, have probably set each other some of the strangest research challenges imaginable. So, as…
-
How did we avoid these collaborative writing pitfalls?
Empirical Study on Collaborative Writing: What do co-authors do, use, and like? Sylvie Noël & Jean-Marc Robert I came across this interesting paper about the co-authoring of documents. Most of the research is about collaborative writing in the workplace or in academia, but it’s full of interesting things. I’m not going to reproduce what it says, you…
-
Research: It’s a damn odd job but someone’s got to do it.
Writing requires research. The adage ‘write what you know’ holds very true but I agree with those who say that, in this day and age when information is so easy to find, the adage ‘know what you write’ is truer. It is perfectly possible to write short stories, articles and novels without any research. The…
-
Research: It’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.
I’m writing the “dating” chapter. All of our characters are embroiled in the world of finding a partner. Iain wrote the synopsis for this, and as soon as I saw what he had in mind I couldn’t wait to start. The opening scene made me hoot with laughter when I realised what I had to…