It seems to me that their are two types of
collaborative writing.
One kind is where each writer's
work can be seen as separate entities
within a collaborative whole.
the most obvious example is Renga.
I've been involved in a number of these.
I think the most successful ones have been when
neither writer has been afraid to criticise
the other and reject links that failed
to meet the laid-down criteria
for the structure or nature of the poem
Collaborative writers need to have a rapport
with each other but also thick skins.
The other kind of collaborative writing
is where the individual contributions
to the collaboration are not evident to
the reader, and presumably no longer
to the participating writers.
I haven't come across many successful examples
of this, though the work Al Ackerman, John M.Bennett,
Sheila Murphy and others
regularly to be found in the pages of
"Lost & Found Times"
spring to mind.
Recently though, others have come to my attention
and the first issue of Aabye (the successor to
New Hope International Writing)
[no apologies for shameless plug]
to be published later this year
will actually have two examples of collaborative work.
One is by the Cumbrian writers
John Terence Hewitt & Charlotte Lilley
The other is by The Littlespots
who describe themselves as
"three American poets who have formed
a poetical team called the Littlespots.
After listening to one another's poetry
for more than twenty years, we decided to
do some serious co-editing. Now there
are few of our poems that could be
honestly ascribed to a single one of us."
For the last three years they have been
producing a complete resequencing,
renaming and rewriting of the hexagrams
from the Chinese Book of Changes
called THE 64: AN EARTH BOOK OF CHANGES
due to be published next fall.
yours
Gerald
Gerald England's Home page - http://www.nhi.clara.net/gehome.htm
New Hope International - http://www.nhi.clara.net/nhihome.htm
Aabye's Baby - http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Cafe/9091
NHI Review - http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/1735
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