Not sure if this is the spot to post this or not, however I didn't find anything more likely at my tired brains first glance. So, basically my question is, is there anything against posting part of a story that has been written by two people? My wife (goldie) and I have decided to collaborate our ideas into a single book. This makes more sense in a way due to the fact that the characters in question were originally "born" about 18 years ago in a chat room.
I'm not the person to say whether posting your co-authored work is okay, though I don't see why it wouldn't be. But someone else was recently asking about collaborative writing. I think it'd be very interesting to read some of it, with an eye toward how and how well the partnership writing works and how it both contributes to and interferes (if it does) with the outcome, as well as how each writer accommodates the other. I say bring it on!
I've always been leery about two writers, unless they are working side-by-side at all times. Writing styles are too different and interpretations of character and plot can be too different for continuity to work in a novel form. It's worth a shot, but I've always felt collaborative brainstorming and editing can be more powerful than collaborative writing.
Collaboraion in writing is a minefield. It often results in ruined friendships and incomplete writing projects that have to be discarded when one collaborator quits. However, in terms of posting excerpts on this site, as long as you are an author of the piece, with legitimate rights to distribute and to modify the work, it's allowed.
How about we look at another situation in life: parenting. A friend of mine is very conservative and believes in spanking as a punishment, while his decently liberal wife thinks it's little more than child abuse. Instead of arguing about it, they came up with a compromise and are both happy... I think. This is only one example of their conflicts, mind you. Nevertheless, they are adults and understand they have to work together in an agreeable fashion for the sake of not just their child but themselves as well. The reason I bring that up is because there are so many examples of two people having to work together for the sake of not just themselves but also their project, whatever it may be. Will it be hard to work with another writer? Of course, but the best things in life are hard, otherwise they wouldn't be worth working for.
I read a book not two long ago that was written by two authors. Each author wrote from their own character's perspective, but one wrote in first person while the other wrote in third so it was easy to tell you wrote who and what character you were seeing the story from. How did it turn out? Well one half of the book was awesome, and the other half sucked. The first person author just blew the other guy away even though they were telling the same story, but if it wasn't for that other I wouldn't have enjoyed the book so much. The first person author was so good I was able to bear with the other author and stay interested in the plot.
