Linda has hit a new milestone this week by writing her first ‘solo’ short story, which you can read here. I t’s posted on a site called ‘clever fiction.com’ that posts a concept each week and invites writers to post a short-story about it. It’s good, and I am quite proud of her! She plans to continue writing for their weekly challenges when and as she has time. The goal is for her to take over as ‘lead writer’ in some of our future collaborations. She’s off to a hell of a good start!
Having just come off of writing our own novel we’re finding writing on commission to be a horse of a very different color. In our own work we were free to follow wherever the story took us, and we often didn’t know in advance exactly where that would be. But writing for a publisher means that we have had to submit an outline, and while there is considerable latitude within that outline we cannot stray too far without risking editorial disapproval. In a sense we are letting the story take us where it will, but making sure that ‘where it will’ is where the outline said it would go. It’s tricky.
Speaking of writing on commission that also means that we have a deadline.. I’d better get back to it!