{"id":29421,"date":"2025-04-15T03:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=29421"},"modified":"2025-04-11T05:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T12:35:21","slug":"collaborative-writing-three-ways-to-do-it-by-jasper-ezekiel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/15\/collaborative-writing-three-ways-to-do-it-by-jasper-ezekiel\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaborative Writing: Three Ways to Do It by Jasper Ezekiel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Collaborative<\/a>This week\u2019s featured article is \u201cCollaborative Writing: Three Ways to Do It by Jasper Ezekiel<\/a>.\u201d Enjoy!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

My husband and I write together more often than we go on dates.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost every day has a portion of it dedicated to working on our current stories.<\/p>\n

This relationship model has helped us stay together through 2 years of East Coast-West Coast long distance, serious health issues (on both our part\u2019s and the dogs\u2019..)<\/p>\n

Our collaborative writing is done in the style of 2000\u2019s forums roleplays, something we both grew up doing, where I write a paragraph, then he writes a paragraph, but there are plenty of ways to write collaboratively. Here are a couple of ways that you can do it.<\/p>\n

1. Paragraph Roleplays<\/h2>\n

Paragraph roleplays are an excellent way to collaborate.<\/p>\n

The process is pretty straightforward<\/strong>, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

After talking as much or as little about the plot as you want, one of you writes a paragraph starting the story.<\/p>\n

Each one of you \u201ccontrols\u201d one (or more) characters of your choosing and you keep your writing to the actions and inner thoughts of that character.<\/p>\n

This works great for character driven stories, where the character gets to make all of the decisions and that\u2019s how the plot is moved forward.<\/p>\n

One thing to keep in mind about this style<\/strong> of collaborative writing is to be respectful of the other person\u2019s character, to not overstep your power over them. In the forum world, this is called \u201cgodmodding,\u201d referring to the term \u201cmod\u201d or short for moderator, the name of the writer behind the character.<\/p>\n

On roleplay forums, the character you\u2019re writing is called your \u201cmuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, my muse is a character named Briar, who is an evil dictator of a fantasy world. My husband\u2019s muse is Patrick, his right hand man. (We love to write dark stories about villains.)<\/p>\n

2. Back and Forth Chapters<\/h2>\n

Another way to collaboratively write is for one writer to write a chapter, then the next person to write the next chapter.<\/p>\n

This style works well for both discovery plotting<\/strong> and having a pre-established plot that you\u2019ve agreed on.<\/p>\n

In this style, each writer has a little more control over all of the characters because the assumption is that both writers are making more decisions for each character due to the drawn out style of writing chapters rather than snappier paragraphs.<\/p>\n

There are actually entire published novels in this style. One that I can think of is will grayson, will grayson<\/i> by John Green and David Levithan.<\/p>\n

Both authors write about two different young boys<\/strong>, both named Will Greyson, and about how their lives parallel and overlap as they go to the same high school.<\/p>\n

This book was a great inspiration for me and my adventures in collaborative writing and when I was younger I wrote a book in this style with my best friend at the time.<\/p>\n

3. The Consultant<\/h2>\n

The final form of collaborative writing that I\u2019d like to share works when your creative partner may have ideas but may not be a writer.<\/p>\n

While my husband may be an avid roleplayer<\/strong>, he rarely writes in his own time, so when there\u2019s a story I want to write with him, sometimes we work together on the backend and I draft it myself.<\/p>\n

Our process generally goes like this:<\/p>\n