I have never collaborated
with another writer or even considered doing so. The idea and opportunity have just never
presented themselves. The closest I’ve come to collaborating on fiction is to
interview real live folks who are willing to share their experiences to lend
authenticity to a story.
So many people have
stories to tell, but unfortunately, most industry professionals will tell you
there’s no market for memoirs or autobiographies unless you are a celebrity or
in the national news in some way. That doesn’t mean people don’t have amazing
experiences to share.
This creates difficulties
of its own.
The biggest difficulty is
in presenting that you are using their experiences to bring integrity and depth
to the story but you’re not writing about them specifically. This gets very muddy and awkward when people
don’t see this clearly and can’t detach themselves from the facts they are
sharing. No matter how many times you
emphatically insist that you are not writing about THEM, they may not see it
until they read the finished product (after publication) and may or may not be
disappointed. Or angry. They may feel disappointed or betrayed
because they didn’t understand (or didn’t want to understand) that this wasn’t
their story. Sigh.
It may help if you share a
little about the character as you go along, the direction you are going and
perhaps the outcome, if you know what the outcome will be before you reach the end. And even then…
Happily, people are
generally gratified to be part of the writing and creative process and recover
from any disappointment or misunderstanding when they see their names in the
acknowledgments. Hooray for
acknowledgments!
We would love to hear if
anyone has had experience – good or bad – in interviewing real life folks for
fiction or has been interviewed and can give some insight.
