This year I have discovered the joy of collaborative writing and I want to share that joy with you. I was planning to write a post on this topic a couple of month’s ago – about writing the IDC Network’s Bulletin article – but I put it off because the article won’t be published until the next issue.
And I’m glad I did. I’ve had three more great experiences of collaborative writing since then, each logistically unique, but instructive and enjoyable nonetheless.
Recent collaborative writing projects:
- ITI International Development and Cooperation Network introductory article for the ITI Bulletin (3 contributors)
- ITI East Anglia Network event report on our business retreat for the ITI Bulletin (5 contributors)
- ITI East Anglia Halloween Horror Writing Workshop (4 contributors)
- ITI French Network article on our Termstorm events for the ITI Bulletin (6 contributors)
International Development and Cooperation Network (IDC Network)
The first project – which really sparked my enthusiasm for collaborative writing – was the ITI IDC Network’s ITI Bulletin article to introduce the network to the wider membership. I’m Joint Deputy Coordinator of the network and this article was a big deal for the Coordination Team (Sara Horcas, Belinda Allen and I), something we wanted to take the time to get right.
We used a Google Doc because the platform allows contributors to edit the same document and see other contributors’ edits and suggestions in real time. We began by holding a meeting to discuss what we wanted the article to say about the network, before drafting a bullet point outline of the article and deciding who would write each section.
The real fun began once everyone had written their section and we had a first draft. We made suggestions on each other’s sections, condensed sections that were too repetitive and rearranged the whole article to improve the flow. At first we dipped into the article to make and discuss suggestions as and when, but as the deadline approached, we were all in there at the same time. Suggested changes and responses came in thick and fast and at times it was hard to keep up. But we did it and produced an article that I think does the network justice.
What made this experience so enjoyable was the respect and appreciation we all showed for each other’s writing and suggestions. We were all open to different ideas and keen to find the right wording to get our message across most effectively.
The article should be published in the next issue of the Bulletin.
East Anglia Network – Business Retreat
Following our East Anglia Network business retreat to Hunstanton on the Norfolk coast, the five participants – Anikó Pető-Mordovski, David Stockings, Frances Clarke, Laura Elvin and I – jointly wrote an event report for the ITI Bulletin. This was a much shorter article than the IDC Network one, the stakes didn’t feel quite so high and the logistics were much simpler.
Again we began by discussing what the report should include and who would write each section. This time we used email and wrote consecutively. Once the first section had been written, it was sent to the group for the next person to add their part. This avoided repetition from the start and helped ensure a logical flow (which is much easier in a shorter article anyway). We also contributed a short summary of what we each worked on during the retreat for the boxout. The whole affair was coordinated by Anikó, who checked the finished article and sent it for publication.
The article appears in the September-October 2022 edition of the ITI Bulletin.
ITI East Anglia – Halloween Horror Writing Workshop
This workshop, organized by the ever-creative Anikó, gave participants the chance to work in teams to emulate the great horror writers Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft. It wasn’t all fun and games (even though it was definitely brilliant fun); the exercise encouraged us to analyse our assigned author’s style in depth (we got King), before setting out to write a horror story of our own.
Again we used Google Docs, so everyone could see and amend the text, though I became an unofficial scribe. Being on video with the other three contributors – Afra Madkhana, Alanah Reynor and Fiona Grey – and writing together from scratch was a totally different experience. We bounced ideas off each other, added to each other’s ideas and went back and forth changing things until we were happy.
This is certainly not an efficient way to write. We managed one paragraph in about 30 minutes and (true to the King extract we were given) we hadn’t gotten to the action of our story. But our ideas were improved and polished as we went, meaning we ended up with a King-esque paragraph we could all be proud of. I was so exhilarated by the time the event ended that I think I talked about it with my partner for most of the drive to dinner.
An event report should appear on the East Anglia Network blog soon (complete with extracts!).
ITI French Network
My last, and as yet not-quite-finished, experience of collaborative writing is the ITI French Network article for the ITI Bulletin on the network’s new Termstorm events. Again we’re using Google Docs and again we divided up the sections between the two main collaborators – Alanah Reynor and I (the French Network Events Team).
To add more variety to the article we decided to include reviews of the event (one newly written for the article, by Saskia Brown, and one repurposed and edited existing review, by Alison Hill Campbell). This involved coordinating with additional contributors and making sure any edits to their contributions (mainly to reduce the word count and improve consistency) were approved.
Once we had made suggestions on each other’s draft of the article, we passed it on to committee members Dean Evans and Sabine Citron for their suggestions (again made on the Google doc). Their input was invaluable in tightening up the phrasing and highlighting where ideas could be arranged more logically. Sometimes when you know a topic so well it can be hard to pick up that you haven’t quite explained something properly before you talk about it. It just goes to show the value of a keen-eyed editor.
The final version should be finalized today and appear in the next issue of the ITI Bulletin.
Do you have any experience of collaborative writing? How has it worked for you? Did you enjoy it?
No comments:
Post a Comment