Episode 5 Collaborative Writing – Popcorn Plotting, Perspective Switching and more

Podcast Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/57XWSIJ7EZyD9qhUdZm2CZ?si=kCFUntioTpqXT2-H8Y9PKg

Hello! I’m Jenna Michal! Welcome to Breaking Writer’s Block! Here you’ll get your weekly dose of writerly inspiration in under ten minutes. Why? Because sometimes all you need is one spark to get you writing.

Each episode I will start off with a writing tip based on knowledge from professional writers. I will give 3 writing prompts to use as you wish. Lastly, I’ll end each episode with a book rec!

I hope you enjoy!

- Writing Tip -

For today’s writing tip, I found an article on successful group writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s writing center. If you want to read it, it’ll be available in the podcast’s description.

The article talks about the importance of getting together and discussing how you want to go about collaborating. Your group will have to decide whether you want to do the entire writing process together to ensure your writing has one cohesive voice, or whether you are going to do all the brainstorming and outlining together, then separate the writing into your own portions. Either way, it’s necessary to be clear with those you’re working with so that the audience and message is the same throughout.

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/group-writing/

- Topic -

Today’s topic is collaborative writing because why write alone when two minds are better than one. And three is better than two. And four is better than three. And so on. Team work makes the dream work. Even if you write alone, you will eventually have to work with a collaborative team to get your book published including, and not limited to your literary agent, editor, beta readers, and publisher.

Also, if you’re part of a writing club or creative writing class, or want to start one up, these prompts will work great as a fun activity!

- Prompt #1 -

The first prompt I have for you today is an activity you can do with a group of writers to use all of your brains collaboratively. I call it Popcorn Plotting. For this activity you’ll need slips of paper that each have an important part of a story on them. One can say “main character” another “side characters,” another “conflict/antagonist” another “setting.” You can split setting up too into “setting: time” and “setting: place” depending on how many people you have in the group. Everyone picks a slip of paper at random. You are then tasked with coming up with the part of the story that you got. Someone then can write all of the elements of the story on a board so everyone can see them as they write. Then, each person will individually write their own version of the story.

- Prompt #2 -

The second collaborative writing prompt I have for you, you can do with just one partner. Both of you will be writing one story together from different perspectives. Many novels with two or more authors follow this back and forth format between characters. Having multiple authors to write multiple perspectives makes a story all the more enthralling as we’re actually following along with two different minds.

For this prompt, you can either go in blind by switching back and forth and building onto each other's writing as you go. Or, you can plot out the story together and write your individual parts separately.

- Prompt #3 -

My last prompt is something I used on the regular when I ran a writing club for Middle and High schoolers because they liked the activity so much! The stories that come from this activity usually don’t turn out serious, but they’re fun to read back over as a group. So if you are a part of a group of writers, this is a good activity to do to break the ice between you, and get your creative juices flowing.

Everybody in the group needs a book. You can pull out whatever you’re reading at the moment or whatever you have on you. The first person opens their book up to a random page and without looking lands their finger on a random word. They must use the word at some point in their sentence. The next person gets a random word as well and adds their sentence to the story. You can continue going around and around until someone lands on either “the” or “end.” That person can then decide whether they want to say “the end” or to continue the story.

- Challenge -

My challenge for you this week is to think of a writing of yours that could benefit from collaboration. Then, find someone to collaborate with. Try to always actively seek out a writing community. Even if they are just people you can talk to about writing. That way, you’ll benefit from every mind involved, and you’ll make writerly friends!

- Book Rec -

This week I actually have two book recs for you because like I said, two is better than one. My first one is Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Laconis. You may have heard of the book or movie before. But if you haven’t read or seen it, I recommend. It’s heart-wrenching. It’s a YA Romance written in both main character’s perspectives, so arguably the best kind of romance. Stella and Will both have cystic fibrosis, a disease that is destroying their lungs. The two have to navigate their feelings for each other while being forced to stay 6 feet apart.

The second book rec is Blackout. The short story collection snapshots Black romance stories in New York City all unraveling during a city-wide power outage. It is written by 6 exceptional authors: Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, and Nicola Yoon. I will mention many of the authors from Blackout again in future podcasts because there is no way I can overlook their talent. They wrote many of my favorite books. And of course, to make everything better, they decided to all come together to write Blackout, which became yet another one of my all-time favorite books! AND, they recently came out with another book full of winter romances. It’s called White Out.

- Outro -

Thanks so much for listening! It’s a pleasure to talk about storytelling with you guys. Please share your writing in the comments section of this podcasts transcript on my blog. The link is in the description. I also have a Bookstagram page dedicated to what I’m reading if you’d like more recs: @acollectionofpages_.

Join us next week as we talk memoirs!

Adios escritores! See ya next week.