I am currently taking a creative writing course in Portland, Oregon. It keeps me pretty busy I suppose. Today though, was the day that I was finally supposed to submit my own work for the class to go through and critique. I chose to put up a piece of writing that I actually have been working on for years now. A story that my two closest friends and I have been passing back and forth between us. The project was supposed to take a total of like 12 weeks and has stretched into like three years.
When I was going through the excerpt one last time before submitting it for their review I decided to change some things. One problem with co-writing something is that I continually feel like I need to stay true to their visions as well as my own. But I made an important decision as I changed names and more than a few sequences of events - it is one thing to push around a story between ourselves and not pay attention to things that really bug me, but when I am putting my name on something and putting it out into the public I am in complete control. It is my own vision that needs to be met. My world that I created and have a unique view of. Quite frankly, my friends wouldn't care about the changes that I made - probably because neither of them are trying to actually get published.
Thinking about it though, I find that I am frequently trying to go along with what I think others are going to be expecting or envisioning about a story that I am writing. And that is a disservice to my readers. My worlds, or circumstances, or ridiculous logic will never make sense if half the time it is not my own. Not to rag on any good, solid research, but when writing fiction that research needs to bend to my will and not the other way around.
I am in control.
When I was going through the excerpt one last time before submitting it for their review I decided to change some things. One problem with co-writing something is that I continually feel like I need to stay true to their visions as well as my own. But I made an important decision as I changed names and more than a few sequences of events - it is one thing to push around a story between ourselves and not pay attention to things that really bug me, but when I am putting my name on something and putting it out into the public I am in complete control. It is my own vision that needs to be met. My world that I created and have a unique view of. Quite frankly, my friends wouldn't care about the changes that I made - probably because neither of them are trying to actually get published.
Thinking about it though, I find that I am frequently trying to go along with what I think others are going to be expecting or envisioning about a story that I am writing. And that is a disservice to my readers. My worlds, or circumstances, or ridiculous logic will never make sense if half the time it is not my own. Not to rag on any good, solid research, but when writing fiction that research needs to bend to my will and not the other way around.
I am in control.
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