Facebook Co-Writing

There's been this file in my "My Stories" folder called James shook his head. It wasn't filed in any sub-folder, like "Mysteries" or "Nobility" or "Historical Fiction." Nope, it was just there. After more than a year of sitting dormant, I opened it on Saturday.

     "Catherine turned to her twin. 'Do you know why we’re going into town?' Her voice was quiet, for once, and she seemed genuinely worried.

     Abby shook her head, but James had overheard Catherine’s question. 'Mum didn’t tell you?'

There's actually only half a story there. The other half is on a computer far away, in Kansas. My best friend's little sister was a writer, and, once I got a Facebook, we decided to write a book together. It didn't have a title.

But it was very much a Civil War romance. Our characters - sixteen-year-old twins - were living in Virginia as the war started. Their brother went to war. And then we - me, 19, her, 17 - gave each of them their very own love triangle, and so many blushes that I'm surprised those poor girls hadn't erupted into flames.

Neither the writing nor the plotting is half as bad as I thought it was. Cliche maybe, but not horrific. We've been talking on Facebook again about continuing.

How did we do it? Simple. I wrote until my Facebook-wall-post word count ran out (about 250 words back then, I think?), and then it was her turn. Nice when you didn't have much time. Frustrating when you wanted the dialogue - or even an entire plotline - to go one way, and then the next post was something completely different. Amazing when you hit writer's block. We would sit on Facebook chat and discuss, discuss, discuss...

It was fun, and I miss it. I'm hoping that we'll join forces once again to complete the story of Abby and Catherine. (Which could be a long time, considering that we were only two battles into the war, eh?)


So what about you? Ever co-written anything, whether in fun or, haha, not for fun? (As if writing could be not for fun!) Tell me about it! Or, if you haven't, find a Facebook friend and GO! It's fun. :)

I have discovered that I cannot spell horrific. I keep wanting to write horrorific, which makes so much more sense, don't you think?