oh, right, conversation

This summer, for the first time, I've been writing something collaboratively.  It started life as a presentation, and then we decided to keep the ball rolling and write the article now rather than later, for all the obvious, let's-not-admit-what-month-starts-on-Friday kinds of reasons.

And I'm here to say that I like it.

There was the first and immediate sense of happiness at the simple, relative ease and speed of it: I'm responsible for doing the first draft of the introduction and lit review, and after the initial how-the-fuck-can-I-write-this-without-knowing-what-the-analysis-will-say moment, it's been a relief and a breeze to have so many fewer pages to have to generate. 

But the greater (and less lazy) realization has come this week, as we've been posting our drafted bits on Google Docs and then periodically erupting into email conversations about the argument, purpose, context, goals, etc. of the piece.  In all the ways that it helps clarify one's thinking to talk about it with people, it helps even more when the people are just as invested as you are in the particular argument, and are also just as up to speed on the various details. 

It's also satisfying, and interesting, and great, to be engaged in a more public writing process.  Because I'm writing the intro, it seemed only fair (to me, at least) that I start posting my drafts as early in the process as I could: partly because that's where you write the IOU to your audience, and so my co-authors needed to let me know if I was promising something they didn't want to deliver, and partly so that they could pick up on the key terms, concepts, etc. that I introduce early rather than late in their drafting processes.  This means that I'm showing them things earlier in my process than I normally would -- after all, I can't make all the final decisions myself! -- and that's kind of liberating.  Of course, it's (again) only possible because this project is *collaborative*: we don't have to keep track of where the different ideas or phrasings originate because all three of our names will be on the article in the end.

The other great thing about this writing, and the intensely conversational nature of this writing experience, I think, is that it's reminding me of the best aspect of being immersed in writing and in specific projects: the momentary flashes of insight at random times.  A couple of weeks ago, while writing a book review, I realized how to phrase a particular knotty question while getting dinner ready, and had to jot it down before dashing out to join M. l'O and the girls outside.  Late last night, I had a similar revelation about a problem I'd identified in the mid-afternoon and shrugged my shoulders at, passing it off to my co-authors before closing up mental shop.  I don't like obsessing over work -- bad news from the administration, struggles with a particular class discussion that didn't go well, what have you -- but I do like feeling as though my brain is puzzling over the issues and questions I'm engaging even when I don't realize it.

Comments

[dr]

What a great synergy! I think that we've pushed through all the way to a complete draft now, which is great. I'm curious to see how we proceed for the next steps -- taking turns revising the whole thing, giving one another comments but maintaining a kind of ownership over the individual sections, ... I'm not sure where we're going next, but I'll keep you posted.

[KF]

May the writing gods smile on you, as they just did on me: I'm working this morning on the section of my chapter on authorship that focuses on the benefits of collaboration and other modes of socially-situated writing...