Find Writing Partners with Blogging
One of the world’s great writing collaborations was one that a lot of people didn’t know about, originally. Husband and wife team Jerry and Sharon Ahern co-wrote a tremendous volume of action and science fiction novels, ranging from the long-running The Survivalist series to fantasy stories like The Golden Shield of IBF (about an FBI agent who finds himself in a Dungeons and Dragons-style fantasy setting). They wrote dystopian novels about a future of oppressive governments, and lighter fare involving a couple of Indiana Jones-style protagonists. Through it all, the couple worked together to generate some of the best pulp action and adventure fiction that ever emerged from the 1980s and thereafter.
There are countless such writing teams, writing partners who either co-write or simply help keep each other on track. One famous pair of writing partners is Steve Perry and Michael Reaves, who have generated a lot of fiction together… including one set in the mega-property that is Star Wars. Together, the two men wrote a book called Death Star.
What’s interesting is that the book isn’t a Star Wars novel that just happens to be written by Reaves and Perry — it’s a novel by Reaves and Perry that just happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. The book is, in fact, an absorbing character study of a handful of ordinary people stationed on the Death Star just prior to its completion — a TIE fighter pilot, a conscripted architect, a battle-weary surgeon (who is a character from a previous work by the same authors), a storm trooper who is also a martial arts expert, etcetera.
We watch as each of these men and women (and several others) come to terms with their rationalizations for serving the Empire. As the Death Star begins taking millions of lives, each of these characters is forced to make a decision about the future. The Death Star is therefore a setting, not a central plot point, and thus it is dealt with only in passing (though we do get a better picture of what such a large station would actually contain). There are a few interesting passages elaborating on the relationship between Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, which is not quite as two-dimensional or as clear-cut in terms of authority as it might appear in Episode IV.
Of particular interest was the subplot involving the chief gunner aboard the Death Star, a loyal Imperial trooper who, eager to fire “the big gun,” realizes to his horror that he has become a killer of planets after the Death Star goes operational. A few of the other characters will seem eerily familiar — particularly a cantina owner and her loyal security man — to anyone who has read Steve Perry’s work (starting with The Man Who Never Missed). The prison-planet setting in which the novel opens is particularly familiar ground for Reaves and Perry, who collaborated on the excellent The Omega Cage (which is about a prison break from a bleak, futuristic penitentiary on an inhospitable world).
Towards the end of the novel, scenes are taken verbatim from Star Wars: Episode IV and woven into the tales of the various characters, in some cases amplified slightly as we hear the thoughts of those involved. Given that any fan of Star Wars knows how the novel must end, it’s no mean trick that the reader will still be curious to see how this novel ends.
“Writing is an act of discovering what you think and what you believe.” – Dan Pink
Work like this showcases just how incredible a writing collaboration can be. When you use your blog to reach out to your audience and ask for writing partners, you can do it one of two ways. You can ask for help with writing, or you can ask with help staying on track. We’ve talked before about how having a writing partner can be like having a workout partner, someone who prevents you from slacking. Well, you can approach collaboration that way if that’s what you’re looking for… or you could eventually become one of the great writing teams turning out fiction for a new generation.
The choice, as always, is yours… but when we see the results of collaborative work from writing partners in various genres, it’s plain to see that such teams really can create beautiful fiction. And don’t think a writing partner can’t help with non-fiction, because such a team-up can help any workflow. It’s your choice and your call… but you may want to think about teaming up with someone to get your work done and create something truly amazing.
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*This blog was written 100% by a human and contains no AI-generated written content.