Project CCC is moving forward, but there are a few things I've noticed that might have helped make this go smoother. If anyone else attempts to write a collaborative novel, or if I could go back in time and give myself some advice when we first started, this is what I would say.
1. Allow adequate time. When we began this project, we assumed it wouldn't be too hard to find people to write for us, and since the segments would be so short, everyone could write their section in only a few hours. In reality, we had to keep pushing our deadlines back so we'd have time to find writers to fill up all the sections.
If I were to do this again, and if we didn't have the time constraints a semester imposes, I would have allowed more time to find authors, and for authors to find us. Ideally, I'd give it a month from the time we started accepting submissions to the time we closed it to the public. Then I'd give us another month to revise and publish. As it is, we're going to be pushing things to properly edit this novella.
2. Don't overestimate your number of collaborators, and recognize personal connections. As I mentioned, it was harder than we thought it would be to find people. Personally, I imagined opening this website to the public and getting tons of volunteers from across the country due to digital media. Our blog got around 400 hits that first month, so why wouldn't we have lots of authors from that alone? And then there was the Facebook group, and I assumed those members would tell their friends, who would tell their friends, and etc until we had to start saying, "Sorry, people, all the sections are filled." In the end, the people we got to sign up were mostly personal contacts. I texted a friend I know loves writing, and he got several people involved. We also went to clubs and classes on campus, and a few people from Engl 195 signed up. When we made personal or physical contact, that's when people started committing.
In a way, digital culture failed us here. While we may have gotten a couple of people to participate because they simply found our website or blog, our best contributors were actually people we already knew, or people we talked to face-to-face. Again, perhaps time was against us here. It's possible my dream of collaborators stumbling across our blog and volunteering their time would work if we left this open for several months. But if you need something done quick, think of your friends and family who already enjoy writing, go to them, and ask them to participate. Don't rely on unknown masses when time is of the essence.
3. Make a clear, clean website. This was something we heard again and again. We started off with a blog, which many found confusing. We then created a Google Site, hoping it would be more straightforward. While our content was finally in one place, and it explained more about how to contribute, we still had a problem with grabbing newcomers. It took too long to get into the plot line, the characters, and the novel in general.
We're working on these problems, but it's a little late in the game. Again, the timing thing got in our way. We needed an inviting, clear website that would introduce newcomers to the novel quickly (as in summarizing the plot and characters), but also explain in a clear way how to contribute to those who wanted to help write. This is perhaps one of the greatest things I've learned from this class: content must be accessible and understandable, and the format must be clean and easy to follow. There's no one way to do this, of course, and it requires lots of social proof to find out the best way to present your content. So if someone were to try our idea out for themselves, I would suggest they get feedback early about the website/blog/whatever digital media they use, and update it accordingly. Don't be afraid of beta, but try to get this part done early so your potential contributors don't get frustrated.
We've enjoyed Project CCC. Honestly, I loved collaborating with my team members about plot, characters, the website, and getting contributors, and I really liked writing my segment. If you haven't, you should check out our site at https://sites.google.com/site/collaborationfornovels/home and do a little collaborative writing. It's fun! You feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself. And I think this idea of online collaboration can work for a novel. It's still working for us. I just wish we'd done a few things differently.
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