Why don't collaborative stories work?

The idea of a collaborative writing project is proposed at least once a month. Here are just a few examples:

[1](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1dn5fl/collaborative_sci_fi_writing/) [2](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/av7pf/hey_writing_i_created_a_collaborative_writing/) [3](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/12mjmb/i_am_thinking_of_starting_a_collaborative_writing/) [4](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1bs8cp/collaborative_story_proposal/) [5](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/whcly/new_collaborative_writing_subreddit_come_join_us/) [6](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1a1y2f/turnbased_collaborative_writing_sub/) [7](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/upnt6/help_me_write_a_collaborative_story_one_sentence/) [8](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1bvbkb/collaborative_creative_writing/) [9](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/13o5qo/inviting_rwriting_to_a_new_subreddit_experiment/) [10](http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/u8bhl/project_vanguard_a_collaborative_fiction_universe/)

The idea never 'works' in the sense that a sustainable community forms and continues to work on a story beyond the initial burst of energy and interest.

But *why* don't they work? It's not a matter of opportunity (there are loads of collaborative story forums) or interest (a few people participate every time the idea is proposed). There are other problems which aren't being addressed, and some of these problems don't really have solutions.

First, writers generally write to tell stories-- their own stories. Collaborative environments take the control away from the writer. Instead of having a pen, paper, and a world to build, there are all these other people building the world to their own specifications.

This wouldn't be a problem at all if the writers knew and trusted each other. Groups of writer-friends can create awesome stuff when working together or competing against each other (think of Frankenstein or On the Road).

That doesn't really work in an online environment. No other writer necessarily has a reason to trust my skills or feedback (and vice versa).

Besides that, when I jump into an online group, I don't know if you're on my level. I might be the one holding you back. It's probably a dick move to tell me that, but it is equally unhelpful to act like I am on the same level. We don't pretend that a high school kid learning to play basketball should be welcomed on an NBA court. Yet, for some strange reason, it's taboo to tell a new or developing writer that *you aren't good enough to be here yet*.

Besides that, there's the inherent inequality stemming from whoever started the project. Someone here once said that another writer started projects with the pitch that 'We can all work together to create this awesome thing that was my idea'. This is a perfect storm of the control and trust: why should I work on *your* idea when I can write my own without you meddling kids?

The solution is community. Collaborative writing takes a lot of trust: that the other writers know what they're doing, that they're going to take the story in a good direction, that they'll keep working on it, that they won't steamroll over your ideas.

So where does that leave collaborative writing experiments?

Two possible outcomes as I see them:

- Private collaboration groups built of writers you know and trust, with the goal of creating high-quality, professional, saleable work - Open collaboration groups as a sort of sandbox where new writers can practice whatever (dialogue, description, grammar) without the goal of a consistent or even readable final story.

The attempts to create coherent, enjoyable stories from a community of strangers obviously hasn't been working. It's time to try a new kind of collaboration.