Welcome to Good Prose Studios, where creativity and collaboration meet. In our inaugural blog post we shed light on what it really means to engage a storytelling consultant on your creative project.
Do you remember the old Sesame Street saying – and that’s co-operation!? At Good Prose Studios, our mantra is: And that’s collaboration!
Collaboration is one of the best kept secrets of all great writing. When it comes to writing craft, we often think of essential elements such as narrative structure, themes and character development – and in the coming months in our newsletter we will be sharing tips on many of these style fundamentals – but what separates ordinary art from great art is always collaboration.
There is a misconception that writing is a solitary activity. The word ‘writer’ conjures up an image of a person sitting alone at a desk tapping away at their computer. They then finish their prose-perfect words, tie up their printed pages with a red ribbon and ship the manuscript off to their publisher. What is missing from that image is the dozens of conversations that have taken place – the many emails and phone calls back and forth, the words of encouragement, the guidance, and the thoughtful feedback – between the writer and their editor.
At Good Prose Studios, we firmly believe that every writer needs an editor. As writers ourselves, we know a good editor saves the writer’s bacon and improves their work – through numerous subtle changes and gentle words of encouragement.
Indeed our business name is inspired by the book GOOD PROSE by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tracy Kidder and his long-time editor, Richard Todd, of The Atlantic. In the book, the pair share craft secrets and chart the relationship between writer and editor – which they describe as a story of “collaboration and friendship”.
As Kidder and Todd say: “Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.”
Collaboration occurs at every stage of the writing process. It is there at the very beginning when you are throwing around the germ of an idea and figuring out which elements will stick. It is there for the outline, the first draft, the third draft and the sixth draft, and all the way through to the final proofread. And it is there in those moments where you are lost in the words, battling imposter syndrome, sure that your writing is a dog, that no-one will read it (because who would care?) and sure that the best thing to do is delete the whole mess and go back to your day job. (Considering quitting your day job? Well that’s a topic for another day. But when you do inevitably get to that stage? Don’t worry, we have plenty of advice for that too.)
Even this blog is the result of collaboration – a draft written by our Senior Writer/Editor Natalie Hambly then edited by our Director Erin O’Dwyer. You see? We really do practise what we preach!
