A few years ago, I worked with a friend, Tom, on a chain of Haiku. I wrote one and gave it to him simply to read. He responded by writing a second Haiku to follow-on from my own. In the end I think we produced maybe 30 or 40 verses in something we ended up calling “Vocal Ordinary Men” (the second line from the first Haiku). The last Haiku was a repetition of the first; it was really cool. I may have a hand-written copy of it still laying around somewhere…
Years later, I started work on a story with another friend. It was a narrative about someone called Rose. The same pattern: I produced maybe 500 words, then she took over, then back to me… Sadly we never finished the piece as Jill had cancer and died.
Having dual authors gave the pieces a kind of dynamic and internal tension that was interesting. I was wondering yesterday if it might be time to try something like this again. (I know it flies in the face of the advice my 13-year-old son / would-be-Agent has given me [see recent blog post], but still…) Perhaps something in couplets, or prose with strict word limits. Who knows? It might be fun, played out in the full glare of an internet audience maybe…
Any thoughts?
Ian Gouge - Writer 