Tandem Stories
By Johnny Betts
About two years ago I was sitting at work bored out of my
mind. Instead of finding some actual work to do I decided to email Stephanie and let
her know of my great idea. "I'll email you a paragraph of a story and then you write the
next paragraph and we'll just go back and forth." And so we did.
You never know what's going to happen with stories like these. One person will start
in one direction and then the other person will try to take it in a completely different
direction. The results are often quite interesting and very unpredictable.
The most important thing to remember when participating in this type of story is to not
take anything personally. If your writing partner takes a direction you don't want to
go in, then tough, that's all part of the game. You've gotta accept it and not let your
feelings get hurt.
Likewise, the story may not end the way the reader expects or wants it to. Sometimes the
ending will come from totally out of the blue. That's what keeps things so interesting.
Unconventionality rules in the land of the tandem stories.
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