Watch It Write! Pilot Program

Collaborative energy produces some of the most extraordinary art.  Sometimes, we are fortunate enough to watch this process unfold before us, giving the work greater meaning, allowing us to connect on a deeper level with the specific nuances of the artistic process, even if we're not actively creative ourselves. 

We're accustomed to watching this innovation with musicians.  The sessions are often recorded and published to YouTube and other Internet access sites, so we can be "a fly on the wall", taking it all in from an Omniscient Narrator POV.  We watch attentively as the drummer starts with a beat.  The bassist adds to the journey, inviting us to walk the rhythmic path.  The keyboardist offers a melody.  The guitarist brings in a riff to fill the gaps.  As a team, they construct the lyrics that erupt in a beautiful conflagration of melody and harmony.  Together, their collaboration brings a fuller, richer sound and a song that attaches to the brain and speaks to the soul.  Musicians call it "jamming" and if the looks on the musician's faces and their laughter is any indication, they have a great time doing it.

Writers can, and some do, work in the same way... collaborating on wondrous pieces of imagination to entertain and lend empathetic insight to readers.  They begin with an idea or a prompt - which could be just about anything - a photograph, a small piece of prose, a piece of music, or a piece of art.  The idea makes its way around the table, and slowly, defiantly, and through boisterous conversation, a story begins to emerge.  Each writer then constructs characters who begin to breathe, speak, and react interdependently.  The team then begins to layer in subplots, and sprinkle in secrets that will either be suppressed or revealed.   The writers carefully construct the "big bang" of the story, hurling literary meteorites left and right, leaving behind an impact crater readers can't ignore.  The group then carefully collects loose pieces, and the remnants are deftly connected, when at last, The End is achieved.  Writers call it "workshoping".   Many writers enjoy conspiring in this way, like musicians.  It's an exercise in creative exploration that enhances craft and improves time spent in solitary creation on individual projects.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of this process... or be a witness to it?  This is your opportunity to Watch It Write!  We're building a collaborative writing group, and we'll add it as programming to Indie Reads TV.  We will gather a new group of five or six writers each month, and meet once a week to collaborate on a fiction project.  At the end of the month, we'll have a finished novelette or novella, ready to be edited and go to press.  Those of you at home or in our studio audience, will have a "Fly On The Wall" view of the process.  And, if you're in the studio audience (we have room for about twenty Watch It Write spectators), you may have an opportunity to join in the collaboration, too!

Our target date to begin is May 2020.  If you're interested, fill out the sign up form below, and we'll embark on this new adventure together.  Everyone who signs up will be contacted by April 1, 2020 to confirm your collaboration, and receive final details regarding dates and times.