So, I’m a fan of Nox Arcana, and of some of the composer’s other work. To my mind surprise, he produced two albums this fall. One a typical dark instrumental album (aka “spooky scene music”), and one … a rock album. Well, rock inspired album, which is … different in a cool way.
On Nox Arcana’s website, the composer/keyboardist has a little essay about why the rock album, and about collaboration. He started with a few pieces he did for a video game, then more, and more. Soon he had enough for an album, inspired by his early fondness and training in rock. So, obviously, the thing to do was find other musicians, some friends, some through professional connections, and ask them to help perform his songs and record an album. Behold, Rock Arcana was born.
Karen has written about how bouncing musical “ideas” off different singers is part of barbershop-style music. It is true of other musical genres, going a long way back, in a lot of cultures. Fugues, counterpoint, all have a theme passed between instruments or vocal parts. Some anthologies are like that, a core idea (Weird West, Haunted Library) with different authors approaching the main theme in very different ways – like comparing what Mike Oldfield did with the “Dies Irae” chant as compared to C. Sainte-Saessans. Others are shared world, where everyone takes a piece of an author’s world and explores it with different characters (the various Valdemar anthologies, for example).
How does it work? Sometimes very well. The organizer/lead author/editor sets hard guidelines (in my world, but not this part here, can’t use the following characters, can’t go ahead of the most recent work, can’t have this, that, or that happen, hard word limits) and then lets people play. Everyone knows what is expected, and where they can’t go. I suspect there are also behind-the-scene discussions about “OK, so I’m doing this bit. Please don’t use this time slice, or use it in a different location,” and so on. The results can be excellent, and in a few cases, the guest writers are encouraged to carry the characters through into another anthology/collection.
I’ve toyed with the idea, but I’m possessive. And there are authors who firmly quash attempts at shared world, or even fan-fiction. In a worst case scenario, shared-world stories could diminish an author’s copyright protection, and fan-fic may take characters in directions the author would strongly prefer they did not go.
Material from other genres can influence or inspire authors as well as musicians. Harry Turtledove, a PhD in history, loves to play with “What if this had not happened” or had happened. He takes non-fiction and runs all over with it. I steal, er, borrow elements from history and do likewise. Other folks try Regency romance beats in science fiction, and go in quirky directions. I’ve heard songs that, when combined with a photo or drawing, led to stories, either out of “What sort of person would feel that?” or “There’s so much potential there, and you messed it up!”
We all need to read our own genres, to learn what beats and ideas readers expect, and to see how other writers approach the idea. But reading around can bring in new ideas, or playing in a shared world, or with shared concepts, is fun, too. (Hungarian cowboys in outer space? Making fun of bureaucrats? Why not!)
Mad Genius Club 
8 responses to “Collaboration and Cross-Pollination”
I still don’t know what genre I am writing in. I would call it Catholic fiction in the sense that I’m writing about Catholics, — not against others, but just as who they are, trying to be themselves, and maybe become better. However, “catholic fiction” as a literary phenomenon often involves deep sinfulness being hidden and then redeemed after a torturous struggle. Yeah, go away. I am not going to write that stuff; I am not going to meet those expectations or beats. Oh, well.
Genre seems to start as a general description (“fiction about Christians doing Christian things, or in a Christian setting”) and then becomes a straitjacket (“must have deep struggle against secret sin, emotional turmoil, descent into darkness, slow painful ascent to virtue.”) Charles De Lint’s early books were shelved as fantasy, and happened to be set in urban or suburban settings. So they are Urban Fantasy, except there’s nary a leather-jacketed, angst-ridden protagonist to be found in most of the short stories or novels.
I don’t write explicitly religious fiction, unless people use that expression to mean fiction set in secondary worlds where belief in and prayer towards a Creator, and respectful treatment of the remains of the dead, is commonplace background stuff, and even not very saintly people like the female secret agent who aspires to Garak-hood or the hero’s embittered, slightly disreputable cousin will pray in extremis. But I totally understand writing stuff that in terms of subject matter ought to be filed under X, but in terms of handling subject matter is a long ways off from genre eXpectations. All you can do keep on telling your stories, and set your mental goalposts for sales low.
Giggle. I set my expectations for zero but I got about thirty. So that was pretty good! One of them has even been asking if my new book is coming along.
Yay!
Congrats on the query! That’s the sort of fan mail we all want. 🙂
I put my fantasy in Christian milieux, though how much of it appears varies.
And I rip all sorts of ideas. It gets interesting. I had the beginning of an isekai and was stuck. Then I ripped off the love interest from another work, and the villains came in after even though they had nothing in common with the villains from the other work.
Science fiction is almost more of a setting than a genre. The story can be military, mystery, romance . . . I’ve got tons of fantasy elements, with a little handwavium “genetic engineering!” Horror, suspense, thriller . . . we’ve got it all!
Okay, I don’t do too much historical stuff, ’cause I’m ignorant, and little religion because it’s blind spot of mine and takes effort, with no clue if I’ve got it right.
On collaboration I don’t much, but my Alpha readers throw out ideas (or recoil in horror) and sometimes the ideas are irresistible. One other writer (with prior permission) wrote in my universe but it didn’t sell as well as his own, so probably no repeat there. Another has permission, but it never got off the ground.