Well, you could try this...

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2132832.ece

Emma

Sounds like fun. It's just a join the dots exercise. What would happen if one of these books was nominated for a prize? Do we have ten people walking on stage to collect it?

I was discussing this with some other writers, and we all felt that it wasn't really anything new. When you write a screenplay from a novel you're doing almost exactly this. People who collaborate on a text probably go through a similar process, and a great many forms of writing come with restrictions already in place. For instance, if you write for a woman's magazine (one of the weeklies) there are strict guidelines about word count and tone and subject matter; if you write a tv script you have to work around the fact that you can't articulate what the character's thinking, or have sections of description. So, in a sense, external dictates for writing projects are with a lot of us, a lot of the time. This is just at the more extreme end. I chould think people who write regularly for tv (especially if they're part of a team, eg for a soap) work within a framework like this for most of their career.

I think that's really true, Kate, but what strikes me most about this is the amount of work you've to do before you get paid - in TV you get hired & a regular salary, write your own book and if no one buys it you've still got your work to develop as you wish.

<Added>

Just seen this thread's 3 days old, I thought it was fresh. I am so out of touch these days. I shall go for a little lie down, I think.

I attended a talk given by one of their authors, someone who had written a few Lucy Daniels and Animal Ark books, but is now writing under her own name.

She was a very professional writer, in attitude, and obviously very disciplined. She had been an editor before having kids, I think.

I remember her saying how nervous she was when she submitted her first sample to these people and how odd the feedback she was given. The editor in question was not at all encouraging but merely commented negatively on some aspects of the formatting, perhaps missed page numbers, or the wrong style of para indents - something very trivial I remember. But she got the job and they used it, so it must have been okay - but no one actually said anything good about her writing. It sounds from this article that they have learnt to be more nurturing and encouraging. What would freak me out is that you have to pitch (unpaid?) at virtually every stage. Writing against other writers, then seeing how you handle the amends in competition too. There's a certain amount of upfront risk for the writer, but I suppose it's less than sitting down and writing the whole thing on spec yourself.