Collaborative Noodling
There’s nothing like sharing the page.
If there’s any advice I can give writers in this modern age, it is this: Cut the AI bullshit out of your editing. The best way you can improve as a writer—and improve your story—is through collaboration. Several of my professors told me that this is essential. And, what do you know, they were right.
I have a few friends that I found inside my writing community who send me their work as I send them mine. We go back and forth, both editing each other’s work and making suggestions for improvement. I’ve even written fanfiction with a friend, giggling in between paragraphs and enjoying the divvying up of sections. Not only was it a moment of collaboration, but it was also fun.
Collaboration is about talking to each other and pointing out where our strengths are and where things need some more, you guessed it, noodling. Noodling can come in a variety of methods, my favorite being duo-editing. Google Docs have evolved over the years, making it easier to edit a document with other people while talking it through in the chat feature. I have done this with fellow writers and found that it is exciting as well as challenging.
When you’re there together noodling a paragraph that feels off, one person’s suggestion can generate a new style of editing. I was helping one of my friends with a story she was working on and she watched as I rearranged her sentences to create a better flow. She told me that seeing the process of how words and sentences swap to provide clarity helped her with future writing. It gave her the awareness of different ways to approach structuring sentences and find an improved rhythm.
This form of noodling comes with lots of edits and critiques. And you must be open to criticism. If a fellow writer is telling you that you need to do better with describing a rubber duck, you have to be able to accept that this is a moment to improve rather than give up.
I’ve learned from being around creatives that sometimes giving someone constructive criticism is the equivalent to murdering their beloved childhood pet that had recently been reincarnated. They can’t stand it. It’s a personal attack on their character. And that’s where they tend to go wrong.
If you’re in a constant state of anxiety and insecurity because you’re not sure if your work is “good”, maybe rethink what a first, second, or third draft is to you.
This comes with practice. Start by sending your work to your trusted relatives or friends and then expand to someone who is more critical. From there, you can start to release your grip on keeping unnecessary details while also knowing when to stand firm in what you know you must keep. It’s still your story, after all.
All of this is to say I highly recommend collaboration. It’s a way to not only have meaningful conversations about writing, but to also inspire each other to reach new breakthroughs in your work, one noodle at a time.
