Could there\should there be more FF with more than 1 author?

[CharlesX]

While some of the best Fighting Fantasy was done with two authors, I think the different royalties structure sadly makes it harder for other authors to justify working with others, and easier for them to justify knocking off lower-quality books (which Livingstone seems to have taken advantage of). These sorts of things weren't uncommon in the series heyday, indeed they were some of the best Fighting Fantasy, but while a collaboration would be great I can't see one happening. As for J & L, they have both moved on heavily from Fighting Fantasy and I think in the unlikely event they would have done another collaboration it would probably have happened in the 1990s.
   I've heard some fellow Fighting Fantasy authors give advice to others when working, in the case of Charlie Higson to bail out Gates Of Death (which didn't work); I don't know about Rhianna Pratchett but my impression is she was welcomed into the Fighting Fantasy world, while her work arguably wasn't the best she put more care, grind and respect into her work than anything Livingstone has done since the Noughties. 

[terrysalt]

I don't think it matters too much how many authors there are, as long as the end product is good.

[bloodbeasthandler]

As long as there are not 'creative differences' it might actually be an advantage for authors to write in partnership. They could bounce ideas off each other, check each other's work, help each other maintain enthusiasm. A play-through by a colleague or co-writer of the finished article might be really useful.
In the absence of an editor picking up game-breaking mechanics or inconsistencies, think of some of the worst things seen in individual FF books and wonder if they would be less likely with shared writing.

[a moderator]

Jun 19, 2022 10:34:42 GMT bloodbeasthandler said:

As long as there are not 'creative differences' it might actually be an advantage for authors to write in partnership. They could bounce ideas off each other, check each other's work, help each other maintain enthusiasm. A play-through by a colleague or co-writer of the finished article might be really useful.
In the absence of an editor picking up game-breaking mechanics or inconsistencies, think of some of the worst things seen in individual FF books and wonder if they would be less likely with shared writing.

Having collaborated on more than one gamebook-writing project in the past, I have to say that a lot depends on the writers involved. I've contributed to multi-authored gamebooks where the different writers inspired each other, helped each other, and improved each other's work with constructive criticism. And I've been on a team where the ego of one specific co-writer destroyed my enthusiasm not just for that gamebook but for all future cooperative gamebook-writing.

[nathanh]

I don't know whether it is coincidence, but I think that the co-authored gamebooks are all reasonable to excellent entries in the series.

[CharlesX]

Jun 19, 2022 13:05:28 GMT nathanh said:

I don't know whether it is coincidence, but I think that the co-authored gamebooks are all reasonable to excellent entries in the series.

Most are but Clash Of The Princes seems to me merely average at best. Perhaps they wouldn't have been able to do something so different with 1 author but I think it's linear and boring, and while I admittedly haven't played it with 2 players I don't think I'd enjoy it.

[a moderator]

The big problem with the 2-player experience of CotP is that, as the books are designed to be winnable played solo, nothing of any real significance (beyond multiple new opportunities to get killed) can happen in the parts where the brothers work together.

[sleepyscholar]

I certainly think there's a lot to be said for co-authored books (even McCartney admits that he was better when writing with Lennon). As you've said, though, it depends a lot on the people who are writing. Steve W and I worked together very well. Much of the Riddling Reaver was, quite literally, written together, with both of us in the room, and one typing the stuff into the computer, sometimes while the other dictated. This style of collaboration is rare, and for the subsequent books we wrote some sections apart from each other (though we always revised each other's solo work). When I worked with Graham Staplehurst on the Robin of Sherwood gamebooks, though, it was very different. I got the feeling Graham didn't really like collaboration. I guess I could ask him if I see him this summer. I also get the feeling that there are more writers like Graham than like Steve and I. You know the cliché that 'writing is a solitary profession'? I think that's often by choice rather than by necessity.

[JMISTHE1]

In my opinion whether or not A FF Book with more then 1 author would be a good book would depend on who the authors are

[slloyd14]

Yes.