Collaborative Narrative

Brief entry on collaborative narrative situating collaboration in hypertext and online writing contexts.

Collaboratively written narratives are not specific to new media: a number of works within the Western cultural and literary canon, for example the epics of Homer, the Judeo-Christian Bible, and Beowulf, are believed to have been developed through collaborative storytelling and writing processes. It can however be said that collaborative writing practices are more prevalent in contemporary digital media than in print.

Electronic literature authors most often write within software platforms that are themselves “authored”—every time someone opens up Photoshop, or Flash, they are reminded of the long list of developers who actually wrote the software. So even making use of a particular application is a type of collaboration. There is a greater degree of transparency to the collective efforts involved in digital media production than to traditional literary production.

(Source: Author's introduction)