Taking over a friend's novel she gave up on

[Cielo.C]

I'm fairly new here and still trying to get the hang of everything. My friend, HedonistPotato decided to abandon her novel, The Gamer Girl. She told me I can continue the novel and do whatever I want to it. There's no telling when she's coming back to pick up Her Last Sunset which is currently on hiatus. The reason she gave up on Gamer Girl is in favor of a not-so-new novel she's been thinking of for years.

To clarify, The Gamer Girl is part of our "series" about four women of different ages and backgrounds: The Gamer Girl, My Love Song, Do Not Wish Upon A Fallen Star and Loving A Vain Lady. The Gamer Girl and Vain Lady are hers. We pretty much created our own universe and I was a lil disappointed when she decided not to continue the project. I am determined, though.

I think I should contact the support about this before I decide, right? Has anyone ever picked up someone else's novel before? Tell me about your experience and how it went.

 

[Sabruness]

I would say perhaps dont directly pick it up for now but go over it and see if it would be better to adapt what she had written into a new version.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

I'm fairly new here and still trying to get the hang of everything. My friend, HedonistPotato decided to abandon her novel, The Gamer Girl. She told me I can continue the novel and do whatever I want to it. There's no telling when she's coming back to pick up Her Last Sunset which is currently on hiatus. The reason she gave up on Gamer Girl is in favor of a not-so-new novel she's been thinking of for years.

To clarify, The Gamer Girl is part of our "series" about four women of different ages and backgrounds: The Gamer Girl, My Love Song, Do Not Wish Upon A Fallen Star and Loving A Vain Lady. The Gamer Girl and Vain Lady are hers. We pretty much created our own universe and I was a lil disappointed when she decided not to continue the project. I am determined, though.

I think I should contact the support about this before I decide, right? Has anyone ever picked up someone else's novel before? Tell me about your experience and how it went.

All you gotta do is ask if you can continue it. As for writing styles, i dont really get what @flucket said since personally i can read a style and copy it well. I dont think it would be hard?

I picked up a story for a guy (though i rarely update it and did a whole rewrite that is barely past chapter 6 of his 50 or whatever chapters he had in his version) and i just got his permission and that was it. Unless you ask for her to change her current email and password for whatever site she mainly wrote the story for, and she gives you access to the account after its done so you can truly continue it yourself instead of copying it all somewhere else....that would be a bit unconventional but the best way to go about it.

 

[ChronicleCrawler]

I'm fairly new here and still trying to get the hang of everything. My friend, HedonistPotato decided to abandon her novel, The Gamer Girl. She told me I can continue the novel and do whatever I want to it. There's no telling when she's coming back to pick up Her Last Sunset which is currently on hiatus. The reason she gave up on Gamer Girl is in favor of a not-so-new novel she's been thinking of for years.

To clarify, The Gamer Girl is part of our "series" about four women of different ages and backgrounds: The Gamer Girl, My Love Song, Do Not Wish Upon A Fallen Star and Loving A Vain Lady. The Gamer Girl and Vain Lady are hers. We pretty much created our own universe and I was a lil disappointed when she decided not to continue the project. I am determined, though.

I think I should contact the support about this before I decide, right? Has anyone ever picked up someone else's novel before? Tell me about your experience and how it went.

If the author already agreed, you could continue writing the novel. In my own opinion, you could rewrite the "The Gamer Girl" novel to suit your own palate since not everyone has the same way of writing. Put your own twist and changes on the plot, make it more exciting, make it better and there you have it. Then add your own style. Anyway, I'm not telling you to scrap it, just add something on it that would suit you so that it would be much easier for you to continue.

 

[mrsimple]

Has anyone ever picked up someone else's novel before? Tell me about your experience and how it went.

Once. It was short. Really short. Like less than 1k words short. The original author said it looked good, but I wasn't thrilled with what I created. It was fun to write, I just didn't like it. I wasn't comfortable that the characters I wrote were legit. That the original author really would have had them act and behave the way I portrayed them in that short. To me, it felt like I wrote fanfiction rather than concluding the story. That's my experience.

 

[DaoFox]

As simple said, the biggest issue with taking over another's story is the dissonance between writing styles and character portrayal/perceptions.

what you see in a character may not be what another see's in a character and so it's very easy to be dissatisfied and complain further down the line.

It's actually rather hard to copy another's writing style because it is rather subconscious and an intrinsic value of each individual.

I would start the story over from the beginning using all the main points I enjoyed and then make the minor tweaks in plot, such as the events or character traits etc, to fit in with your own idea's and plans for the story.

I have read a comic before that kept changing writers and artists along the way and I can only say that it was a very blatant and obvious difference each time. Just when you think the plot is progressing and they are about to hit the next hurdle on their path, the path and traits change and so now they veer off to a new direction and start over from the beginning. 300chapters later you aren't even sure what story is being told anymore because it doesn't resemble its original base in the slightest anymore.

 

[Cielo.C]

Thanks, everyone! I talked to her about how I would change the story if I were to pick it up and she was fine with it under the condition that the "main" events don't change at all. Since it's loosely based on our friend's real-life story, we don't want to over-fictionalize it. Well I am the serious-type of writer and I know I won't be as goofy as Hedonist :d. When I have the time, I will go over the drafts Hedonist made and see what I can do with them. Thanks, everyone!

 

[LWFlouisa]

Thanks, everyone! I talked to her about how I would change the story if I were to pick it up and she was fine with it under the condition that the "main" events don't change at all. Since it's loosely based on our friend's real-life story, we don't want to over-fictionalize it. Well I am the serious-type of writer and I know I won't be as goofy as Hedonist :d. When I have the time, I will go over the drafts Hedonist made and see what I can do with them. Thanks, everyone!

It's good that you asked this, as it's given me some thought.

I hope the issue works out for you both. I myself may need to find someoe to take over, as I move onto writing other things from my last book onwards. So I may not have the chance to continue uploaded fairy.

My current style is pretty different from when I first wrote stuff.