WRITING AS A TEAM SPORT IS encountered fairly often in newspapers, but more rarely in fiction. Not so long ago in these pages we discussed the novelist-as-couple, as seen in the persons of Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees, say, or Nicci French (cleverly constructed from Sean French and Nicci Gerrard). But these are intimate relationships; the marriage of true minds is possible to imagine.

On page 16 this week we read about one writer’s experience of sharing her work with a group: but what if the group wrote the book? After last week’s titular experiment (enter your book’s title into a website and see how it scores as a potential bestseller), here’s a new game to play. This week’s website is www.glypho.com, where strangers can meet and swap stories. Yes, I know, that place is usually called a pub, but this is virtual space and it’s fiction we’re talking about.

The way it works is simple: someone enters a story idea, others contribute further developments or ideas for characters; voting takes place on how the story progresses. Adventure, fantasy, romance — there are plenty of categories to choose from, and, if you’re brave enough, Triptych is raring to go: “Imagine a world where — by day — cats are the familiar creatures you see in our everyday world, but by night they go on amazing adventures in far off lands.” Imagine, indeed.

I’m not sure that novel-writing-by-committee is where the future of fiction lies, but I was curious enough — as a writer of the stuff myself — to have a look. Writers, after all, are desperate folk. Look! There’s an idea! Where? Over there! Nope, sorry, you missed it. I keep a book on my shelf called Novel Writing: 16 Steps to Success — I tell myself it’s hanging around because it’s funny (the secret’s in the stationery you own, apparently, and in “bulletproofing” your story) but perhaps secretly I hope that one of those 16 steps will be mine.

There’s a reason for this and I don’t think it’s anxiety alone. Writing groups, cybernovels, writing manuals — writing may look, for the most part, like a solitary occupation, but it arises from the most primal need.

That is the need to speak one to another; for our words to be heard and attended to. No life is lived in isolation; some turn their lives, the lives of others, into stories. Some will listen, take those stories into themselves, and return them to the world — whether they write novels, or whether they simply live their lives.

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