Blog 7: A Note on the Process

Visit Selby’s blog for our collaborative post here

Otherwise, here’s a note on the process…

The actual process of cowriting was a complete mystery to me when we first teamed up. I think this exercise helped to clear some of the fog though I’m still not entirely sure, if we were to cowrite another piece, that we would tackle it the same way. Maybe we would, but the process seems not easily repeatable. Admittedly, however, I am not sure I can articulate why exactly. I had considerable difficulty conceptualizing how it would actually work and I now find that I am struggling to describe the process. When we first started I had to ask questions such as “so, do we write every word together?” or “do I write one paragraph and then you write the next?” and “should one of us write the bulk of it and then the other insert her voice after it is mostly complete?”. To make a long story long, I didn’t understand the mechanics of it.

We began by agreeing on a topic, which we felt strongly about. CRM and its practice in Ontario is endlessly interesting, and problematic, so we had a lot to choose from, even within this specific topic. From there, we each wrote a brief anecdote about an experience we had had in the field that moved us. Surprise, surprise, they were all negative experiences. From there, we began to tease out common themes, issues that we kept coming back to, things that stood out to us in the moment. Naturally, colonialism was the uniting theme within these anecdotes. Following this, we began writing together and it seemed to flow. Synthesizing our ideas was easier than I expected and it was truly enjoyable to think through our ideas and experiences collectively. This produced our final product, and I hope you all enjoy.