Alice Campion is the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

of a group of Australian writers who have published two collaborative novels, ''The Painted Sky'' (

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, 2015; published in German as ''Der Bunte Himmel,''

Ullstein Verlag The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and '' Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstei ...

2015), and ''The Shifting Light'' (

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

, 2017). The group promotes collaborative fiction writing through workshops, public lectures, and the internet.

Members

Alice Campion consists of four core members: Denise Tart, a Sydney civil celebrant with a background in writing and performance; Jane Richards, a senior travel editor with Australian media group Fairfax; Jane St Vincent Welch (full name Mary Jane St Vincent Welch), an Australian film editor; and Jenny Crocker, a communications manager specialising in behaviour change campaigns. For its first novel, the Alice Campion group also included Madeline Oliver.

Origins

The Alice Campion collaborators met as members of an inner-city book club in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia, The Book Sluts. In 2010, while discussing Crime and Punishment, five members of the group decided spontaneously to write a ‘

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

’ in order to fund a trip to Russia. What began as a light-hearted attempt to write a run-of-the-mill romance soon developed into a more serious attempt to write a quality genre novel. The group was also motivated by the lack of

collaborative writing Collaborative writing is a procedure in which two or more persons work together on a Writing, text of some kind (e.g., academic papers, reports, creative writing, projects, and business proposals). It is often the norm, rather than the exception, i ...

in commercial fiction. While other forms of creative writing – notably

screenwriting Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, dev ...

for television and movies – thrived on collaboration, multi-author novels were rare. Other successful collaborative pairs writing commercial

Australian literature Australian literature is the literature, written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Australia, Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western culture, Western history, Australia was a ...

include Thomas Keneally and his daughter Meg Kenneally as well as Florence James and Dymphna Cusack, who wrote the classic Australian novel Come In Spinner. Alice Campion remains the only multi-member commercial fiction group collaboration in the world.

Writing process

The Alice Campion authors have outlined their writing process in detail, that they refer to as 'group fiction'. The document this process in their e-book ''How to Write Fiction as a Group''. Generally, the group meets on a Sunday to develop the plot of the book. This involves breaking the existing story into short scenes of around two to four pages. The group collaboratively decides what will happen in each scene: the action, setting the point of view, impacts on the emotion and knowledge of the participating character and the tone. Each writer then takes a single scene away and writes it as a draft. Scenes must be written and circulated to the other writers ahead of the next meeting, which generally takes place on a Thursday. At this Revision Meeting, each writer reads her own scene out loud and other participants have an opportunity to suggest improvements, which are integrated or not by agreement. In subsequent drafts, scenes are re-written by someone other than the original author and edited collaboratively to ensure a smooth and seamless narrative. Disagreements are decided by a vote.

Bibliography

* ''The Painted Sky'' (

Australia, 2015), published in German as ''Der Bunte Himmel'' (

, 2015). In this family mystery/romance hybrid, a young urban designer inherits an outback property and is drawn into layers of family secrets. * ''How to Write Fiction as a Group'' (2015), an e-book by Alice Campion members Jenny Crocker, Jane Richards and Denise Tart. * ''The Shifting Light'' (

, 2017), a sequel to ''The Painted Sky.''

Public reception

Following its publication in 2015, ''The Painted Sky'' drew attention from the Australian media. The Alice Campion authors have presented at numerous events, workshops and festivals including the Japan Writers’ Conference, the inaugural St Albans Writers’ Festival, the New South Wales Writers' Centre, the Society of Women Writers (NSW), the State Library NSW, the NSW Writers' Centre, and for Writers Victoria at the Wheeler Centre in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Following the publication of ''The Shifting Light'' in 2017, the Alices appeared at the Sydney Writers' Festival and ran a workshop on how to write collaborative fiction.

Members

Origins

Writing process

Bibliography

Public reception

References

External links