Two writers take turns crafting next chapters of a single story, as “equals in imagination”, and with their identities kept secret until the story ends. What if one of them is you? Individual writers in need of Switch-Lit partners can now join Subrosa “rounds” to get paired with a fellow creative stranger and start a collaborative story together.
“Meditative Rose”
Painting by Salvador Dalí
You and your partner equally co-own the content of your story according to our Terms of Use. Switch-Lit simply has the rights to promote and market your story to help grow the platform and fulfill our mission.
Upon completion of a first draft of your story, you will unlock a new chat feature to make the editing process easier, but to also connect with your partner directly to share more about yourselves.
You can always keep your identity secret by simply not sharing your personal information via the chat feature. All messaging between writers is optional and voluntary, so you’re in control of your identity.
Collaborative prose and poetry is an unconventional form, and so certain conventions may not apply.
The editing process is also turn-based but each writer edits all of their chapters in a single turn. Whoever writes the last chapter will choose which writer will be the first editor. After the first editor finishes a round of edits, then the other writer will be notified that it is now their turn to edit all of their own chapters, but also the option to either finalize the story or do another round of edits. In general, we recommend that the more experienced writer-editor is the second editor and the overall goal of editing is cohesion.
If the Subrosa round has officially begun and your partner has kept your story inactive for fifteen (15) days or more, then yes, you can request a full refund of your entry fee and your story will be deleted.
The entry fee is generally non-refundable. You can only request a refund of your entry fee if the round has begun and your partner has kept your story inactive for fifteen (15) days or more.
The entry fee gives you social connection in the form of a writing partner, the creative structure to test your writing talents in a novel way, and access to digital tools custom designed for collaborative storytelling via the Switch-Lit platform.
Additionally, it helps Switch-Lit to cover the costs of matchmaking (by a human), writer support, platform maintenance, cash prizes for writers, and multimedia adaptations of stories – all of which to grow the Switch-Lit community and platform in a sustainable way.
Please feel free to follow us on our Substack, Instagram, or send us a direct email: editors@switch-lit.com
We’re always happy to connect with individual writers, educators, publishers, public librarians, and other creative people inspired by the possibilities of collaborative storytelling for diverse writing communities.
