Willow Pattern

by Nick Earles, Steven Amsterdam, Krissy Kneen

9 writers. 24 hours. 1 book.On 11 June 2012, Australia gathered a team of writers and editors together with the challenge of writing, editing and publishing a book – for both print and digital – within a single 24-hour period.This is that book.Both the project and the book that has emerged from it demonstrate an experiment in collaboration, distribution, and content generation.

Genres: Short Stories

150 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 12, 2012

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was an interesting social experiment but is it great literature? No, it is not. It's amazing that a book can be written, edited and published in just 24 hours. It is interesting how the nine authors worked together but this really isn't one voice and the story didn't really flow well from author to author.

[Nikki Howson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frustrating isn't usually the first word to describe a book you liked, but this book is damn frustrating. I'm having to massage my forehead to smooth out the frown lines.

I started off thinking it was meant to be a book; then, oh no, it is just a series of stories where they have had to use the same charcters and incorporate a vase - oh hang on, maybe it is one story.

Some writers seemed to have Charlie found, then she was missing, then .. I don't know. Most of the stories led me to think this was all happening on the same day, and then they were cleaning up, so it was obviously later - but the power was out, was that again, or was it really still all the same day? And, well, too many other questions to bore you with.

But I did enjoy most of the writing. I'm going looking for some of their other work.

[Kylie Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Willow Pattern is an experimental piece, and applying the same rules to it as I would to any other work of short stories would be unfair. Instead, I find it helps to consider it less of a well-polished collection of stories as it is a quick and rough exploration of what can be achieved with no time and too much coffee.

The entire work was planned, created, and edited in 24 hours. This means that the writing isn't the absolute best possible, with some plot holes and logic issues. But given the time frame it was created in, it's actually rather good.

It's not a great read if you need stories to flow together seamlessly, and if you want your stories polished to a high shine. But if you're okay with the odd fumble, it's an interesting look at the writing styles of well-loved Australian authors taken far from their comfort zones.

[Sharon Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting concept. The variety of authors have built an out of the ordinary little story...not an award winning read, but well worth a lookin. A struggle to stay with the story at times, but what does one expect when each chapter owns a different writer? I rather enjoyed the strong contrast of writing styles linked together...even if a couple of them were way out of my reading comfort zones...

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book and glad I finally got around to reading it. Of course, this has such an interesting backstory - if: book Australia organised with a bunch of talented writers for this writing experiment. Write, edit and produce a book in 24 hours!

[Keith Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

And being there while it was being written was amazing too!