Interview on Collaboration with Melissa Flores Anderson and Gavin Turner

Sometimes the hardest part of collaborating is getting started. Here are some tips from creators that have collaborated—sometimes with an absolute stranger—and made something wonderful!

Did you know your partner in collaboration beforehand? Explain how you got together. 

GT: A little. We operate in the same twitter circles and have our work published in similar magazines, sometimes at the same time. I think we have been able to gauge each others work in advance and get an idea of our styles and preferred subjects. It has been interesting to take stories in a direction that I would not normally have considered.

MFA: We’ve never met in person. I think the first time I became aware of Gavin was when he submitted a story to an issue I was guest editing for Roi Fainéant Press. My co-editor and I read blind but accepted a dark story from Gavin. And as he said, we’ve sometimes submitted to the same publications so we’ve read each other's work. While our writing styles are different, I think we both like to experiment with our writing and try new things, which is perfect for collaborating.

How did you collaborate? What was your process?

GT: We tend to have the beginnings of an idea, sometimes this has started as a throwaway comment on a tweet or something. One of us will draft a little and then send it back and forth, either tweaking or adding to the draft as we go. Seems to work well!

MFA: Gavin and I usually start with a small idea and go from there. For this nostalgic call, I kept thinking about the movie “The Last Unicorn” and wanted to do something inspired by that. Gavin had never seen the movie, but he was willing to go with it. He wrote the first bit, and then we passed it back and forth, sometimes editing a bit of what the other wrote. It is always surprising to see where a story goes because he always takes it in a different direction than I might go. The hardest part for me is knowing when the story is done because I might have an idea of where to end, but Gavin has to feel it, too.

What were some challenges you faced during the collaborative process, and what did you learn?

GT: I think there is a challenge in that it should be ok just to recognise if your style doesn’t work with someone else or if you aren’t feeling it you can just say. It’s also important to not be precious about what you have written. You are each others editors so you have to be quite laid back about it.

Writing together when you live in different countries can also be a challenge, there are time differences, and you have to realise that just because you are ready to write it could well be 3am where they are. That might be a good writing time for them but probably not so be patient!

MFA: Yes, the time difference is a challenge! And I was pretty busy with my day job and doing summer fun stuff with my 6-year-old when we were working on this story so I made Gavin wait a bit for some sections of it. And then when he had the story, I was so impatient to see where he would take our characters and our story

When collaborating with another writer, it is important to be open to their ideas and not just try to push them in the direction you want to go. If you do that, you might as well write the piece on your own. I like that Gavin brings a little darker take on things and I always seem to turn everything into a love story, but we find a way to bring those elements together.

Any final words of advice for future collaborators?

GT: Be patient, be kind and have fun. And keep going even if your first collab is a disaster. It might be the beginning of something cool.

MFA: I have collaborated with a few different writers now, including on a novelette that will be published in February 2023. Working with someone else can be a great boost if you aren’t feeling inspired on your own. Like any partnership, try to find someone who can elevate your ideas and your writing, and provide the same to them.

Read Melissa Flores Anderson and Gavin Turner’s piece, “Grover Beach”

Melissa Flores Anderson is a Latinx Californian and an award-winning journalist, who lives in her hometown with her young son and husband. Her creative work has been published in more than two dozen journals or anthologies, and she received a 2023 Best of the Net nomination for CNF. She is a reader/editor with Roi Fainéant Press. She has a co-authored novelette, “Roadkill,” forthcoming with Emerge Literary Journal. Follow her on Twitter @melissacuisine or IG @theirishmonths. Read her work at melissafloresandersonwrites.com.

Gavin Turner is a writer from the UK. His short stories and poetry have been published in Punk Noir magazine, JAKE, Voidspace and Roi Faineant press. He has published two collections of poetry, The Round Journey (2022) and A mouthful of space dust (2023). Follow him @gtpoems on Twitter and read more of his work at gtpoems.com