How to write Poetry Collaborations part 1

How to get started with a poet to poet collaboration

When the Rebecca Swift Foundation invited me to talk to other members about collaboration and fusion works with the very wonderful Maya Chowdhry and Joy Francis, I came away thinking that it would be really useful to share some of my ideas on writing in collaboration with other poets. I’ll make a three parter with this post on getting started, then dive into the writing process, and finish up with publishing or meaningful documentation of your work, maybe, or you could let me know what you’d like me to cover.

One of the questions from the lovely RSF audience was: how do I find another poet to work with, then how do I approach them? To which the panel all answered, just ask! I think if you’re offering something you genuinely think will be of interest to the person you’re approaching, it can become a delightful exchange, like maybe they hadn’t seen that aspect in their work before or conversely they feel seen because you’ve noticed what it is about their work that makes their heart sing too. Be honest, be respectful and tell the other person why you think working together could be interesting.

I reach out to people whose work I’m drawn to and sure, sometimes I never hear back (and I imagine them sliding my contact into the dark draw of weirdos and clicking it firmly shut!) but most of the time people respond. If there’s mutual interest, we start exploring what’s possible. Sometimes a tempting project drifts because life or lack of funds or no overlap in our schedules happens but then suddenly, we might see a way to take it forward so we get back in touch. Collaborations can take time to feel out and find time in everyone’s schedules. Meeting people in person through shared activities or local groups is another great way for collaboration to be born naturally. I’ll expand on tips for writing and editing in the next post.

If you’re commissioned to collaborate then at least the funding is taken care of and there’s usually a clear deadline so decisions about availability are also covered. If you’re setting up your own collaboration, I’d strongly recommend setting an end date and spending some time at the outset sharing your personal expectations. For example, if one of you had in mind a finished piece to send out for publication and the other one was just interested in making something interesting then it’s likely your collaboration would come unstuck about two thirds of the way through by which time you’ll feel torn. The more honest you can be up front about what you’re both working towards and how long you can give to the project, the better. Set deadlines!

Other questions from the audience touched on what to consider when setting up collaborations. For the poets who collaborate for DIRT plantable poetry I give them collaborating tips. Talking at the RSF event led me to think that maybe it would be useful to publish them here so they’re open source. So here’s the advice I’ve complied over the years from collaborating in different ways and on varied projects that I share with DIRT poets. I should explain that I start DIRT poets off with a piece of climate science that I choose for them specifically so they have something to bounce their initial discussions off.

DIRT notes on writing in collaboration:

How do you get started?  

I suggest starting with the climate science which can help you tune into each other’s interest (or lack of interest) in the content. Pay attention to how you feel in your body when faced with this task and what ‘sparks joy’. Follow the joy. Acknowledge awkwardnesses together. Include it all in your writing. Start there. 

In practical terms: 

You might decide to meet in person or online, for time-specific writing where you can pass lines, phrases, stanzas back and forth live. A spontaneous approach.
You might write to each other in email, letter, text message, leave voicenotes or videos where you can respond and digest what’s been sent before responding. 
You might work in a shared google doc where you can type and write into each other’s work live, in real time. 
You might decide to focus your writing on a place, object, memory/idea that is related to or contrasts with the climate science you’ve been given. 
Your work might be prompted by the climate science or be written in reaction against it or bypass it entirely. All shades of response are valid! 
You might research a topic together, sharing findings and a starting point might emerge. 
You might devise a ritual you’ll both follow at specific times or places. 
You might write separately but simultaneously, perhaps with an object or place or time of day related to your theme. 
You might agree to write in dialogue or take on characters/elements in conversation.
You might write ultimately as one voice melding your drafts together.  
You might follow a formal constraint or invent your own poetic form.
The poem is yours, and you can play!

The formal constraints on the poem set by DIRT are the space available to you on the sheet, the time-limit and the prompt. Writing collaboratively is not a ego-free activity, it’s an ego-joining action – you are building a nest together and it may be that one of you only brings twigs and the other only moss but by accepting what the other offers, you’ll build a great nest. Partners that constantly throw out the material the other one brings will have a sorry time of making a nest together.

Some tips on how to receive each other’s work

• Collaboration benefits from a basic agreement that you will build on what the other offers. In practice, this means finding something in the other’s work to which you can say ‘yes and…’.

• You may not know when you start which bits of what you make together will finally be useful to you, much as when we write solo, we start somewhere and at some point we can identify the kernel, the place the poem is growing from. That’s when we’re able to take away all the overgrowth and refine what’s been made. You’ll find that much the same process happens in collaboration. 

• Take it seriously. What you’re offering each other is a proposal of sorts. You will find that the thrill of seeing what your writing partner does with, to or in response to what you send is moving. You will want to enchant the other. So within the container of this commission, within DIRT, you can be safe. A certain willingness to play and allow your words to be mingled, mangled, upturned, re-rooted and translated can be liberating and inspiring. People often say they learnt new things about their own writing by working in co-operative collaboration. 

• That said, if what you’re making doesn’t pinch a little bit, you could probably go further. What are the productive challenges or intervention, rules or rituals, you could introduce to your writing that will shift the writing up a gear? 

Some tips on editing each other’s work

• Collaborations can suffer from conventions of politeness. When it comes to the final draft stage (and maybe before) you will need to put aside ‘who wrote what’ and move into ‘what the poem needs’. In our solo work, we’re accustomed to ‘killing our darlings’ – in collaborative work this might mean suggesting that the other person’s darlings be killed, which many people find difficult. My advice? Be courageous and kind and if in doubt, lean on your editor! I can help if you find the poem is drowning. I want you to do your best work together. 

• Share your known sensitivities upfront. Like any relationship, it’s better to be straightforward about your needs both with your collaborator and your editor. Of course, you may not know what your writing sensitivities are around collaborating if you haven’t done it before, so picking up on what’s challenging for you and sharing that with your partner will make finding a way forward together possible. Creative friction is productive and valuable, but personal disagreements are upsetting. If you feel your toes are being trodden on, it’s important to tell the other person (and use your editor) to explore what’s going on. Conversely all love and no critical feedback from your partner can also be disappointing and unrewarding. It’s a balance. Good luck! 

Ideally a collaboration brings about poetry that is more than the sum of its parts but if you feel your finished piece lacks the rigor you’d bring to your own work, then you could ask a third party to edit with you. In the next post, I’ll say more about the writing and editing process.

Lastly, it may seem obvious, but if you want to write poetic collaborations it would be a good idea to seek out and read collaborations. Magma 78: Collaborations has an online segment you can read or borrow the magazine from a library. Maya’s work is really interesting - for a start she’s voice-mailing soil, I mean c’mon! How about leaving recommendations in the comments for people coming along to this page subsequently, and if you’ve made a collaborative piece yourself please share a link below.