How can creators find collaborators? First improve your own skills while meeting as many people as you can. You can also join clubs or post a “looking for collaborators” message online, spelling out your ideas and needs, and start with small projects to test your chemistry. When choosing partners, look beyond ability: they should communicate well and keep personal matters separate from work, and their character is key. Utsudo encourages creators to speak up to the world bravely—only then does the world have a chance to answer.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Collaboration comes with communication costs

Everyone is an independent individual. When collaborating on a project, you need to discuss and confirm each other’s vision and make adjustments before the project can move forward steadily. And before it’s finished, you need to coordinate many times to avoid disagreements that drive up the project’s time costs.

So collaboration requires a lot of communication. How much depends on how well you and your partner fit. If your ways of thinking differ greatly, communicating can be exhausting—not to mention everyone has their own temper. Some people may flare up when opinions differ, or misunderstandings may cause friction between you.

If people can’t separate personal feelings from work and deal with issues objectively, the team is unlikely to last long.

Choosing partners: character matters beyond ability

Working with others naturally carries risks. For example, someone might quit midway, and finding a replacement is a hassle. If that person happens to be hard to replace, then no matter how well the project is going, it may have to wrap up early. This actually happens all the time.

Precisely because executing a project costs so much, especially a long-term one, you must choose people carefully. I think work ability matters, of course, but character is also a very important part.

For example, someone might be quite capable but stir up trouble everywhere, making enemies big and small. Even if a few small incidents blow over, there’s no guarantee they won’t get into serious trouble someday. If you’re working with them then, you may get dragged in, and your project could be tarnished too.

So I think when choosing collaborators, besides ability, consider whether they communicate well, as well as their character and ethics. Discussing a work together is already hard enough—there’s really no need to add other risks. Besides, you wouldn’t want a work you’ve painstakingly built to go down the drain, would you?

Do it all alone, or build a dream together?

Speaking of which, you might think: in that case, why not just do everything yourself? But unless you’re all-capable and incredibly hardworking, I think in the long run you may lose your own life, and that way of working is very unhealthy.

Imagine having a group of like-minded partners building a dream (an IP) together—how wonderful that would feel! What you understand, they get instantly. You’re the only people in the world who truly understand this work, like a small private world you can also share with others. You laugh together, face hardships together and take on the world together.

If you can truly find partners like that, I think you can get through however hard reality gets!

How do you find like-minded partners?

So how do you find people like that?

As I’ve mentioned before, it comes down to improving your own skills while meeting as many people as possible. That’s how you get the chance to meet like-minded partners with real ability.

Beyond that, I think you can also proactively join clubs, or try posting a “looking for collaborators” message online. Roughly describe how you want to collaborate and what you’d like from applicants, such as portfolios and contact details, then attach links to your own work so they get a sense of your style.

Of course, it’s easier to find people if you’ve had some success online. But even if you haven’t, you can treat it as making friends—collaborate on small projects first to see how working together feels.

Don’t think you’re just an unknown little writer. Only when you try speaking up to the world does the world have a chance to answer you. Bravely take the next step and let the world see you!

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #240: Is Loving ACG Something to Be Ashamed Of?
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.