With a bit of careful planning, starting a collaborative project or organizing a small, creative community (such as a writer’s room) can be straightforward and fun.

There are a few important aspects to consider, usually with a handy software or an app that can help. Let’s take a look at just three of them here.

1. Create a Place to Store and Access Files Easily

When working on creative collaborations, there will be a time when files need to be shared. The files may be some art cards for characters in a shared world. They may be video recordings of online discussion meetings. As the type of media can vary, it would be worth thinking about a place that has good storage capacity without breaking the bank.

large shelves full of paperwork and storage boxes

For example, Dropbox has a business use plan that gives you 5TB of storage for less than $20 per person per month. You can find a free trial of Dropbox Professional here if it is of interest. It’s also worth thinking about somewhere that is easy to share with others. Dropbox can help with larger files, such as high-quality images and videos, though there are great alternatives for text-based files.

Users of Microsoft One Drive and Google Drive can seamlessly store documents made in a word processor and easily share a link with the rest of the collaborators. For Google users, see our guide on ways you can share the Google documents you create.

If you are developing a script, a series of short stories, or a collection of poems and wish to help one another without being too intrusive, the comment functions of both Microsoft Word and Google Docs are a very handy way of doing so. GCFLearnFree has a good YouTube video explaining how to use the comment function in Google Docs.

2. Organize an Interactive Brainstorming Zone

There will be times when working on a word processing document won’t be enough for developing some ideas. An effective method for visualizing idea development is to use an interactive, online whiteboard such as Miro.

There are a number of ways to customize the layout of boards, and you can easily share them with contributors for comments. With Miro especially, you can turn ideas into tasks, allowing for a streamlined transition from conception to production.

Many of the free interactive whiteboard apps and sites are free to use and are packed with features. To have a go, you can log in to Miro here and explore the features that it provides. There are helpful explanations online too, such as our article on how to create a monthly planner on Miro.

person from the back looking at a whiteboard full of notes

If a more in-depth task management system is needed, including a way to organize the calendar, store linked files and manage larger teams effectively, there are free systems such as Notion that are worth looking into. There are a number of useful feature explanations out there, including our article on some powerful Notion tricks to speed up your workflow.

Notion has real-time, multi-account note-making and editing functionality. Whilst this sounds chaotic, with the right kind of team management strategy, this can also be used as an advantage when collaborating on a live document.

3. Use an Efficient Method of Communication

Instant messaging services can be effective, such as creating a WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger group, though they do have their limitations. Slack can be popular too, though sending files and viewing chat history can quickly become troublesome due to the storage restrictions of the free version.

An online community forum, such as Discord, could be good as you can create roles for members, and there is a comprehensive search function for finding information in previous conversations.

macbook showing an animal video conference and cat paws on the keyboard

Video conferencing is also recommended, as it is a nice way to put names to face and give the live and more dynamic conversation that a text-based system can struggle with. There is also the ability to record video meetings for reviewing and sharing with contributors who are absent at the time.

Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams are all good at their job and provide a recording function and link to their hosts' accounts very easily. It’s worth taking note of time zones if you happen to have any contributors based overseas. Zoom has a function that allows you to overcome this challenge. Our article on how to set your work location on Zoom has the answer.

A good way to create small video comments or brief tasks is to use a video recording and sharing system such as Loom. It is easy to record yourself and your screen and then generate a link to share. Contributors can react to and comment on each other’s videos, too. A system such as this is very useful for asynchronous work.

Less Is More

To save the frustration of collaborators having to create multiple accounts, download multiple apps, and give their precious details to many third-party companies, it's definitely worth being absolutely sure you need the software of choice before implementing it.

Having said that, you may discover exciting and useful new features in software that you previously didn't know existed, or that were recommended by a collaborator themselves. With a bit of trial and error and testing, you'll find the apps and sites that work best for you and your team.