I love to collaborate with other writers on projects. Which makes it funnier that I've only really done it a few times so far…

The first time felt so right and was oh so wrong. We had a fundamental difference in how each of us saw the story. Each of our versions was big and bold and, ultimately, incompatible with the other. Neither was right, and neither was really wrong. They were simply vastly different and worlds apart.

So the whole project stumbled to a dusty grave.

That sucked. I realized, at the time, that I enjoyed working with another writer, but I also couldn't see how things fell apart as hard and fast as they managed to. I didn't really get it then.

So, though I loved the idea, I stayed away from further attempts for a number of years. It was better, in my estimation, to just get shit done than torture myself with another few months of futile work.

Unfair? Yes. But sometimes I can react unfairly to life. I don't think that makes me unique. Hell, it doesn't even make me Mo'nique.

A bunch of years later I realized I had an idea that would simply work better if I wrote it with another author. The story just hit me that way. And so, bravely, I called up a friend that felt perfectly right for the project. I pitched it to him, he agreed, and we had a ton of really cool, really good talks.

Everything seemed to flow right, the ideas were in synch, and we were on our way.

If only our free time matched up at all. I mean, we possessed the skill, and the drive and the ideas -- we just never had the time. Hell, it's been about five years, and we still loosely plan to do this project! The timing is simply never right. At all.

So, I hold this one close but still chalk it up in the "Damn it" column.

It took a few years of waiting for the right time, while working on everything else in the world, for me to hit on another idea that, the more I thought about it, the more I saw it needed a particular friend to work on.

He agreed! I got excited! We met, we made up a bunch of notes, did research, planned things out, and...

Nothing else ever happened.

I'm still not sure what happened there. It just fell apart. Now, that may have been another timing issue or the project could have just slipped through our fingers. I simply don't know. Frustrating much?

So I kept writing my stories by myself and wanting to work with someone and generally having fun with what I did. Things were all right but I wanted to collaborate. I just love working with other writers. It's a drug, really.

Worse, it's a drug I didn't get a solid hit of. Man, if there is any way to make someone quietly jones for more of a good thing -- it's to steal it away before the full effect comes into play.

Flash forward more years.

D.J. Kirkbride gets some comic work published. He and I talk all the time. I mean, we just do. And he asks if maybe I would like to write a comic thing with him.

Well, holy shit. A writer I like, asking me to work with him? Shoe's on the other foot now, Spanky! I said yes faster than a red hot minute. But I worried. What if we tried telling different stories? What if the timing didn't work out? What if this fell apart yet again, and I found myself crushed under defeat again?

I didn't voice these concerns. I'm too much of a worrier at times, so I shoved them under the floorboards and just said yes.

We shot emails across the bow and found an idea we both loved. We worked at it, we conferenced and talked and rounded everything down to an idea that fit the size of the project. We survived breakdowns and rough notions.

And then we started to write.

And we did.

And I like the story, for itself. Outside of my own hand in it, I like the thing by itself.

Right now, instead of writing this column, I should probably be working on rounding the hard edges off the script. We've finished the first draft, and I agreed to take the first stab at making it read smoother and doing some layout work. So the script is sitting here, printed out, and I'll turn my attention back to it in just a minute.

It works. And working with Kirkbride is exactly what I thought this sort of collaboration should be. So yeah, collaboration is just fun. When it works.

Here's hoping I get more chances to find out.