Side Projects - Collaboration vs Flying Solo

So I mentioned that I'd been working on a longer-term project, and I wanted to leak a little bit of that. But first, some backstory:

I love collaborating with others, bouncing ideas off them and building creative projects that utilize everyone's strengths--that's the reason I work in video-games and would, I think, get bored as a solo freelancer. But I noticed a funny thing, over the years: Collaborative projects that I undertook, be it for a small indie game project, a board game, a comic or simply an image--never seemed to get very far.

My assumption was that having to answer to others would keep me in line. It's hard to maintain the energy and focus for a side project.

Well, you know what? It's even harder to do that with another person. Make it a small group, and you're asking for it. What you embark upon is not only a creative project, but also an exercise in relationship management.

You become the one who cajoles others into spending time on the project. You make excuses for yourself. You occasionally drop communication and return to things weeks later, and wonder why no one did anything... What I'm saying is that it requires group discipline to have all members keep their pace and enthusiasm until completion.
Does that mean it's impossible?

Heck no.

But it's something I came to see as an additional hurdle. And as much as drawing from the strengths of my talented friends and colleagues is exciting and motivating--I realized that I don't need to.

To be completely transparent here, I'm all too aware that my solo projects also struggle in the dark and slowly die away. But collaboration wasn't the answer to that. The only thing that solves problems of discipline, whether self- or group-, is just sitting butt-to-chair and doing the work.

And it's far better to scold and cajole myself, than to do so to others.

So here's a little teaser of a graphic novel I'm working on, by far the most organized project I've undertaken.

After the initial gush of inspiration, I approached it methodically, revising my drafts, getting feedback, dividing it into pages... Then I took a few hours to input everything, page by page, into Trello. I pasted in my script snippets on each card. I created checklists. I added labels to indicate which pages had tension, action, flashbacks-- In short, I got so caught up in the organization of the thing, that I I didn't realize I was putting off working on it.

Clearly, I would never be prepared enough.

It was one of my colleagues (who was also the art director who got me started in the games industry) who gave me the best advice. Just start the damn thing.

And I did.
And I've made multiple mistakes, and kept going. I've had lazy periods and periods of intense productivity. I've changed the way I do things, and stopped worrying that I wouldn't be able to draw well enough. That the story was flat.
At this point, I'm just happy to be producing. I can open the project up, see where I am, finish a page, and look at this cheery sight:

And it feels awesome.