On Working With Coauthors

Michael and I in Life Aquatic costumesTeamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision.  The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives.  It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. 
--Andrew Carnegie

Almost every time I tell people (or remind them) that I work with a coauthor, they are intrigued. A big part of this, I think, is that popular culture tells us writing is a solitary task, best done on a typewriter in a quiet bedroom, or on a laptop in the corner of a deserted cafe. We are shown images of writers shutting out the larger world to live in their minds.

For some people, this is an ideal working style. As someone who is prone to overanalysing things, I like the reality check of another person working on the story. Plus my creative thinking benefits from working alongside someone with a totally different perspective on many things (more on that in a moment). Michael, an extrovert, prefers to think aloud, and does his best writing when he can talk through his ideas with someone beforehand. For both of us, working as a team yields better results than either of us could achieve alone. 
Although any creative collaboration is a unique relationship, there are some things that one should consider before teaming up on a storytelling venture:
Find someone whose worldview differs significantly from yours. It turns out that we do our best creative work (as far as end results) when we're teamed up with someone with whom we regularly clash. You'll benefit from having a fresh perspective so you don't get stuck in a creative rut. When your ideas are regularly challenged, you'll be forced to think outside the box.Find an enthusiastic critic. Michael and I are pretty ruthless plothole hunters when we read each other's outlines or chapters. As a result, a lot of plot dead-ends and silly ideas don't even make it to the page, making the whole process more efficient, and giving us a better end result. Find someone whose writing skills compliment yours. As a data scientist, I'm pretty focused on big-picture causality, so I love working out plots. Michael, on the other hand, is less confident with the big picture, but has lots of acting experience that lends itself very well to developing interesting characters. With our powers combined, we can have both. Make sure you like the other person. Even if you have diametrically opposite views on, say, whether National Treasure is a brilliant mystery movie or cinematic rubbish, you need to fundamentally respect and get along with the other person, or your creative relationship will implode. Figure out your division of labour beforehand. Michael and I split up the characters and write chapters totally separate from each other, while other author teams write the material together. Also think about how to divvy up research, querying, and other logistical tasks. Figure out the legal stuff. For example, do both of you own the copyright? Who handles the money? How is it divided? If the team splits up for whatever reason, who gets ownership of what (foreign rights, etc)?
If writing teamwork is for you, I'd highly encourage it. It's a fun and ultimately rewarding way to build a story.