Something I have learned about myself is that I need to have multiple projects going at the same time. I find that if I dedicate myself to a single story, I get bored with it and then I get lazy and eventually I walk away from it unfinished.
However, if I have multiple stories, say a couple of short stories, a novel and maybe a few other things at the edit stage, I stick with them all much better. As I get bored with one, I move on to another. Eventually, I circle back and finish them all. I haven't had any non-finishers since I started working like that.
Anyone else work this way or do you usually dedicate yourself to getting each work finished before starting the next?
LewisC
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
I'm sort of the opposite. If I have too many projects going on at once, I lose focus on one or two and those have a higher probability of ending up undone.
I have publishing as a goal, so that keeps me going. (I self-publish).
Posted by GhostWriter (Member # 9963) on :
I have to do one or two at a time as well. I am more of a nanowrimo kind of guy. I faster I go, the better.
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
I keep all my projects on a burner, simmering, braising, broiling as the case may be. Some I make notes about their inspirations and let them ferment until later when they've had time to develop substance and my skills have developed suitably to realize their full potential. A four-decade writing course stacks up an enormous number of inspirations, trunked narratives, and abysmal failures. A few gems result, though, maybe, eventually, perhaps.
I'm more of a Gustave Flaubert (Madame Bovary, 1856, ten years from inception to publication) writer than I am a Stephenie Meyer writer, (Twilight, 2005, purportedly three months from inception to submission).
Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :
I usually have more than one project on go but I don't like to shift too quickly. Most times, the thought of the other project as a possibility can be enough to get me back at the first one.
Posted by Natej11 (Member # 8547) on :
I usually do an explosion of writing where I try to avoid all distractions and focus completely on the story. Once that storm of activity peters out then I have to really push to stay on task.
I tried doing multiple stories for this NaNoWriMo, but I just ended up getting about 120 pages done across three projects then swapping to one and finishing it entirely. Instead of moving on to the next one I started writing an entirely new story and am about 120 pages into it.
It's, um, hard to focus an explosion? Can't find traction on a frictionless surface?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Well, I'm currently in a phase where I write a rough draft, then let it sit for months before revising it---word for word, retyped, the whole thing, just so I consider every word---then, once that's done, procede to nitpicking revisions.
Meanwhile, while it's sitting, I try to be working on something new.
(Lately it's been kinda quiet, though...in the last month, after completing a rough draft thrown back into the files, I've only written a five-hundred-word start to a new story.)
Posted by Grumpy old guy (Member # 9922) on :
I need to 'feel' my story in my bones and in my heart. I have the one I am now working on, and about two-thirds the way through; another where I've written about 90K words but am letting it sit in the background while it cooks and another 'idea' that is just 'floating' until I finish my current novel.
Phil.
Posted by lizluka (Member # 9916) on :
I'm a one-project-at-a-time kind of writer. I find it too easy to use other projects as an excuse when I get stuck on a particular piece. 'This is hurting my brain, I think I'll go work on something else.' This is an excellent strategy sometimes. However I've noticed lately that some of my best writing comes when I force myself to muscle through a rough patch rather than taking a break from it. At least when it comes to drafting.
Posted by rcmann (Member # 9757) on :
I jump back and forth. After a while my brain gets tired and stalls out. Moving to a new world and a new set of characters re-engages my interest, giving my subconscious time to work on the first story without interference from the cheap seats.
Posted by Unwritten (Member # 7960) on :
I usually stick to one, and get it written in a burst of energy, and then take my time editing. But right now, I've got a collaboration going, and I'm learning great stuff about myself from it. The other collaborators (well, at least one of them...) is a slow simmerer kind of writer, so I find myself with a lot more time in between my turns than I'm used to. This simmering time is doing amazing things to my ideas. I find myself intricately plotting the chapters the way I would normally plot the book, and it is great. I'm digressing...drat.
I'm also trying to work on something on my own. I find it hard to be enthusiastic about both projects at the same time. I wish I knew how people do it. It's like I can't hold the details of both projects in my brain at the same time.
Posted by rcmann (Member # 9757) on :
Some people are synergists by nature, and some are analysts. An analyst breaks things down methodically, piece by piece, one thing at a time. A synergist looks at the whole scrambled mess and tries to perceive the pattern in the chaos. Both approaches work, they just come at the problem from opposite directions.
Posted by MattLeo (Member # 9331) on :
Well, analytic and, for the want of the better word *inductive* writing are for me two different phases. In the early to middle stages of a piece I can't work on any other piece because it's like the words are getting ripped out of me. I can't stop or shift gears at all until I've got that next scene drafted. I call this phase the induction phase; each scene, practically each line generates the next.
As the piece reaches near rough draft completion there's a shift to what I think of as analytic writing. The words are no longer pouring out; instead I begin focusing on bits that are needed to make logical bridges between parts of the story. This is where writing becomes hard and then later tedious work.
I begin to revise, even before I reach a complete draft, going back to foreshadow what is coming and going forward in the story to repeat motifs and emphasize themes. I don't see this revision as fundamentally different from drafting the new bits needed to reach rough draft, it's all stuff that is logically needed. In this phase I can work on more than one manuscript. In fact it helps relieve some of the tedium.
For me there isn't a "flag day" on which I complete a rough draft. What happens is as analytic writing continues the balance shifts from adding material to deleting it, with unnecessary scenes, narration, and words getting axed. When I can't bear to cut any longer, I call that a presentable-as-its-likely-to-get draft and I start canvassing critique partners.