Camille and Kennerly Kitt, also known as The Harp Twins (Free image Wikipedia Commons)
Have you ever tried working on more than one WIP (Work in Progress) manuscript at a time? If so, what benefits did you notice? Did you double up on your word count or write half-speed on each?
(This question doesn’t apply to editing a completed draft while starting something new.)
Ah yes, this was the subject of my Sunday post, and the good discussion which followed. In answer to the specific question, Jordan, my quota remains the same no matter how many projects I hit during the day. But usually there is one project that gets most of my attention. It may be because of a looming deadline, or it may be that I just get excited about it for some reason, which may be entirely arbitrary. That is one benefit of multiple projects. Sometimes you hit a wall on one WIP, but can go like the Dickens (pun intended) on another…and while you’re working the boys in the basement are figuring out how to unclog the first one.
I tried this last year and found it very productive. I didn’t expect that. Really glad I tried it. The two projects were vastly different, but I found I could double my wordcount without much effort, and still have time for late afternoon “business” time.
Whoops on the duplicate topic. I posted these Sept Reader Fridays awhile ago and all at the same time. It’s a topic I’ve been curious to ask TKZers.
Jordan, I suppose I’m no good at multi-tasking. When I try to work on two novels I find myself mixing up character names, even background situations. And, no, I don’t find that I get more words done in a day than when I concentrate on one manuscript. Of course, my name’s not James Scott Bell, who apparently can write on two laptops simultaneously, while whistling the USC fight song. : ) Seriously, I wish I could double my productivity, but if anything, I slow it down.
Hi Richard. Maybe if the projects were fastly different or you left a couple hours time between writing, like not swimming two hours after you eat. It’s good that you tried it. Always good to keep an open mind.
Oh, I don’t mean I won’t try it again. And that’s a good idea about two different types of projects.
I never thought of likening writing to swimming. Maybe I should wait two hours after eating to start writing.
Seriously, thanks to you and to Jim Bell for bringing this up.
Now I’m going to want to write with a buddy.
Adding another note to today’s post – I’ve learned from FB that today is Joe Hartlaub’s birthday.
Happy Birthday, noble mon!
Wow. Thanks for letting us know, Tom.
Happy birthday, Sweet Joseph. Have an excellent day.
I’m always working on more than one. It helps if they’re very different, of course, in setting, story, time period. Working on a futuristic and a contemporary simultaneously is no problem, for example. And I always have a couple of side projects going as well, things where a scene will suddenly get tossed up from the basement and I have to write it before I lose it. It took a major adjustment for me after 50+ books to realize I could just write a scene without really knowing where it would go in the story. It was a revelation! And actually helps me in keeping things separated.
PS: Been a long time reader here, every day, so figured it was about time I chimed in.
You need to be a regular commenter, Justine. Thanks for chiming in. I love how you write a scene that pops into your head whether you know where it will fit or not. Very creative.
Thanks, Jordan. Don’t know why I haven’t commented before now. And it’s been a…revitalization, I guess, to do things that way, write scenes with no linear idea of where they’ll go. Scary after so many books done one way. But so often doing a scene like that sparks the idea for another, and another, and at a certain point the pattern clicks into place and I realize the kids in the basement knew all along, even if I didn’t. It’s kind of amazing.
I know, right? Trust your brain. If I find I’m stalling or slowing down my writing, I stop to do something else, knowing my mind is trying to tell me something. I hate deleting stuff. It’s truly amazing how our minds work.
Your random writing triggers your creative juices and your mind opens to other things. This is the good stuff, Justine.
Indeed it is. 🙂
I am always working on multiple projects simultaneously. Earlier this year while working on book two of the ICE HAMMER series, I got stalled on the story and had to, as Jim says, let the boys in the basement work some stuff over for a while. During that time I started and finished a novella about Fillii and the brothers, APPETIZERS OF THE GODS, which was a totally different genre staring my Leprechauns, and at the same time began a translation/modern rewrite project of another novel. At anytime I’m also dropping little notes and ideas into lists related to a couple other long term projects sitting in the proofing oven.
So on any given night my writing hours will run from Military Thriller to SFF Comedy to Historical Fiction, contributions to each ranging from a few sentences to a few chapters and dibbly-dabbling in whatever comes up.
It comes as no surprise that your brain can juggle, Basil. You’re a marvel.
Normally I don’t offer much of “this is how I do it,” because of two reasons: my “thing” is to write about craft, and those principles aren’t mine, they are universal, so I mount a pulpit and ward off incoming tomatoes from the cheap seats, because so many writers aren’t ready to embrace universal principles, they think they can do it any way they want, which is ONLY true relative to an enlightened (i.e., you know those principles) process. The other reason is that how “I do it,” or anyone else does it, doesn’t matter. Like everything else relative to process, it’s more about what works for YOU than what works for the guy with the microphone. That’s NOT true about the principles of craft, however, those are universal and largely non-negotiable.
That said, I work on one primary narrative project (writing a draft) with the bulk of my allotted writing day (which competes with blogging and coaching, thus too often depriving me of sleep, and, to often, depriving me of writing time; I need to work on prioritization), which has been through the gauntlet of my story planning process. But I also DO that planning process with one or two other stories in development, as well as tinker with a handful of initial story notions, as well.
By the way – and this is an example of my advice to not pay too much attention to how Big Name writers do anything – when you read that James Patterson has up to 20 stories in development at once (somewhere out there is a new writer who reads that and says ,”how cool, I’ll do that, too”), know that he has a staff of assistants and actual co-authors (not to mention ghostwriters) working with and for him, so that should never be taken as “advice” on any level… until, perhaps, you get to his level. (See, I couldn’t help myself, preaching to the crowd again…)
I crack up whenever I hear James Patterson referred to as “they.”
I like connecting with fellow authors on our mutual passion to write and our desire to improve on craft. We’re a community that loves to share and that feeds the flame. Thanks, Larry.
Ok. Just had to jump in here. I’m a second year MFA student writing my thesis and recently ran into this dilemma.
My advisor wants me to focus solely on one story, more of a nonfiction into fiction pseudo memoir, which I tried, but just couldn’t do. Too close to home, too depressing. So, I suggested to split up my thesis with half what she wanted and half what I like to write, which is crime fiction, noir style.
So now I’ve got two stories going, and they’re so different, I’m ok with the load.
And, a lot happier!