How many writing projects are too many? Should a writer focus on just one project at a time, or can they realistically cover more than one effectively?
I have many projects started, but I am currently only working on two. I have decided to focus on these until i have finished them (maybe do a short story along the way too), but I can't help my mind wondering to the other projects and even thinking up new ones!
If you ask a poet you will probably get the answer: Every poem I've ever written...
A man in possession of a wooden spoon must be in want of a pot to stir.
i'm working on my 1st serious attempt at a longer piece. i'm feeling the need to start on a short story or 2 as i write it.
a lot of times a piece you're working on will go stale in your head. (at least for me) but in a couple weeks or so...you'll
begin to miss it and it will become fresh again. i figure it's good to have something to work on when the other goes stale.
better that than trying to force yourself to write on the 1st piece when you just aren't feeling it.
Right now only two but I'm really only working seriously on one atm. I started one project wrote a hefty amount then decided midway I wanted to go in a completely different direction. It happens that way I guess.
I want to be only working on my novel. I haven't typed a word in it in over a month, although I did read what I have a few times. I've just been writing short-stories as of lately because they're so quick to start and finish. I would like to work on more than one project at a time, but for me, I think I can only concentrate on one story at a time, and this is why my novel has been shoved to the back burner. ;0(
I have many ideas floating around in my head at the moment; stories I wan to tell. But, I just keep pushing them back, telling them to hold on, they'll have to wait it out!
“And now I’m looking at you,” he said, “and you’re asking me if I still want you, as if I could stop loving you. As if I would want to give up the thing that makes me stronger than anything else ever has. I never dared give much of myself to anyone before – bits of myself to the Lightwoods, to Isabelle and Alec, but it took years to do it – but, Clary, since the first time I saw you, I have belonged to you completely. I still do. If you want me.” ― City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.
That applies to painters, too.Originally Posted by Bloggsworth
For myself, I guess I'd have to say two right now. I recently 'finished' a project that occupied most of my writing time for what was essentially the last nine months. It was a book of short stories. One of the two current projects is also a book of short stories, though these are, how you might say, more bawdy and illicit in style. The second project is what could very well be my first, and very first, serious attempt at a novel. It's still being planned, and hasn't progressed to the writing stage yet, whereas the former is almost a complete first draft.
I'd say three is enough, unless you're working through smaller poems, limericks, song lyrics and whatnot, then you could perhaps dive into more things than what you would normally do.
I was working on four, but dropped two of them. So now, it's just Ex Tenebris Lux and an untitled high fantasy going by Project: Unify. For ETL, I'm done with the first draft, and will start the editing process soon. For Project: Unify, I'm still trying to flesh out the lore and setting. Because it took me five years to color in ETL and I'm more concerned about finishing the entire story arc for it, I don't expect to be working on the story part of Unify for a very long time.
Too many... between work stuff, freelance work stuff, fun stuff and personal work stuff about 5 at the moment, sometimes more. I focus on the worky stuff first because that keeps Fritos on the table, which is a pretty good motivator to get things done timeously, and I use the personal and fun stuff as a distraction, often flicking between two docs every couple of minutes and researching online in between. I might have ADD... I'll let you know when I finish doing this other thing...
Wonder if there's anything to that old saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none"?
I find I work best if I focus on one project at a time, from start to finish. Otherwise it's too easy to get lazy and say "Ah, I'll finish that one later, in the meantime I can start something else." All that does is reinforce bad habits.
Working to completion takes dedication, but it's also very rewarding when you finally get it done.
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
- Haruki Murakami
Just the one I'm working on. I have plenty of ideas stored away -- most of the time just a phrase I find interesting, that I could see working as a title -- and I'll get to them all at some point, but I try to stick with one thing at a time. Jumping from story to story just seems like it would be a way to avoid writing the slow parts. For me, anyway.
English words are like prisms. Empty, nothing inside, and still they make rainbows.Denis Johnson, Already Dead
I'd say that completely depends on the person. I multi-task all the time, over long periods, and always succeed in finishing previously stalled projects. Of course, for some, putting it aside means never finishing at all, and essentially confining it to the dustbin.
I agree with the last sentence. It's odd, myself being a painter in regards to this topic. For me, and many friends, we will work for several weeks, perhaps even months on a painting, then abandon it altogether, for years in some cases. It seems to be especially prevalent in painters, though fortunately for me, the trend hasn't carried on into writing.
Same here! I have a whole slew of text messages on my phone filled with random quotes, images, plot ideas. Sometimes I forget the context, and I'll be looking at my phone one day and see a text message from myself saying "Captain. Dolphin. Swiss cheese." and I'll think, "WTF?" It's as if I have an alter-ego sending me cryptic messages.
Good point. I should say, then, that leaving things halfway tends to reinforce bad habits in me. Some people, like yourself, have the ability to finish abandoned work. My enthusiasm for a piece begins to wane if I let it linger too long, like life draining from an unwatered plant.
Painting seems even more emotional than writing. It's cerebral and physical all at once. You should, if you haven't already, include a short story in your collection about painting. The trend of incompletion may not have carried over into your writing, but your passion for painting can carry over into your prose, especialy if you're writing about painting itself. Could be the makings of a breakout piece.
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
- Haruki Murakami
No. Not different processes, different projects. As Kingsley Amis said "Always have the next one on the go". I am still "adjusting" poems I wrote 2 years ago, Wordsworth kept rewriting one of his earliest poems for over 50 years.
A man in possession of a wooden spoon must be in want of a pot to stir.
Wow, really? Which one?
Gustav Klimt, painter of The Kiss apparently never finished a painting in his lifetime. He'd go over to his friends houses where many of his paintings were, and they had to keep an eye on him, lest he start working on them all over again. I believe Jackson Pollock was guilty of the same thing, too. In fact, this may be every painter.
Additionally, Marcel Proust, if I remember correctly, wrote the vast majority of A la recherche du temps perdu, before tossing the entire manuscript into the fire. He started it again soon afterwards.
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