WIPs and other items
I know lots of writers. This is not a discussion about whether that is healthy or not.
Most of them have a well-defined way of working. Some of them can only work on one project at a time, while others flit around like butterflies, polishing a novel while taking a break from writing a short story the idea for which they got when submitting a haiku. Of course, the only right method is the one that works for each writer.
My own personal ideal is to have four projects in a state of incomplete first draft simultaneously, which I like to be distributed as follows: 2 novels, 2 shorts. This balance varies as I finish projects or if I write something strange and intermediate like a novella, but I've found that to be the perfect balance. It allows me enough options that I can write what I feel like writing on a given day, but without being overwhelming and causing me to forget my own name and walk around in a daze bumoing into trees.
Right now, I have the two novels under way (The Malakiad, a humorous fantasy set in ancient Greece, and Timeless - think Sidney Sheldon meets the Da Vinci Code), but no shorts (which is something I will correct tonight as I plan to begin one, possibly two new stories).
In addition to this, I have three finished tales to polish and sub, one novel query / synopsis to write and one further story on which I've been asked to do a deep rewrite. I also need to put together the MS for a collection (now that I have the balance between original work and reprinted material just about right, I need to send it off).
So there's never a lack of something to do, even when I don't have four drafts underway.
I'd love to hear what works for the other writers out there.
Most of them have a well-defined way of working. Some of them can only work on one project at a time, while others flit around like butterflies, polishing a novel while taking a break from writing a short story the idea for which they got when submitting a haiku. Of course, the only right method is the one that works for each writer.
My own personal ideal is to have four projects in a state of incomplete first draft simultaneously, which I like to be distributed as follows: 2 novels, 2 shorts. This balance varies as I finish projects or if I write something strange and intermediate like a novella, but I've found that to be the perfect balance. It allows me enough options that I can write what I feel like writing on a given day, but without being overwhelming and causing me to forget my own name and walk around in a daze bumoing into trees.
Right now, I have the two novels under way (The Malakiad, a humorous fantasy set in ancient Greece, and Timeless - think Sidney Sheldon meets the Da Vinci Code), but no shorts (which is something I will correct tonight as I plan to begin one, possibly two new stories).
In addition to this, I have three finished tales to polish and sub, one novel query / synopsis to write and one further story on which I've been asked to do a deep rewrite. I also need to put together the MS for a collection (now that I have the balance between original work and reprinted material just about right, I need to send it off).
So there's never a lack of something to do, even when I don't have four drafts underway.
I'd love to hear what works for the other writers out there.