Hi all, I'm (at present) primarily a poet. However, I also write short stories and reviews/articles. I have had some poems published; also reviews and articles. Less fiction, though!
A few years ago I began a novel. I go back and away from it every so often. The following year, I started another novel, and a couple of years later, I had another idea for a novel. I currently have three in various stages of drafts.
My question is:
Do other people find it useful, or a hindrance, to work on several projects at once? If useful, are these projects similar - i.e. several novels at once, several short stories at once? I find it useful to pick up something different if I'm stuck with one project, but I wonder if I need to be more focused on one particular thing. I'm curious what you guys think. Thanks.
Hello Laura,
I had (yet I think I still have it) the same problem :
A novel, ready in my head, with the main plot, charachters, even few thousand words, and the strong conviction that THIS IS the story that I want to tell, that I must write... and few weeks later, or maybe one or two months, I find myself losing focus and switching to another project, sometimes because I momentaly have no further ideas on how can the story evolve, sometimes because I have finished reading a novel wich had influenced me too much, and sometimes just because I'm bored of staying on the same subject !
Anyway, I think you can stick to a single project, while allowing yourself small glimpses to other works (taking some notes, creating a charachter) to light your mind.
A flexible way of writing, where you have to balance between the necessity of staying focused on a work (as a professional writer can do) and the unrestraint to follow your inspiration even if it guides you on another path.
Having several projects on the go at once isn't necessarily a bad thing. i usually have at least three things on at the same time. sometimes you need a break from something to give the little grey cells time to reassess. going back to something with a new perspective can work wonders on how you view the overall plot. the thing is to go back at some point and not giving up on a really good idea.
Do you remember when Rose Tyler - the tenth Doctor's companion - absorbed the TARDIS and could see the whole of time and space? When you write about your novel characters you are their Rose Tyler. You have to view every strand of the story from every point of view and tell it from the best angle remembering every possible influence and every last sub-plot. You may be able to hop across to poems or short stories in the middle of that; I have been able to. But to have two complete novels in your head similtaneously is a very different prospect. I have outlines for future projects I occasionally work on but I'm unable to fully create those worlds in my mind while I'm completing my series.
So yes, I would say a novel requires more focus. You should pick one and keep expanding the world of those characters until there is no longer room in your mind for the others to barge into.