I'm a total writing polygamist. I just can't dedicate myself to one book at a time. Right now, I have two YA projects going, one urban fantasy project, and an erotic spy thriller. Plus a smattering of short stories I can't seem to finish. Yikes.
It's fun hopping from a project intended for 15/16 year olds to a project full of filthy sex at gunpoint, then over to some classic urban fantasy with an extra dash of gore, and back down to YA projects again. Sometimes I catch myself writing my teen characters with potty mouths and have to go back to clean it up, lest I set a record for YA books with the most four-letter words, but otherwise I keep things straight pretty well.
I'm a genre girl at heart. Always have been, always will be. Even so, it's good to have some variety in subject matter-- if I'm stuck on a porny scene in my erotic spy thriller, I can always take my time writing some clean teenage angst on a YA book. This way, I'm always in the mood for something.
Of course, this also means I've got about a dozen half-finished projects sitting around that all creep forward on the Progress Meter about as fast as my fingernails grow. I sort of wish I could really crack down and focus myself once in awhile.
How do you keep yourself focused and get projects done when you're in an aimless writing mood?
I do the same thing. At the moment I'm not, but for a few weeks at the beginning of the year, I was working on FOUR at once (though two were only in the development stages and I was messing around with ideas at the time). At one point I was working on the sequel to one while the first book wasn't even finished.
ReplyDeleteTo keep myself focused, well, it's damn hard! What's keeping me focused now is the fact that this one I'm working on is sooo close to being done. But, I told myself that after this week is over, I'm switch to a different project even if Project #1 isn't complete.
In all, I'm all over the place. I can never stick with a project until it's done because ideas for other stories meander into my head in the process.
I guess it all depends on how much discipline you have. I have close to nil.
- Megan Conway
It seems worst when I'm in the development stage. It takes me ages to get settled on one project. Once I reach the end, I tend to have no problems focusing, which is probably why my climaxes are so better than the rest of my books.
ReplyDelete