Also, if your work contains chapters, a document per chapter helps IMO. Just keeps everything simple and you know exactly which part of your story is where, because after some time, one can forget. . .
if you're a beginning writer, i'd strongly advise working on one piece until you finish it, before starting any others... you can jot down the ideas and save them for later, but if you start a new piece every time you get an idea, you'll risk getting stuck in the bad habit of never completing any...
What mammamaia said. I work exclusively via PC, so I have separate file folders on my desktop for each project. I'll make notes and possibly belt out a chatacter sketch or two for a future project, and if I'm really stuck on something I'm writing, I might turn to another project for a while to clear my head. But I try to stay focused on one project when I'm in the writing stage, and I join mammamaia in urging you to stick with one at a time as you're just starting out. If you don't, you risk losing your focus and scattering your energy and finishing nothing. I remember years ago reading a newspaper feature article on Alice McDermott (it was in Newsday, Long Island's only major daily, and they featured her because she was from Elmont, LI - how I happen to know that is a story for another time). At that point, she had completed three novels - "The Bigamist's Daughter", "That Night" and "At Weddings and Wakes", and she had gone quite some time without a new book coming out. The interviewer asked her what she was working on, and she replied that it was the same question her editor kept asking, and, much to her editor's annoyance, she was working on about four projects at the same time and not making satisfactory progress on any of them. Now, you might be tempted to say that if a published author like Alice Mc Dermott can do that, why can't I? And the answer is that it took a few more years before she came out with her next novel ("Charming Billy"), but for an unpublished amateur, it might mean a dead -end. So, try to focus on one at a time.
Once I finished my first project I developed a way of working that fits what I need. I do agree that at least getting one first draft out is important and then you can see what works for you. Mine is: One project - is now complete one project - in rewrite one project - in completed first draft waiting rewrite one project - part way through first draft two projects - in the planning making scrapbook stages. NaNo has mean I have two first draft stages which wasn't planned. I find it useful to have a project to work on at varying stages so I can take a break of a month to then look back - and not always be starting over at the beginning. I split my week up - I have days for editing, days for rewriting, days for writing, days for planning, days for critiquing etc.
As of now, I am writing two stories. Is that okay for a good organization? I also made a list of the ideal name for next stories that I thought up, too. What do you think about this?
There's another thread about this somewhere. I think the general attitude is that it's perfectly okay to work on more than one project at the same time and many of us (myself included) do so.
I don't like to work on 2 novels at once but I do work on short stories. Is it "okay"? Anything is ok lol. Don't stop yourself from doing what you love.
One general piece of advice is that new or inexperienced writers are better off working on just one. Which is precisely why I am currently working on just one. There is a risk that if you take on too many projects at once, it is more difficult to finish them. But that's not to say it can't be done, and done well.
It depends on whether you are well organised or not. Are you writing short stories or novels? I'd find it difficult to write more than one novel at the same time, even just time-wise. Short stories or song lyrics, I do that all the time. I used to have about a million sheets of paper with half-finished lyrics though. Getting better...
I have four floating around and none of them are finished. I put all 4 aside to buckle down and finish one that I'm closest to completing, and I've only got about 8K left to go before I'll be done with it. So focusing on one at a time is best for getting them all done in the long haul, but there's nothing wrong with starting up more than 1.
As long as you're writing, you're doing it correctly. Some people work on one thing at a time. Others juggle. Some people work on installments -- they'll work on, say, six or seven projects at once, and each day they finish a section of several projects. So they'll have a YA novel going, and they'll do a chapter every other day, but at the same time they'll do 4 pages a day on their novella, and a scene every few days on their fantasy book. The point is, as long as you are writing, you're doing what you need to do as a writer. If someone else does it differently, so what? That's fine for them -- but you should never change what works for you just because you heard someone else uses a different method.
It's totally fine. Whatever works for you, every writer is different. Since I'm working on a series, my mind is always coming up with ideas for the future stories. I have a pile of notes to remind myself when I get to them. I try to work on one book at a time, but if I have an idea for a scene or part of another book, I'll work on it, so I don't loose the "magic" of the story.
I think that it is actually a better way to do it. I can't remember the last time I only had one story going at any given time. When you hit a wall and seem to have no inspiration for one story, you switch to the other one and maybe you'll have more luck with that one. Often, something one story makes you think about will give you an idea, which will lead to an epiphany on what to do with the first one. I do usually have one "main" one I am working on, the one I automatically bring up when I begin to write. The others are there for when I get stuck on that one and need a change of pace.
I have tonnes of ideas going at once, but that also creates other problems. As long as you aren't spread too thinly, do it!
Thank you, members. I decided that I will work on one story at a time. For now, I will work on this Ace Attorney story that I am writing.
Congrats on your decision. I am currently working on more than one story and don't like it much. I can do it though. Where I struggle is when I have different main characters - I struggle getting back into the right voice then. My biggest challenge right now is doing same character from third person POV at aged seven as I am writing as first person POV aged one hundred thirty lol I have to keep remembering he does not kiss the little boy in the seat next to him at school for another ten years
Does it happen to you that you work on two or more different genre's writing projects at the same time or do you find that you need to work one out totally then move to the next?
I limit myself to writing one story at the time, but I can easily gather ideas for the next while working on the first, or thinking about how to improve the previous.
It depends on where my energy is. Sometimes I can sit and concentrate on a single novel for multiple months with no breaks whatsoever and other times I'm alternating between many at a time.
I have front-burner projects and back-burner projects. I have two novels (a big one and a short one) on the back burner right now. I have a couple of short stories on the front burner, and I work on either of them, depending on the day. They are both part of a series, so the background material is the same, which makes it easier.
One major project, with breaks for short stories and flash fiction. Never more than one major project at a time. But the ideas for them are there. I have at least two characters angry at me for not having started working on their novels.
christ, i have several. i get stuck on plots a lot so when i'm not making tracks on one story i'll move to something where I can. not the best way to do things, but it's not like i'm a working writer. I have severe concentration issues too so I really have to do what I can to stay 'active'.
