i've always been working on many different projects at the same time... which is why i'm able to help a dozen or so mentees at any given time, while taking care of a client or two and working my own things in between it all... the ease with which i can do this may have something to do with the fact that i survived having/raising 7 kids, 2 bad marriages and 2 bad to worse divorces, so had to be a multi-tasker for much of my life...
I am currently working on one book, but I am editing my recently finished book. Plus, I have more ideas that I want to start. So, I am wondering about how many projects you are on now? Are you working on both fiction and non-fiction? Also, how long does it take you to finish the book if you have multiple projects?
I have a really hard time focusing on more than one thing at a time. What keeps me productive is that when I need a break from one, my mind is clear enough to start another. I can't work multiple projects in the same genre, though. I've been working on a memoir for close to two years. That has been mentally exhausting to say the least so when I take a hiatus (and have many times!) I focus on things polar opposite, like poetry. I've done a couple short stories and am half conceptualizing a novel, but I don't have the time or energy to put into that what it requires right now. My true passion is children's and that seems to be something I can whip out any time.
I've just finished a draft of a horror novel, I'm writing a short story and I've started the 2nd draft of a SF epic. So it takes me a while to finish a project, but when I do they're like buses.
2 novels, a half finished Nanowrite book, a short story about worms - which is still in it's first draft stage but I've got about ten pages done, an apocalyptic story about cockroaches and a flash about a magic tree. I'm like a cook with all burners on. It takes me as long as it takes - I thought my worm story would be done by February and that was the goal but it's taking a bit long. The Tree story was done in three days. It all depends on how long I can keep in groove on one project.
3rd draft of a post apocalyptic novel, several short stories for my university module, two short horror stories, and a fantasy novel. There are many more I could choose from if I really wanted to!
I have a lot of short stories, I just don't know when a project is finished. I write, sometimes reach an end, but then I just leave it there and start something else.
One novel and one novelette. I don't do non-fiction. As long as it takes, but I'm about half way through the novel, so maybe a month and a half more for that.
It is good to find out that we all work differently. For me; I am editing my horror novella (took 2 months to write), I am writing my non-fiction which is taking me longer but I have more too write, and I am in the process of planning two other non-fiction books, I am getting ready to plan a thriller novella and/or some continuations from my horror novella.
answering your last question first, it takes as long as it takes... i'm working on one major, long term project, as the literary conservator/editor of a deceased and incredibly prolific, brilliant philosopher-cum-writer's poetry, essays and short fiction... this will take up the major portion of my time for the next couple of years, at least, as there are several books' worth of literary gems needing to be polished and 'set' before being launched upon the literary world... i'm also helping a mentee/client with her book's synopsis and query, while guiding her along the rocky path to getting published... in between those two fairly full-time projects, i'm dealing with a dozen or so mentees daily, plus doing what i can to help members of this and the 2 other writing sites i post on every day... all of which doesn't leave any time for my own writings, so they're on hold for the duration of the first-mentioned project, at least...
I'm editing my first (semi-finished) novel, it is mystery/suspense. I just started two more, one is horror and the other is also mystery/suspense with a twist. Plus, doing some various short stories as the mood strikes me. Lately, I've mostly been going back and forth between the two novels as I get ideas or thoughts I want to put down.
Oh, dear! Are you sure? For me, currently, I'm revising the finished draft of an old romance-thriller novella into something longer and better-developed, and when I get stuck, I work on my psychological-horror-cryptozoology novel. The latter is more important, probably, but I have more incentive to work on the former as I'm publishing it serially on my writer's blog (and ought to be working on it now). I've got the first chapter and a half of another novella/novel written, but haven't touched it in over a year.
Wow! Are you sure? Or are you just being to picky with your work? You can easily learn and get used to writing. It takes practice if you actually are willing to do it though.
Cryptozoology? Cool! I have to read that! Right now I have a bunch of projects on the back burner. One problem I have is that I keep starting short stories, and they grow and grow into novellas or even novels. I have one I wanted to dash off quickly (a couple of weeks, no more), but now it's morphed into a novel length project, and that made me put it on the back burner. I have another short story on the go now that I want to finish by next weekend, at least in first draft form. Then I'll return to the bigger stuff. All four of my back burners have novels on them in various degrees of progress. Why can't I just get a damn short story to stay short????
Yes, 15 years writing and I still can't get a good piece. The world need the good writers, not the bad ones
Started laying down the skeleton for a screenplay outside of the Ro'shaan trilogy. It's a story I originally planned as a novel, but I think I'll move it to cinema. "The Ascension of Michael Donner" A psychologist must race against time to reach a man's humanity after an experiment accident alters him, giving the growing powers of a god. Michael will be the protagonist, driving the story, but Kendra, the psychologist, is the MC and gets all the turning points.
