Just wondering how many first drafts of books/stories you've finished writing? How many writing projects do you usually juggle at the same time? How do you allot your time between them?
Since I started seriously writing, I've written three novels (two very shit, one only kind of shit), and a whole flock of short stories. For about three years now, I've been pretty much exclusively a short story writer, so I have a ton of unpublished drafts in various stages of finished-ness. I try to stick to one story at a time, though I'm not sure how often I actually stick to that rule. And whilst I try to only have one story in first draft stage at a time, I have multiple in editing (looking at my to-do list today, I have one first draft to finish, and about 2-3 stories which need editing and submitting/resubmitting).
I finished two and a half novels of a trilogy in first draft, and I'm now going back and rewriting the first with a completely new main plot (the previous main plot is now the sub plot). Before that I must have started half a dozen novels that never went anywhere, mainly because i just ran out of ideas or interest. I'm not really a planner, so my plots tend to develop as I go along, and this is the first one that developed into a pretty decent and complicated plot that actually made sense I can only work on one project at a time because I have to give it my intense concentration in the limited time I have to write. But honestly, I can't imagine wanting or being able to work on simultaneous projects because my head is so taken up with this one, I can hardly think of anything else all day long.
I'll stick with a loose interpretation of the word finished. I am finished with two supposed-to-be novel length stories. By finished I mean I never want to look at them again, and if my apartment caught on fire I would run back inside just to make sure they get placed next to the most readily combustible substance I could find. I have two shorts currently in revision, and a novel/trilogy that I'm working on simultaneously. Each piece in the trilogy seems to jump around from revision to rewrite to "needs more planning". Its a fun project despite the difficulty. I'm hanging on to my day job though. Since writing is fun, I keep my allotments whimsical. 1 hour per sentence seems to be about right. J/K LOL
I write first and foremost poetry. I have lots of poetries, I have not kept track of how many. I tend to revisit and alter/shift/move or change words as I reread them again and again. They tend to change as my mood changes and I love that about poetry b ecause it gives me that freedom. I have written about three children stories and may three very short stories with open endings. This mean I will go back forth as I write more in the purpose of joinging them all up together to form one lenghty story again an open ending. Basically I never quite properyl close a story because I want to leave mysefl a space to come back and forth as I progress with other short stories. I am not keen on novels or just one story with a beginning middle and an end. I do not observe these three rules. I do not like rules because they restrict my ideas.
I have finished a first draft of three novels, one of them completely finished to the point where I have submitted it. The second one has been thrown in the garbage and the third one I'm revising right now, so I'm at the second draft atm. I write at one novel at a time, I like to completely get lost in the world where the story takes place and concentrate entirely on the characters, so having more than one ongoing would be distracting.
One completed novel. Previously a lot of song lyrics (don't know how many exactly, but pretty steadily from age 13-20-something.) This last year I've re-discovered short stories, and have written perhaps 5 or 6 decent ones. Otherwise, some stuff I never finished; some short stories or poems as a kid... and that's pretty much it.
I completed my first novel, overedited it, and left it to die. The second, I polished and am currently submitting. The third, I'm in the midst of editing. And the fourth, I finished last week. I'm currently letting it sit for a while. (Yes, my signature is out of date)
over the 30+ years i've been writing professionally, too many to count... completed and polished... books [fiction and non] short stories newspaper and magazine articles newspaper and magazine columns screenplays tv series proposals greeting card lines a one-act play dozens of song lyrics a musical hundreds of poems hundreds of essays ...along with countless projects for paying clients of my writing consultant business in my old life, plus all the works of all kinds that i've helped the thousands i mentored with, since giving up my old life and doing it all for free... ...about a dozen or so, at any given time... i don't 'allot' any specific amount of time, just deal with each as i get to it, or decide to switch for one reason or another...
I write mostly poetry with loads of poems in my kitty. Apart from that, I have a couple of short stories to me name, and one novel which is still awaiting publishers' verdict. I prefer working on one project at a time untill the last finishing touch is provided.
At least fourteen finished novel-length pieces. I've lost count of short stories and articles. I try to tackle as few at a time as possible.
I've completed four novels, although I've recently gone back to one and decided there are some flaws in it, and have begun rewriting. Of the other three, the first and third drew some attention from queries, but that's all. I may at some point go back to the third to try and get it published. I have some real hope for the one I've just begun revising. I've also completed the first draft of a fifth, but I know that it's going to take a lot of work (more than usual) to make it in any way presentable, and I'm actually not sure when I'm going to go back to it. I have some extensive ideas for a sixth, and some notes for a seventh. Both are historicals that I probably won't take on until I retire (anywhere from 3 to 7 years from now, depending on a variety of factors). I also have a play that I started a while back, and may or may not go back to, as well as three other novella-length pieces that I have no clue what I'm going to do with. I usually focus on one work at a time, but I also tend to have projects in varying degrees of completion so that if I hit a roadblock on one, I can switch to another for a change of pace. Having spent most of my adult life as an accountant, being ruled by deadlines, that kind of freedom is deeply refreshing.
In the two years I've been writing seriously I've had 15+ newspaper articles and fillers published, a number of articles and fillers unpublished but worth their time in gold in terms of actual journalism experience. With fiction I have few serious stuff, and lots of whimsical silly stuff behind me. So far I have two short stories on the go that I think are worth working on, both at different stages of completion, but both are well beyond the first draft. I tend to separate my writing into a Lovecraft stage when I started out, and a Post-Lovecraft stage when I finally tried to get rid of anything Lovecraft from my writing. My Lovecraft stage was very much what you expect from the name - purple horror. During my Post-Lovecraft stage I've tried to write a few, more serious short stories. Sadly most were lost when my last computer blew up. I have not even attempted a serious 'novel' but I am planning one, and hope to start it some time after I leave University.
I "finished" a novel a few years ago, but it's so terrible I can't bear to look at it even when I need to. I'm currently rewriting it basically from scratch, and I've changed probably 70% of the content. There is one scene in that entire book that I actually like. The rest of it is crap. I've also written about 6 or 7 short stories. One of them was completely random and off the top of my head - surprisingly, it was still pretty good. One of them was the basis for the RPG I currently have posted, Apocalypse 2043. The other five or so are all based around one character and I'm thinking about combining them into a novel/novella at some point. I don't write poetry and I don't want to.
I've completed the first draft of one novel. I've also completed a screenplay, and I really like the story and the main character in it, but I find the screenplay form terribly constricting, so I'm rewriting it as a novel. I've completed one novella, and I'm working on two others. I've completed dozens of short stories. And probably twenty or so poems, though I haven't written any poetry in about twenty years.
I haven't finished a single novel yet. But i juggle around 16 projects currently. Most of them just ideas.
