Too many writing projects

[srebak]

I'll be blunt and explain this bit of information: I was originally going to post this thread in two different locations but kept putting it off until i found another thread just like it in one of said places. Now i'm posting it here and i have to ask, can having too many writing projects hinder your progress?

At the moment, i have 12 WIPs:

2 are rewrites of "books" that i wrote while in Middle School

3 are new "books" with new stories that i'm writing right now

7 are fan fiction stories that i'm writing (two were just brief impulses)

And to top it all off, i have three story ideas that i haven't actually written down and at least four thoughts for tv shows.

Now, I want to finish these ideas and projects and not leave any of them incomplete, make no mistake about that. But for some reason i just can't get a lot of work done, not even now when i have plenty of free time. In fact, at the moment, i just can't write as much as i would like to

Any thoughts?

 

[Penpilot]

What do you mean you can't get work done even when you have time? Are you procrastinating? Or are you just overwhelmed by the number of stuff you have going?

If it's procrastination, I'd suggest getting out of the house and going some place like the library specifically to write. Make it a point that you can't leave the place for one or two hours, so you either you waste the time sitting there or might as well get something done. Your brain associates specific spaces with certain activities. Home for me is for relaxation. Going to the library gets associated with writing.

If it's the feeling of being overwhelmed, I'd say as long s you're making progress on everything, I wouldn't worry. But since you are having trouble making progress, maybe it'd be good if you just focused mainly on one project while dabbling on a second. That's my approach.

But, again, I'm curious to know some specifics of why you can't write even when you have time? Sometimes it's can be just an organization issue or one of many many other things, and my suggestions will change depending this.

 

[Aspasia]

I have this problem too. I have so many started short stories/novellas and very few finished ones. Don't be like me. I get a GREAT idea, start the story, and after sometime get bored or hit with another great idea that I must do now! And so another WIP joins the pile. I'm trying to get on top of this now. Here are some things I'm trying to do :

1) Focus on only two or three stories at a time. I know realistically I could never hold myself down to just one story, I need variety! But twenty stories means nothing gets done, having just two or three means it's more likely to move to completion. Or, I can have two stories to write and one worldbuilding WIP. I make sure they are all very different, so I don't get bored with three Epic Quest stories and feel tempted to start a steampunk #4.

2) Write down my ideas in a designated file instead of starting the story straightaway. This way I don't feel that I'm going to lose the idea, yet I don't create another WIP to hang around and make me feel guilty. The idea is still there, I can work on it later.

3) Actually write! Like you, I seem to have free time, yet I hardly write. Writing doesn't come easily to me in the beginning, it's only when I get into the real meat of the plot does everything start to flow. I'm doing Camp NaNo to force myself to stop thinking and waiting for the "right" time and just write! I can always edit or rewrite later. What's important now is that I get words on the page, so the second story is easier, flows more quickly.

4) Plan things out. I usually know my beginnings but then I get stuck in the middle by an unexpected plot hole or problem. Characters need to get to City C from City B but I've set it up so it seems impossible for this to happen! Now I really think through my plots so if I have to face a knot like that it's in the planning stages, not when I've already written 5k words. When I get stuck like this, I often go on to a different project and say I'll come back later. Doesn't happen!

5) If a story gets boring, I try to fix its problems instead of jumping to a new and interesting idea. Often I get bored because my characters are flat, even though the plot is cool. Characterization is something I really have to work on. Now, I make myself try to develop the story more, try to figure out why it is boring. I try to stick with it longer, rather than giving up.

Hopefully this helps! I'm afraid to even count how many files are in my "Unfinished" folder. Honestly, nothing helps me more than NaNo for actually sitting down and writing during my free time. I'll feel like I have no time for even 750 words/day in October but come November I have to write 2k / day and somehow I can do it.

 

[skip.knox]

Having twenty stories doesn't necessarily mean nothing gets done; it might simply mean it will be a very long time before they start to get done.

That said, I far more novels than time left in me. I consider that a cause for rejoicing, as the reverse is just too depressing to contemplate. I have a queue. It's more a psychological queue than a real one: I'm working on this novel now, that one next, then you, then you.

That's well and good, but there's this thing that keeps happening: I keep getting new ideas. When this happens, I give them due attention, which might mean anything from a single line to writing an opening scene. Then I go back to Job 1. The others (Jobs, 14, 15, ...) go not into the queue but into the Corral. There they mill about like penned cattle. They moo at me from time to time, but Novel 2 is still firmly in the queue behind Novel 1. Over time, I get additional thoughts, so I'll visit the corral and add a bit here and there, but it's really just token. To pull out another analogy, I have any number of partially finished sketches, but I work on only one painting at a time. There's nothing wrong with also having the sketch book and much to be said for it.

I agree with the others here: it's not clear that you have too many ideas. I don't believe there is such a thing. What you *may* have is a problem with finishing. In the strongest terms I urge you to finish something. My first finish was a short story. My second was a 14,000 word short story. And by "finish" I mean all the way to submitted for publication. Trust me, getting to The End is like playing eight innings of baseball. It ain't over, and you ain't done.

But getting all the way to done absolutely helped me in staying with my WIP, a full-length novel. Having the short story and the novella under my belt gave me the fortitude to keep going through all the morass of the Great Swampy Middle (a Butchered phrase).

 

[Julian S Bartz]

Firstly, its great that you have so many ideas. You can never have enough ideas really.

However I think you can get to a point where you have too many stories in your head at one time.

I think you need to try and at least focus on a few, otherwise my concern would be that you are not focusing on particular stories enough to do them justice. Getting a story right takes a lot of in depth thought. You don't want your mind drifting to other worlds and characters.