To tackle the goals I’ve set myself going forward, I’ve set up my plan around working on multiple stories concurrently, instead of focusing on only one project until it’s done. This works best for me, most of the time, and I’ve written quite a bit in the past about how and why that’s so.
Posts tagged multiple stories challenge
Posts tagged multiple stories at once
The challenge isn’t complicated. I have a list of series/stories, and I decided how many books I want to write in each one in a year. I came up with daily word count goals for each of those series/stories, and I added a way to track that to my word count spreadsheet.
For example: 3 books a year for one series × 63,000 words per book on average = 189,000 words ÷ 365 days in a year = 518 words per day to write (rounded up)
To tell the truth, actually writing that exact number of words every day doesn’t really matter to me, if it averages out over a week or two. But having a solid number makes it easier to feel like a goal has meaning. Anything less is too vague, and vague goals never seem to work out well for me.
If I come close to my goals each week for all the series/stories included in the challenge, I’ll be very happy with the results.
Here are a few of the reasons why working on multiple stories concurrently seems to work out well for me.
I have more enthusiasm for all my writing if I’m happy with anything I’m writing.
I also tend to remember important details and points if I work even a small amount on a story every day, and how many other things I’m working on doesn’t seem to affect that at all.
This does affect enthusiasm, though, in a good way. I tend to lose enthusiasm for a story when I’m not focused on it, and it can take a lot of work to get myself back to an excited state when I do get the chance to pick it up again.
I write more words in a day when I switch between stories, maybe because of flagging interest in a specific scene at a specific moment or subconscious ruminating over plot or character developments.
Each time I switch, I get a second wind. Everything feels fresh again, and I can write uninterrupted for longer periods of time this way. (Sitting at the computer longer is a big part of increased word counts.)
That’s it. It’s a simple challenge, that is inevitably going to be harder than it looks, because I still struggle with the sitting down and writing part of it all. For me, getting started continues to be the single hardest thing about writing. :)