Writing advice?

[ratherastory]

I posted this elsewhere, so apologies to people seeing it twice.

Okay, so ratherastory has probably bitten off more than she can chew. No one is surprised. At least I'm aiming high, right?

So I have several large projects, all of which are due in the next six to eight weeks, in rough form. These range from a couple of 10k+ commitments to 15k+ commitments to three 20k+ commitments. Yeah, I know.

I've done a couple of balancing acts in the past, but never so many at once.

So here's my question. Has anyone here done this kind of thing before? How do you manage multiple large simultaneous projects? Do you have a system? Do you allocate specific amounts of time/whatever to each project every day? Work on whichever project strikes your fancy on a given day?

In short, what's your strategy? Do you have tips? Advice? Giant heaps of mockery because I have no self-control? ;)

Comments

[zortified.livejournal.com]

I do this to myself ALL THE TIME. I never notice until I realise I'm freaking out and then I make out a to do list and go "...Oh."

Actually, making a To Do List helps a lot. Sometimes I realise I have a manageable amount of stuff to do and I relax. And sometimes I realise I need to stop signing up for stuff. ;-) But what I do is make a to do list and divide it up by due date. (Including rough draft due dates and final dates, if applicable.) I include any minimum word count criteria as well.

Then I work on one at a time, in order. I can't work on multiple projects very well, unless they are in completely different fandoms and completely different genres (otherwise people start to sound alike - or I get paranoid about them sounding alike.) But generally I have to take them in order.

The key for me is that I can write very, very fast. But in order to do this I have to spend most of my non-typing-words-down time thinking through the story. I daydream whole scenes, work out key plot details, go over and over the moneyshot scene and make sure I can get there the way I'm going. Then, when I sit down to type, it pours out pretty fast. I can write a 10k word story in about two days if I have the whole thing worked out in my head this way.

Then I take a day off, go over the draft, then send it off to a beta and start the next one. Fixing a draft after it comes back from the beta usually never involves huge rewrites, so I can work on that while also writing another story.

Also - and this is very important: give yourself permission to drop out of something. Look hard at what you're obligated to do and ask yourself honestly if it will help you with everything else if you drop one of the projects. You won't tarnish your reputation and you won't make anyone mad at you, and people will be so thrilled with what you *do* write that they won't hate you for what you don't, as long as what you do share is something you're proud of. (If you scribble out garbage and post it, that's another thing entirely. ;-) ) Be honest and firm about whether or not you really have to fulfill all of these obligations and if you can drop out of one - do so as early as you can, in case other people need to make adjustments.

But if you can't drop any of them, I suggest just take them one at a time, and just focus on the one you've put in front of yourself.

Oh, and don't goof off too much reading LJ. ;-) (Get back to writing!)