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

[phx69.livejournal.com]

Ooh poor you. When I first started writing fan fiction, I ended up writing three multi-chapter angsty Hardy Boys fics at the same time. What worked for me was to writing a piece for each story in order. I'd write as much as I could on the first. Then when I got to a natural stopping point or I had a plot point I needed to think about, I'd stop and switch to the second, do the same thing and then go to the third. That way I was making progress on all three and found it less overwhelming. Although once I got all of them done, I promised myself I'd never do that again. It is a lot of pressure, unless you are truly having fun with each of the stories. Or... you could pound through them one at a time, if you find it hard to switch stories like that :)

Good luck!