Writing Two Novels at Once....

Try it and see what happens. I've heard of some people starting with multiple projects then focusing on one. For me, I've never done two novels at a time, but while I'm working on my novel I also do some short pieces like the SF/F Challenges. Sometimes I need to take a break from the marathon of the novel.

Though I write snippets of other novels on occasion, I always have one main novel I focus on. For me, I like to put 100% of the time I have to write into improving the novel I'm working on. If I tried to do this with two novels, then not only would my ideas be subject to inconsistencies, but it would take a lot longer as well.

Personally, I can't do it. I've found that if I try to write more than one at a time, I make real progress on neither...or none, whichever applies.

I started work on one novel as I worked on my main one. I ended up stopping the secondary one though to concentrate on the other. I guess multi tasking for me doesn't extend to writing more than one novel at the same time!

I'm all for working on multiple projects, but there should be a MAIN project that takes up about 80% of your drive and energy.

Writing multiple stories isn't all that hard IMO. Writing multiple PUBLISHABLE stories is.

IMO, it takes a certain type and amount of energy to polish that story until it is gleaming. For me, there is a part in the process, around the 4th re-write/editing job, where i'm about out of energy and love for this story. During this phase, if I were to work on something else, I doubt i'd ever return to the story. I find that 'focus' is essential when I get to this stage, to push the story over that last hump from a 'good' story to a 'publishable' story.

Not to say I don't put something in a drawer for a week or two to clear my head and revisit it. I'm a firm believer in doing that as you get towards the end because if I stare at it too long, I can't see the forest for the trees.

anyways, i'm babbling.

I think its o.k. to write general thoughts and outlines related to another book. And even on occasion brainstorm and write out some first draft stuff for the other book. but all of that should happen on the side while your MAIN focus is the WIP book.

In short, there is a reason why a wheel is round.
There is a reason why most writers work on one book at a time.

Mel...

I envy people who can work on major multiple works at once.

I can only manage one novel at a time - although I do participate in practice exercises, blog posts, and the occasional short story from time to time.

I've done it successfully, though at some point obviously, one project gets finished before the other. Then while that first draft sits, I finish the other. While that first draft sits, I revise the first project, etc. I love working that way.

It's nice to be able to work on something different for a while, to switch from one project to another. I especially enjoy having a fun novel and a more serious one going at the same time. Right now I only have one novel to work on, and I really don't like it--not the novel, just having only one that I'm working on. Instead of taking a breather by working on a second project, I feel sort of at a loss for what to do when I need a break. I read, but it's not the same.

I'm on the third rewrite of a certain WIP, but it's like I'm still working on the first draft because it's changed so drastically from the other tries. It's going on three years that I've been fooling around with this story, and I want to finish it before November because starting over with a fresh set of characters and circumstances sounds really wonderful to me after so long.

I have this fear that if I leave my WIP and go and discover these other people, I will be too enthralled with their story to come back to this other one. And then I will lose my passion for it altogether and it will never get finished.

I wish I were the type who could simultaneously work on more than one WIP, but I'm all or nothing when it comes to what I put my attention and energy into, and that's one thing at a time.

I do it all the time, but usually one of them is more powerful than the other and consumes more time.

Novels drain so much out of you that writing two at once isn't really something I'd recommend. If you want some variety so you can keep writing when you are blocked on the novel, I recommend doing short pieces. They involve less effort than a novel, but are still challenging enough to keep your brain in the writing mood.

Stijn Hommes said:

Novels drain so much out of you that writing two at once isn't really something I'd recommend. If you want some variety so you can keep writing when you are blocked on the novel, I recommend doing short pieces. They involve less effort than a novel, but are still challenging enough to keep your brain in the writing mood.

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See, this shows me just how different writers can be, and how we really must get to know ourselves and find what works for us.

I don't write short pieces. I took a course in college that required me to write a short, and I secretly wrote a novella instead (which would have been a novel if I had more time.) Writing a short story is agony to me (and, in my opinion, is a different skill only loosely related to novel-writing) while working on a bit of a different novel is energizing.

Wordwrestler said:

I don't write short pieces. I took a course in college that required me to write a short, and I secretly wrote a novella instead (which would have been a novel if I had more time.) Writing a short story is agony to me (and, in my opinion, is a different skill only loosely related to novel-writing) while working on a bit of a different novel is energizing.

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I had the same problem with short stories. I coudln't write one at all (kept turning into longer works) until I started doing ninety-minute challenges. Then I HAD to constrain myself to producing a good story in an hour an a half. I have published two of my ninety-minute shorts so far (obviously, some editing was done later! ) To this day, I still can't write a short story unless I set a very severe time limit on myself. Weird.

I do agree that short story-writing is a vastly different skill from novel-writing. It's good to know how to do both, but I think it's relatively rare that writers excel at both.

I tend to have more than one project going at a time also. If I get "stuck" on one MS - I turn my attention to the other. This way I never stop writing!

I agree with Wordwrestler re: having different types of projects going (it works for me) --- sometimes I'm not in the right frame of mind to work on my YA novel so I focus on the adult UF. I think it comes down to what works for you personally. There is no right or wrong.

Libbie said:

I do agree that short story-writing is a vastly different skill from novel-writing. It's good to know how to do both, but I think it's relatively rare that writers excel at both.

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Well, I've seen plenty of people who do excel at both, but you don't really need to. It needs to be publishable, not the greatest story ever written.