Novel-juggling: suggestions welcome!

[swvaughn]

Hey folks,

Anyone have any phenomenally unique and absolutely effective suggestions for juggling multiple projects and still getting everything done on time... that I can use right at this instant, without years of habit-forming behavior?

Yes, I'm completely aware I am asking for a minor miracle. :D However, at the moment I'm on deadline for:

-writing a novel
-editing another novel
-promoting yet another novel
-getting my weekly article load done
-writing ad copy for a number of clients (which involves interview and development time)

I have tried to no avail the scheduling-blocks-of-time method, the work-on-whatever-is-most-pressing-at-the-moment method, and the attempt-a-homemade-coffee-IV-to-stay-awake-for-a-month method. I can switch from task to task with no problems. I've trained myself to write when I can, not just when I feel like it.

I've even got this being-active-in-a-forum thing down. See, lookie there!

<-------I'm a Super Member! Woot!

So, any suggestions that might preserve my sanity through the end of 2006 would be greatly appreciated. Busy and ultra-productive writers: how do you do it?????

Thank you!
-S

[James D. Macdonald]

Go back to the scheduling-blocks-of-time method. Make it work.

[KiwiChick]

Hi swvaugn,

Sounds like you've got a lot on the go, and I'm not sure I can help much, but I'll give it a try. I'll just hand you over to my alter ego, who happens to be a mathematician. Here she is now:

Hi swvaugn,

I'll have to start by assuming you do have enough hours in the day to do everything you need to. If you're short on time, you could try stopping showering. That will give you a few more minutes a day. (Doesn't work so well if you have to go to work in an office, though.)

It sounds like you have a fair bit of experience with this whole writing thing, so you shouldn't have too much trouble estimating how much time it will take you to complete each of the tasks on your list. I'd start there.

Once you have deadlines for each item and estimates of how long they'll take, you should be able to tell fairly quickly if you're asking the impossible of yourself. If your weekly article load takes 10 hours a week, you expect the novel you're writing to take 200, and the novel's due in a week, then I'm sorry but you're screwed. Assuming not...

You could try writing yourself a rough schedule for the next few months in terms of hours per week to allocate to each project, fitting them so you're not trying to do everything at the last minute and they all get done by their deadlines. Then a week or two down the track, reestimate how long you've got to go on each and redo your schedule. Within any one week, shuffle the hours spent on each between days to fit your mood/inclination.

I've never tried this with writing, but I'm a grad student and I think I manage my time pretty well. Of course it may not work for you, and you may just need to look for something stronger than IV coffee...

Good luck!
KiwiChick's alter ego

[swvaughn]

Uncle Jim (can I call you Uncle Jim?): *sigh* Guess there's no substitute for the discipline road, huh? :D Okay, then, back to flogging myself... LOL.

KiwiChick and her Alter Ego: THAT's what I was missing! How long it's going to take me to finish said projects! Thank you. :D And something stronger, now there's an interesting idea... hehehe.

[Nickie]

Hi Swvaughn! I'm in nearly the same situation than you. I have to combine a full time teaching job, a part time job as a publisher and an also full time job of housekeeper. How do I manage?
Well, by knowing what's most important at the moment - and being able to say 'no' when necessary. I deal with things as they come. What's most important gets done instantly. Like I have been working two full weeks for school, as I needed to get some stuff together. Now I'm spending all my spare time at reading submissions, mailing to authors, getting in touch with my printer, etc. I need to have 4 more books ready before Christmas. In between, I have helped my sister to do some major redorating at the house. All is done now, I'm happy to see the finished work. Those books will be for sale at the set date. The work for school is done and the redecorating also. I guess, the more you have to do, the better you can divide your time and actually do more.


Nickie

[MikeAngel]

Sometimes you can accomplish more by doing less.

[swvaughn]

Thank you, Nickie and MikeAngel! Hmm... saying no and giving some things up. Never thought of that either... it's amazing what one misses when logical answers are right there! :D

[johnzakour]

I do it all the time. I kind of thrive on it. I don't think I'm happy unless I have at least 5 projects going at one.

I'm actually outlining on my next two novels, one SF and one YA at the same time, while promoting my book that's out December 4th and promoting my new comic book / animated series, plus I have my comic strip to write every week (which I should be doing now).

I just go with the flow and alternate between the projects depending on which one I feel like writing. If I don’t feel like writing anything I either: surf the web, take the dog for a walk, do 15 minutes with the punching bag, eat something I shouldn’t eat or watch TV until I feel like writing again. It helps to have a really understanding wife / husband / significant other, who doesn’t mind you working all hours of the day or night.

My main concerns now are the novels as I find them the trickiest and most time consuming to write. The SF one has an earlier deadline, but this is my fifth book with these characters so I know them well enough to write them faster. So I'm kind of giving them each about 30% of my time now.

One thing you have to be careful with when working on two different projects is making sure the voice from one book doesn't spill over to the other. Luckily the voice from my YA is kind of like a younger version of the voice from my SF so it's not that big of a problem in this case. Once I was writing for the Rugrats comic strip and for a SF horror show (in India) those two did not mix well at all. The Rugrats editor would call me and say, "Ah sorry, no, we can't have Tommy tear Angelica's head off." While the SF horror people would ask, "Why are the killer robots playing with balls and chasing butterflies?"

[Jamesaritchie]

Really, is there any otehr way to do it other than scheduling blocks of time? You just have to make it work.

[johnzakour]

The scheduling blocks of times route does seem to work for a lot of writers I've talked to. A lot depends on finding when you're most productive and least distracted. For me those two times are from 8:30 am to 11:30 am and then from 11 pm to 1 am. I try to save those as my "formal writing time."

I just don’t like telling myself what I’ve be writing at those times, except for my comic strip which I always schedule for Sunday night so my artist doesn’t send me death threats on Monday morning.

[PeeDee]

When the deadlines are there, you really do have to just knuckle down. Blocks of time make it easier, but you still have to just be there and working. I'm afraid a lot of writing is the discipline to not go "ooooh" and wander off.

What I find, when the projects stack up like that (I'm about one week away and maybe another project away from doing this m'self) is that I tend to fall off the internet, stop answering my phone, do Nothing Very Useful at work, and just write. I don't sleep much, I don't eat much, I drink a lot of water. I write and write and write.

Sometimes, there's nothing else you can do.