How do you decide which project to work on?

anodyne · Aug 2, 2007

I'm making a huge assumption here, that the rest of y'all have a thousand ideas and scenes for stories that you could write. So how do you decide? What is the process by which you go, hmm... I could write about the zombie alien-parasites, or the fanciful YA novel about a lonely immigrant girl who finds a magic carpet in the garbage and sails off into untold adventure, nah, I'll work on my epic fantasy saga!

Is it that easy? Do you start them all and just stick with the one that works the best, draw straws? Assign numbers? Play poker?

reenkam · Aug 2, 2007

For me it has to do with which character's assaulting my mind at the moment. Sometimes I'll be working on one project, and another character will come an attack my imagination, hogging all of my thoughts. I'll end up moving to that project and leaving the other, less aggressive, character for later. Sometimes the decision is made because I like to switch genres with each WIP, so it's whichever work happens to be in a different genre from my last.

Just recently I finished a YA urban fantasy so I was moving onto an edgy YA mainsteam to change genres. Well, I was just in the planning stages for that when a character from another urban fantasy started taking over my brainwaves. All the characters in the edgy YA are slightly self-involved, so they kept to themselves while the urban fantasy character is trying to save some people's lives/get a girlfriend. Of course he wanted front and center in my mind. Apparently he got it because I've dropped the edgy and I'm full steam ahead with the fantasy.

So, yeah, for me it's easy. I have a general listing and then I let the characters decide. And I'm definitely going to let it stay this way. I know that if a fantasy character wants attention while I'm trying to write a YA mainsteam, someone in the mainstreams going to end up with unexpected powers of some sort.

underthecity · Aug 2, 2007

For me, it was the story that drove me the most.

I had at least three different story ideas brewing, and chose the one that came together most clearly in my head with a beginning, middle, and ending (iffy as it was).

I figured I'd write the other two later sometime.

allen

LilliCray · Aug 2, 2007

It depends on which plot is taking over my mind. That, or whichever one has the most planning done on it (i.e. the least left to do...

), or whichever one I feel like working on at the given time.

Heck, I'm flexible.

Jamesaritchie · Aug 2, 2007

Projects

If there's a deadline, it's easy. When there isn't, I just go with the one that interests me most. The important this isn't which project you work on, but making sure you finish whatever project it happens to be. It's when you start abandoning one project for another that you run into trouble,

WorldPlanter · Aug 2, 2007

Although I have several ideas constantly bombarding me and haunting me from the past everything usually ends up being pulled into a single story hungry beast. Typically there are one or two dominant stories that I've been entertaining in my mind for years that tend to assimilate other smaller story concepts like a black hole.

The greater the mass of my dominant story the quicker it manages to swallow and absorb smaller concepts. My less ambitious stories have to be in a drastically different genre to avoid being consumed by the more massive and compelling stories/concepts. Whether it's characters, locations, events, or plot elements they all stand the chance of assimilation. Obviously it's not always possible to assimilate a story in its entirety so often I'll just extract small parts of it. I'll scrap an entire story just to steal a single plot line if it will improve one of my more prominent stories.

AdamH · Aug 2, 2007

I just click through them one at a time. My preference is usually dependant on how interested I'm in writing it. I tend to sway to the one that seems easiest to write. The one that says "Hey, I'm all done in your head...put me on paper!"

NeuroFizz · Aug 2, 2007

I want to back up what James said. I'll add that if you haven't been able to push through a novel-length project yet, make sure you don't try to work on several stories simultaneously. Do so once you've developed the self-discipline to finish novel-length work.

RRK · Aug 2, 2007

I have to work on whichever one takes over my brain--at some point I can't stop thinking about one particular assignment and it becomes my obsession du jour. Sometimes it's hard to force myself to focus on my main WIP rather than go off and do something else...and sometimes I just can't stop myself and have to give in.

Siddow · Aug 2, 2007

I write one paragraph for each project, every day.

I'm kidding! I have no trouble dropping a short story to work on another that's calling, but I've learned that with novels, if I stop before it's done, it is really done. Little more than scrap paper.

Claudia Gray · Aug 2, 2007

For me, it's a combination of what I feel most driven toward, what I feel I'm ready to write and what I think I can sell. I have a couple of ideas that I love very much but fall outside the genres I'm trying to establish myself in; they've got to wait. I also have a couple of ideas that I think are very saleable but that I just don't feel the love for; they'll either wait until I figure out something about them that makes me love them or be forgotten.

I also have a couple of ideas that simply have to wait on the research. For instance, I have been developing one book set in the early Roman Empire for a while -- and will be for quite a long while to come, because the amount of studying I've had to do and still have to do is considerable.

Simon Woodhouse · Aug 2, 2007

When I first started writing I made a note of every idea that came into my head. Ninety nine percent of these never saw the light of day again, so I stopped.

Now I only focus on the project I'm working on. I like to get right into the nitty-critty of what I'm writing, and that gives me more than enough to think about.

heyjude · Aug 2, 2007

I can only get my little addled brain to focus on one thing at once. One book at a time.

If I try to have other ideas (like, say, what to make for dinner), my brain threatens to go on strike.

anodyne · Aug 2, 2007

Here is my problem, novel #1 with the story I didn't really *feel* but wrote for the experience of writing a novel turned out well. Really well, actually. But I only have a few more scenes to write, eight more chapters at most, and then the rewrite is done and it needs to sit in a trunk for the next three months.

And I have three, equally interesting, equally exciting novel prospects to work on, (and one that's been on the back burner for eternity). What I'm doing now is just writing a couple scenes that I need to get out of my head for each of the books. Maybe what I'll do is write the first three chapters (forty pages, whichever comes first) and then see if one of them grabs my attention and forces me to finish it. It helps that two come from the same body of research, so I don't have to start that beast all over again.

Mostly... I'm just a little wary about moving into the YA market. Seems like it's pretty congested lately.

veinglory · Aug 2, 2007

General whatever is furthest along. I try and finish what I start.

Esopha · Aug 2, 2007

My thought process usually goes something like this:

- Am I emotionally ready to handle the project? In other words, am I mature enough to deal with the character's emotions, and the situations the story will present? In one prospective WIP, there's incest, gore, self-mutilation, political intrigue, magic that's heavily involved with chemistry and physics, as well as war, war, and more war. Oh, and explosions. I don't think that at 15, I can handle all that.

- Do I have enough time to take on another project? I don't give this as much thought as the previous one. This also depends on the length of the project. I've got not problem with starting a short story while working on full-length novels, but I won't revise them until I'm done with a significant portion of my novels.

- Is this story going to force me into depression/a never-ending cycle of self-hatred? Usually the answer is yes. So this one doesn't really matter. It's more of a protest by those few brain cells that have not given into the seduction of the written word. *sigh* They decrease in number everyday.

And then, once I've started a project, I organize my time using one criteria:

- Which characters are holding a gun to my head? When this happens, I write whatever they want, when the want, without any questions.

Oddsocks · Aug 2, 2007

I started my current WIP because it was the first decent plot idea I had (I used to make the mistake of starting when I had characters and setting but no plot, and never got far). Now I've got seven or so decent plot ideas, so once this one's done, it'll probably be hard to choose. It'll either be the one that is being most present in my mind, or it'll be the one that has the most detail and is the closest to being ready to write.

JohnDavidPaxton · Aug 2, 2007

For me I wait until the story won't leave me alone. Until it literally haunts my dreams.

That's when I know it's ripe.

Legionsynch · Aug 2, 2007

It's frustrating.

I finally got past my block on the latest WIP (regarding a high school prank, I needed the perfect prank for the character in question), when a story I'd started and left alone (after awhile) reared it's angry head and demanded I start writing.

So I started in on that story, and got several pages that really flowed. And I got to use the phrase 'witch's block' which was total genius.

amber_grosjean · Aug 2, 2007

I used to write many stories at the same time. When a new idea hit, I would add it to the list and keep going with them all. Then I realized I really wasn't getting anything done and I started writing just one story at a time, just recently. Now with a second book coming out, I am working on those 2 genres and will "finish" another book after those are done. I have my favorite stories so they are picked first after the published genres. From there, I really don't know how I will do it. I guess it'll be a mystery until I can figure it out lol.

Amber

seun · Aug 3, 2007

I go for whichever idea won't leave me alone. Seems to work well so far.

JoNightshade · Aug 3, 2007

Before I started on my current WIP, I spent a week or two hopping around between projects in various states of completion, most of them in bits and pieces. I worked on one a little, then another, etc. Then I said, "Okay, time to chose one to run with." Then I wrote out little outlines of each one and gave them to my husband. I asked him to tell me which one he was most interested in and which one he thought was most commercially viable. The short version was:

1 - Fantasy about a female squire
2 - Sci fi about the universe unraveling in 2 time-lines
3 - Sci fi about genetic manipulation in the future
4 - Something I can't pin a genre on that is about some retired assassins finding love and forgiveness while other stuff happens.

I think my husband picked #3, and I agreed. I worked on it for one day.

And then I spent the next 3 months on #4.

Sometimes... your project just chooses you. Either that or I'm just extremely fickle, which could totally be the case.

ZannaPerry · Aug 3, 2007

The novel I am writing now was a dream of mine and I've been working on it for the past three years or so. Same as the other novels I will want to write given the time. And I want to write this book first because it's going to need a lot of my attention.

Wolvel · Aug 3, 2007

For me it's easy. When I start a project it gets my full attention, now if I have another idea causing trouble in my head I get our another notebook and write down the ideas to use later. That usually frees my mind up for my current WIP.

How do you decide which project to work on?

anodyne

reenkam

aka cupcake

underthecity

Finestkind

LilliCray

Plot? What plot?

Jamesaritchie

WorldPlanter

AdamH

Pumped Up Kicks

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

RRK

I named the dog Indiana

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

Claudia Gray

Simon Woodhouse

heyjude

Making my own sunshine

anodyne

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Esopha

bam pow zap.

Oddsocks

JohnDavidPaxton

Legionsynch

amber_grosjean

AW Addict

seun

Horror Man

JoNightshade

has finally arrived

ZannaPerry

^ Just Me & a Sharpie

Wolvel

Write the Damn Book!