Too many WIPs?

If it were me, I'd pick one and stick to that otherwise you'll never get anything finished. The one you've got the highest word count on is a sequel to an unpublished novel, though, which I'd be reluctant to work on. What if the first one's never published? Then you've got a useless sequel. Besides which, I hate sequels with a passion anyway, but that's just me.

If I'm choosing between WIPs a lot of the time it comes down to a coin toss or whichever one has the highest word count - but like I said before, I wouldn't write a sequel anyway.

You just have to choose one in some way, and stick to it.

I've always been the type of person to have 50 bazillion WIP I get new ideas all the time, but here lately I've realized some of them have to be on the back burner. When I wake up with an awesome idea, I type out what I know about the story and save it in a word file. I'm actually planning on going back to one of those files for NaNo, though my husband keeps insisting I write the book HE wants me to write for NaNo, lol.

As far as having a few going at once, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Some days I just don't feel inspired to write on a certain WIP, but I may feel inspired to write on another one, and...so be it. That's what I do. It keeps me from feeling dried out and unproductive.

As long as you're writing and you keep moving on and are not burning out... do what works for you. Currently I have two novels and six short stories in various stages.

But, what about rewriting/polishing/submitting? It's great that you're being creative and productive. But perhaps it's time to focus on getting something out, especially since you finished a first draft a month ago.

Submitting one, editing/revising another, and a new one underway...only 10,000+ words. Plus one sitting on the back burner. Cranked it out really fast and most of it is crap. I can't decide if I want to keep it and edit it into something or gut it and use the good parts in something else.

Editing one for submission, one more waiting for a rewrite (it has some of the best writing I've ever done but doesn't grab me to work on now), a third at about 7K.

I also have about 8K of the sequel to the one I'm getting ready to submit, but that's on hold until/unless the first sells. I just wanted to make sure I could still write the characters.

Meanwhile I'm fighting off ideas for a novel that grows out of a short I wrote last year.

I had the same problem. I just wasn't making a dent in any of my WIPs which there were a lot of them. After I got published, I realized I needed to change my methods or it would take forever to get my next piece ready. I made a list in order of what WIP I was going to work on, one at a time. I finished one in 2 months! Now I am working on the next one which is a few years old but rewritten in a new genre because I wasn't getting anywhere with the old one. 60 pages done!

Working with one book at a time, writing 5 pages a day, seems to be working a lot better. Now I am seeing a dent in my work, what a relief! If you're having a problem with getting yours written, try it that way. Devote more time to your writing too if you can. 5-10 pages a day really helps get to the end faster then you can edit. I can edit my book in one day if I have the time to put into it. When I don't, I try hitting one section at a time before stopping which makes the process go faster too. Good luck!

Amber

HopelessDreamer said:

Thanks for the responses; I am trying to get my finished MS published (it's been edited at least 20 times), but finding an agent is proving to be more difficult than I had previously anticipated. It makes sense that I shouldn't write a sequal until I get the MS published, but a sequal is needed for the story to make sense and not just end. It is a sequal, but the ontinuation of a story rather than "this is what's happening now and it's completely unrelated". All of the information would make sense in one novel, but it would be longer than War and Peace.

I suppose my problem is that I jump from one topic to the next too quickly and rarely finish anything. The fact that I was able to finish a book still amazes me.

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I think your best bet might be to write a different book and try to sell that. It sounds like your first book isn't a true standalone, and that's why it's not getting picked up. Give a standalone a try and then see if you can get a two book contract for the story that needs two books to make sense.

The whole sell a standalone first thing only works when you have a true standalone.

Xx| ^Your signature line works for this thread, Dave XD "We all need more projects on our plate--that way we can dodge one by finishing another. " LOL!

Anyway, I have four going right now. I'm considering turning Whisper into a trilogy, for length's sake (which works well, because I have three major arcs in the story). Epsilon might/will probably be a series.

Dollhouse will probably be kind of open for a sequel, but not because the MCs' stories need finishing or anything--it's just because there are so many possibilities in the "world". But it will probably be standalone.

Oriel might be of a length, in the end, where it'd be good to split it up, but I'm planning it standalone.

That said, I'm only thinking about Dollhouse and Oriel, but I'm actually writing Epsilon and Whisper. So when I get blocked on one, I can switch to another. Or I can focus on one and put the other off. I just have too much in my head to keep from putting them down on paper/word doc sometimes.

I think it works fine. :3 Ultimately, some people can multitask, some have to focus. If it works for you then there's nothing wrong with it. If it's hindering you more than helping you, in whatever way, then maybe it doesn't work. So, depends on the person. Is it just me, or am I following in scarletpeach's footsteps? "How long is a piece of string?" answer. Oh well! |xX

Take a moment and count your blessings. No, seriously. Be glad you have ideas and not the dreaded writer's block. Besides that, pick one and run with it, but make sure to keep writing those random ideas down for later.