How Many WIP's is Too Many

Please try to control your apostrophes. Some of us have serious allergies, and you could bring on a life-threatening reaction.



Foof, I'm editing one novel and a couple of short stories with two longer sequels started. Main thing is to be able to finish one now and then.

I can only work on one at a time. But I've heard of novelists working on a few. I can't. If I have an idea for something else, I'll write it down and put it aside for later, but I won't let it grow into a project until I can write it exclusively.

I think that everyone will have a different safe limit, depending on what they can handle. I probably couldn't take on more than two WIPs at a time. If I try to spread myself that thin, I end up not finishing things. I have a notebook to jot down great ideas that come to me when I can't start writing them.

If you are still making progress on all of them, I don't see a problem with having four novels going at once (especially if one is in the editing stage). Just don't start new projects to avoid finishing your old ones!

I agree with tomothecat. I've made myself a solemn promise that I won't work on anything until my first draft is finished. Once I'm in the editing stage, I can start other projects... I anticipate NaNoWriMo will be the first of those... but not until then. No short stories, no random drivel because I'm bored, no erotica, and ABSOLUTELY no work on the other projects I've got lined up for when this one is finished.

I like to work on one, and have the next one cooking in the basement of my mind. That's it.

I generally have a couple going at once. When I get a bit stuck on one I refresh by switching to the other. The problem is I now have six stories of about 50k finished, a short chapter book finished and two books published. I'm working on the third in the published series and another YA fiction. When am I going to get time to seriously edit all the old ones?

I think part of it is experience and part of it is personal taste and part of it is process.
When I started out I could only work on one thing at a time. Now I can juggle about five things in various drafts. The critical thing here is to have the knowledge and confidence that it will all get done. If you can't finish anything, then working on several projects is only going to do harm. One way or another stuff has to reach The End.
Personal taste--I like to have options when I sit down to write. If I'm stuck somewhere on a first draft or I can't face another day of final polish, I can pick up something midrange or start something new. Some people prefer to focus on one project. There's an inescapable intensity to having one project. Even when I'm juggling several, when I'm working on something it's often for a week or two at a stretch so it feels like there's only the one thing at any given time. If you can't find that focus with multiple projects because the others are distracting you, then having one project may be more your thing. I recognize that I've hit my limit when I start to feel overwhelmed or I notice that a manuscript is languishing in favor of the others. Then I know that it's time to prioritize and pare down my current WIPs.
Process also gets thrown in the mix. Are you the kind of person who writes better if they write non-stop from beginning to end? If you leave a manuscript to sit for a few days, or a few weeks, or a few months, do you have trouble picking it back up again and figuring out where you left off? Do you outline (which helps keep you on track after a hiatus) or can you remember where your character is at without fail regardless of how much real life time has passed (which also helps keep you on track after a hiatus) or do you need to draw from an emotional and intellectual state that can fade or even die if it's neglected?

Over time writers change and grow. They don't always grow into multitasking monsters. Sometimes they become more focused toward one project. As long as you don't use multiple manuscripts or a one manuscript focus as an excuse to write less than you otherwise would, you'll do great.

I work on multiple WIPs. On the days when I don't have to go out and face the 'real' world (i.e. tend bar) I can get around 30k written. I'll switch up between my WIPs, usually completing a chapter in each per day. If, for some reason, I'm in a hurry to complete one particular manuscript, I'll chuck everything to the side to get it done. (usually that only occurs when my publisher starts nagging me. I'm in the middle of a two series, eight book epic fantasy and I have deadlines with those. I'm almost done with the last, though, so ) Or, which happens most frequently, if the story REALLY wants to be told that day then I might sit 16 hours at my desk, behind a locked door with a supply of pop in the mini fridge, and write continuously. It all depends.

If you have the discipline to work on each of your WIPs every day, then do so. If you find yourself struggling or wanting to focus on one WIP until it's finished, then I recommend that you do so. My experience tells me that a young writer should focus on one book at a time. I did--and focused on it so completely that it actually got accepted by a brand spanking new small press.

I think like almost everything else, it comes down to "everyone's different, find your own way".
Which isn't hugely helpful, but it's really nice to see the range of answers here, I think

There's an easy answer to this.

If working on more than one WIP at a time keeps you from finishing your primary WIP in a reasonable amount of time, you have too many WIPs.

If you have a habit of not finishing what you start, you should probably concentrate on one WIP at a time.

New ideas will always try to seduce you away. Here's how you deal with them. Keep a little black notebook in which you jot down their names and phone numbers (that is, a brief description of the idea), then get back to your steady WIP.

Nobody buys story starts and incompletes. To get these published, you have to become very famous, then die.

i think it depends. i get way too distracted if i have too many WIPs, and i never feel like i get anywhere on any of them. so i limit myself to one.

...except for right now. i have one in the research stage and one in the throes of the first draft. this time, though, i think it's working. with the research one, there really isn't writing yet - it's all...um, research. so working on the other WIP keeps my mad literary skills in shape.

just make sure you don't get too buried under a pile of WIPs. sometimes it's just best to say no to your wild imagination, trunk all the crazy good ideas that keep popping into your mind, and focus on one story.

I have too many...which is why I can't get to "the end" on any...
Sometimes I think I'm ADD.

Phaeal said:

There's an easy answer to this.

If working on more than one WIP at a time keeps you from finishing your primary WIP in a reasonable amount of time, you have too many WIPs.

If you have a habit of not finishing what you start, you should probably concentrate on one WIP at a time.

New ideas will always try to seduce you away. Here's how you deal with them. Keep a little black notebook in which you jot down their names and phone numbers (that is, a brief description of the idea), then get back to your steady WIP.

Nobody buys story starts and incompletes. To get these published, you have to become very famous, then die.

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exactly what I would have said, if I were at all articulate at this time of morning.


on the other hand, if working on one WIP is dragging you down and holding you back, by all means have more than one going. I've been stuck in one WIP for about 5 year now and have only just decided that I need to get on with my life. now I'm working on 2. (yes, in addition to the albatross one.)

How Many WIP's is Too Many

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For me? Just one, apparently.

Phaeal said:

If working on more than one WIP at a time keeps you from finishing your primary WIP in a reasonable amount of time, you have too many WIPs.

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There's a problem.

How do you decide what the "primary" WIP is? Seems dangerous to get into this thing where one novel is "secondary"; shouldn't a person be working as hard and as diligently as possible on a WIP? How could you treat something seriously that's "secondary"?

For me, the primary WIP tends to be the newest idea that screams into my mind even if I've got another WIP going. Thus, I don't even allow those ideas to bloom. I just work on one WIP; I battle with that sucker until it either dies or I finish it, and then I move on.

I just can't imagine a scenario where I'm working on multiple things at once. Just the idea of something like that makes my head hurt.

For me the "primary" WIP is the one that is the most developed. The one I've been working on the longest. It's like it has seniority.

Calling a WIP "secondary" I don't think means you expend any less effort in making it good. At least, I try not to...

Hmmm.... this isn't good.

I have 15. This thread makes me feel like that's too many! Haha Most of my focus is on three or four at the moment, and the others are set aside with less than 10k words written in them. 1 book is done and I'm revising my second.

I have too many ideas swimming around in my head to just be working on a couple books.

Right now I have... four. And not nearly enough monsters and guts in them!

It's not so much that I want it to be this way- I just have periods when my brain won't shut up with the ideas for a period of time and when the flow is steady with every one of them, it's hard to just jot stuff down and go back to another WIP.

Mythica said:

Hmmm.... this isn't good.

I have 15.

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The "primary" WIP isn't the "most important" idea or anything like that -- it's the one you're dedicating most of your energy to at the moment. I am no less committed to my other books, but Hourglass is my primary WIP at the moment. (Which is a good thing, as it has to be to the editor in one month. Gulp.) This summer, Delilah will be my primary WIP. Then it's Afterlife's turn. It's not dangerous to prioritize.

For me, personally, I define my primary WIP as the one I'm actually writing. I always have several other projects percolating, either as outlines or as concepts; I think about them, brainstorm on them and do research in related areas. But for me, I can only be engaged in full-out writing one book at a time. Allowing myself some time and energy to work on the others -- while refusing to actually write them until it's their turn -- has let me stay productive and yet have a bit of variety.

Of course, everyone does this differently. As others in the thread have said: Once you have so many WIPs that none is progressing steadily toward completion, that's when you have too many WIPs.

~grace~ said:

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I write a lot too much

They're all very neatly organized! Each book has it's own folder on my lap top as well as a few dozen Notepad files for notes, outlines, ect...

the answer is 42.

william_haskins said:

the answer is 42.

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and so is you're i.q.