How do you guys do it?

Susie

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(Knew you'd have to peak in). :) How do you keep your wip novels separate and not get your ideas all intertwined? I can barely do one novel, and some of you do two or more. That's amazing.
 
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That'd be like confusing your children, Susie. My books are my babies and they're all different. :)
 

KTC

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My wips are vastly different from one another. different age groups. it'd be hard to confuse them.
 

Mel

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Index cards help. But most is in my head, and different worlds for me, too.
 

stormie

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Well, first I turn on the computer, then I sip my coffee, then read something on AW that makes me laugh so hard I spew coffee all over the keyboard....

Seriously, each WIP nove is totally different, even though they might be the same genre. In order to go from one character's head in one ms. to another character in another ms., I take a short break then before working on the other WIP, I reread at least the last five pages.

Good thread, Susie!
 

Susie

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Thanks much, guys.

That is too funny, Silver. Everybody check out Silver's link. It's great! O'course.
 

Sneaky Devil

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I have 6 WIP's going, two, no three are about crime and the others about fantasy. Not hard to keep them seperate cause I try and make my characters so different. Of course I've run into some trouble here and there but those are just tiny wrinkles that I iron out easily enough.

Ok, enough of my rambling nonsense. :D
 

Silver King

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SK--when I clicked on that link, my husband started singing along with it. And then proceeded to tell me the song that comes after it on the White Album lead me out of the house and we headed toward that double line in the road!. See what you started?! See?! :ROFL:
Glad to be of service. :)
 

Tigercub

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My WIPs are all in the same series, with mostly the same characters, and a continuing story arc (although each is a standalone). So it doesn't really matter whether I get them mixed up or not.
 

ErylRavenwell

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One at a time. All my attention is given to only one project. I'm very meticulous.
 

Darzian

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(Knew you'd have to peak in). :)

:roll:

Actually, my browser (Chrome) let's me have a small preview of the first sentence or so of the first post by just hovering the mouse over the thread title on the main OP page. Other browsers may do the same.
 

Beach Bunny

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(Knew you'd have to peak in). :) How do you keep your wip novels separate and not get your ideas all intertwined? I can barely do one novel, and some of you do two or more. That's amazing.
When I was working as engineer, I had multiple projects that I worked on. It's a habit to set one aside, switch gears, and work on another one.

If you went to college, you took more than one course a semester. It's not much different from keeping history, literature, humanities, and a foreign language separate or biology, chemistry, physics, and calculus separate. :Shrug:
 

Joe270

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I can barely do one novel, and some of you do two or more. That's amazing.

Perhaps they're all lying to you, Susie. It could be a conspiracy.

If there's a blimp around, yeah, they're messing with ya, that's proof.
 

ErylRavenwell

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(Knew you'd have to peak in). :) How do you keep your wip novels separate and not get your ideas all intertwined? I can barely do one novel, and some of you do two or more. That's amazing.

I'd suggest you stick to one project at a time. You'll master all the minutiae of writing while aiming for quality, not quantity. After all, one quality novel is better than multiple mediocre manuscripts.
 
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Tigercub

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I always had to multitask at work -- when I worked. :-( It wasn't unusual to have four or five (or more) projects on my desk, then have the boss come over with another one that had to be done right then. I got used to it.
 

thethinker42

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(Knew you'd have to peak in). :) How do you keep your wip novels separate and not get your ideas all intertwined? I can barely do one novel, and some of you do two or more. That's amazing.

The same way I keep my family, friends, in-laws, co-workers, and such separate: They're separate people. Separate lives. Each person's "story" goes with him/her just like their hair color or their obnoxious laugh. :) Kind of like following more than one TV show at a time...I know Gil Grissom isn't going to wander into Dr House's office any more than Eric Cartman is going to be interrogated by Elliot Stabler. (and now you know the extent of my TV viewing habits) They're in separate worlds.
 

cooeedownunder

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I currently have a few WIPs and in some of them the story starts for a WIP where the other one left off - I guess they're sequals which possibly means I can't let go completely of my previous story lines.
 

Stlight

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What's out and wip are in different centuries with different characters. As BB said sorrt of like college, though chemistery and calculus flatten me, so there was no need to keep them separate. I'd heard of physics, but never got to see one of their classrooms...

I just got an idea for another WIP in a partly overlapping century. Thanks Susie, BB, as long as my boxes hold out I can write more WIP. Each one has to have its own box, that's the only requirement since I write it out by hand first.

S