Thursday, November 7, 2013

Multiple Writing Projects

To multitask or not to multitask? That may only be a question because I ended it with a question mark.

I know better. I'm just not cut out for it. I do far better when I focus on one project at a time. Once a project is complete it can be set on its pedestal in the appropriate place to be admired - or worshiped, as the case may be - and then I can move on to the next. My lovely and talented wife can pull off multiple deadlines and missions scopes without breaking a sweat. If she'd created the universe, it would have been done a day early and under budget.

I, on the other hand, might have been ready for the beta-testing in the requisite time frame, but creation would have required about 13.8 billions years of upgrades and general tidying up. The graphics probably would have sucked too.

Some writers have multiple projects going at any given time and swear by the process since they never get bored. I myself waffle back and forth, hoping that the next time I decide to go the multitask route, I will have gained some cyber-zen insight that will allow me to Photoshop with one hand, type with the other, read with one eye open and meditate with the other eye closed.

     I can read them with my eyes shut! 
     That is VERY HARD to do! 
     But it’s bad for my hat 
          and makes my eyebrows get red hot. 
     SO … reading with my eyes shut 
          I don’t do an awful lot.
                                             -- Dr. Seuss

Even so, I keep a pretty detailed set of notes and project list that I even sometimes adhere to.

On the list at the moment are, in no particular order:

1. Zulu Time chapters for JukePop Serials
2. An alternate history tale
3. A first contact war story
4. A SF noir piece
5. (2) Lovecraftian tales, one SF, the other more traditional
6. My latest SF humor piece

So my advice on multitasking? Try it. If it doesn't work, stop it. If you haven't tried it lately. Try it again. A gain some thing every cycle and the better I get at both, the more likely I am to continue working both side of that street.

Never be so locked into something that you're unwilling to try something new. The past isn't the prescription for the future if you're bringing new skills to the project. Or projects.


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