Mur Lafferty, over at
I Should Be Writing, had an interesting podcast recently about how to manage multiple projects.
Now, I was interested in this subject right off the bat, because it's definitely something I've had (and still have) trouble with. Take my writing for example, I successfully finished my first novel,
Nina Kimberly the Merciless, relatively easily. Which is not to say
easily, but relatively so, compared to my subsequent projects.
Why is that? Well, it's not because I'm blocked. In fact, it's almost the opposite. With Nina, I had only the one idea that I was working on. The one project. So when I felt like writing, or wanted to do something creative, I knew what it should be. So I worked on Nina until I'd finished that first book, then the same for the first editing pass-through.
When the time came though to take on a new project, I've got too many! Right now, I have not one, not two, but
three unfinished novels, and I'm intrigued and excited by all three! Not to mention my podcasts. The problem, however, is that I'm a writer that enjoys the result more than the process, and so the times that I really FEEL like writing are often fleeting. Unfortunately, with multiple projects, it suddenly makes it harder to get as deeply focused on one, because I'm always second-guessing which one I should work on. End result, I often give up without writing much on ANY of them. Definitely not what I want.
Anyway, in Mur's show, she mentioned a couple of strategies for juggling multiple projects. The first, is relatively simple, which is to break your tasks up into more manageable-sounding chunks. For example, instead of saying "Okay, I'm going to work on
finishing Call It A Gift", I should say "I'm going to write 1000 words on Call It A Gift." Instead of saying, "I've got to
finish the recording draft of Nina", I say "I've got to edit chapter 10."
Seems almost too simple to be effective, but hey, I'm going to give it a shot.
The other strategy she mentioned that I think I'm going to try is the "eat a frog" model. Namely, "If you eat a frog as soon as you wake up in the morning, everything else you do that day will seem pleasant and easy by comparison." In other words, you do the stuff that you
don't want to do first, and then everything else seems fun. And not only that, but in my experience, lots of the things that we put off, (exercise, for example,) really aren't that bad if you just go ahead and
do them instead of procrastinating forever and a day. For example, adding to one of my novels. I just need to make it a priority. Do it first, before the things that are extraneous. Odds are, I'll actually have fun doing it anyway, and plus, it'll
get done!
Anyway, I just thought those were some interesting tips, and I'm going to try them out. I'll let you know how it goes.
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Name:Christiana Ellis
Christiana's LiveJournal
Name:Mike Meitín
