Stop Juggling Your Works in Progress and Commit to A Story

Many writers love the allure of jumping from story to story or they seem to just find themselves halfway through writing one story and then this bright and shiny new idea will call out to them and demand to be written.

While it seems like a great thing to be filled with so many novel ideas there is a major downside to this habit.

As soon as that next bright and shiny story idea jumps out at you, you're opening up a new document on your computer, typing up a few notes, and maybe writing a scene that you know you want to include, and the next thing you know you're 20,000 words deep into a new story and you haven't even thought about that other one you were working on since you began the new one.

This leaves that first story to fall into obscurity and when the next idea comes along the cycle repeats.

If this is you then I have just one question to ask.

Have you finished a single story?

If you're a writer who jumps from story idea to story idea chances are you've spent so much time jumping around that you haven't actually finished a single story.

Yes, this is a call-out post for you specifically.

Or if you decide that you can write both of these works -  or more, at one time, how different do they really feel from each other?

When you start to juggle multiple works in progress simultaneously it's easy to lose focus or become overwhelmed.

This is especially the case if the worlds you are writing are different styles, points of view, or tones. Sure that's what you intend them to be, but most writers aren't able to smoothly transition from one writing style to another on a dime like that. When writing more than one story at a time they can begin to blend into each other or things from one story end up in another leaving you with the outcome of a jumbled-up collection of stories that you won't be able to differentiate one from the other because - well they'll all be the same story with different characters.

Writers who juggle multiple projects at once tend to leave a wave of unfinished stories in their wake and that's the last thing you want to be doing.

If you are currently in the process of writing multiple stories the best thing you can do is pick the one that you are most excited about at this moment - and see it through to the end. From that first page to the end and then move on to the next one.

If ideas for other stories come to you make them a document if you wish, and fill it with notes and scene ideas if you want to make sure you don't forget them while you work on your other project, but try to keep it as only this until you have finished with that first project.

When you see that first one through to the end feel free to jump into the next one, but while you are working on it make it the one focal point of your writing until it's finished, and get in the habit of repeating this cycle instead of leaving half written stories piled along behind you for miles on end.

Best of luck!

With love,

B. xo xo

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This story was originally posted on Medium.

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