I find myself going to Montreal...

[msagara]

On fairly short notice, for the weekend. For ConCept, which is the 13-14th of November.

I've been thinking a bit about a couple of questions asked elsewhere, vis a vis writing, and will post when I get home; I'm leaving on the overnight train (and mourning the loss of my beloved sections; they've changed their trains, and now offer rooms and deluxe rooms, but no sections!), and will arrive at some very early hour, which is made bearable only by the promised company.

I'm attempting to pack now. I am discovering the writing-avoidance, like packing-avoidance, is built-in. Saw cristalia at work today, where, in discussing the "post a line from a work in progress" meme on LJ, I expressed my utter astonishment at just how many works people have in progress at one time. I was never, ever capable of this; call it over-focus. The most that I will have "in progress" at one time are two projects -- and in that case it's because I've put the one in project on hold to meet a different deadline, which I will meet before returning to the work in progress. I didn't always tend to be quite so focused; there was a time when I could work on both a novel and a short story (but only one of each) at the same time, doing one in the morning and the other in the evening. That would be my definition of multi-tasking; I've never had a dozen projects on the go at the same time.

To everyone who has more than one, how does that work for you?

More later.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

"Work in progress" is perhaps a misnomer in my case. All but one of the sentences I posted were from "works I started and then set aside until I'm ready to work on them more seriously."

I write lots of openings, often in a white heat; then set them aside, think about them, let them stew, and return to them later, sometimes years later.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

Exactly as above.

I can have up to two "active" projects at any given time, and one has to be a primary. What works best is having a novel for a primary, and letting the secondary be whatever story is white-hot/moving at the moment. I've tried doing equal-time with two novels, or two stories, and my brain simply gets stuck in one mode and can't make the daily transition. This system has actually been working very well for me right now, what with the lizard. I have WC#2 (--after I turn that one in, plus revisions on WC#1, I get paid!) for the primary, and let the short stories ambush me whenever they like. (Including the space-opera-in-an-envelope-in-a-day. Ye gods, I'm not doing that again anytime soon.) This is also why my fantasy novel-in-progress is on hiatus, because getting the commissioned piece done is a higher priority.

How this would work if I were under contract for a novel, I have no idea. I would hope that the system would translate, but...yeah. Not exactly going to be a concern in the foreseeable future. But I don't mind having tons of openings/partial stories kicking around. They'll bear fruit years later--I'm planting seeds for those future years.

[larryhammer]

I'm like this, too. But most of what I posted were works drafted then set aside to steep before revising (or figure out how to revise) — which were many more than I expected. Only a couple don't have at least one draft down on paper.

---L.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

The thing I'm really working on is a class on writing synopses, distilled from Pam McCutcheon's fine book. And pushing her book. (Convention 19th-21st)

Next will be an Alfreda novel, not quoted from...the damn thing is, I have to wait until she gives me the first line of a chapter. Not possible first lines...THE first line.

It will probably come at 10:00 pm at night. I will write it down, and the next AM--boom! Scenes start coming.

In other words, a lot of head back story must be going on. Like you, I don't think I could actively work on a lot of things at one time.

Hope it's a good con--