Many stories at once, or just one?

[Julie]

A question for the writers on the board:

Do you like to have many different works in progress going on at once, so that you always have a variety of things to work on, or do you prefer to write one story at a time so that you don't get overwhelmed and leave stories neglected?

Just curious as to what everyone's personal preference is.

[Julie]

I'm usually a one-story-at-a-time kind of girl (or maybe one main story, plus a backup story, plus a collaboration or two *cough*), but this week for some reason, I've been inspired for every story idea under the sun EXCEPT for BMS.

Besides my 00Carter part and my April Fools chapter, during spring break I have: started a novel, written parts for three other stories that I hadn't touched in awhile (Teeny, Dreams of Blue Eyes, and another one that has never been posted or even mentioned here before ), randomly wrote a beginning for a story idea I thought of two years ago, thought seriously about another story idea I thought of probably six years ago and had since discarded, and conjured up two fresh story ideas.

If I was impulsive enough to start on EVERYTHING I would like to write, I'd have at least fifteen stories in the works.

As it is, I have six novels saved in the place where I keep all my works in progress, not counting the seven in my "Discontinued" folder, and four in the "Story Starts" folder I just made tonight.

I have a feeling this phase will be snuffed out by Tuesday, when I go back to school. Then I won't have time to dream up story ideas and flit from story to story.

[Rose]

I have the worst habit of starting a lot of projects at once. They take longer cause I have to balance out the time, but if I'm burned out on one, it helps my muse cause I have those other options to turn to. Though I have to admit, my fic Just Another Day is the main focus right now, and not purposely, I'm just getting really inspired for it.

I have one on hold cause I think a rewrite is in order. (Lost Souls)
One in progress but kinda on the verge of on hold (Blind Within the Shadows)
A collab discontinued and continued on my own now... and commonly updated (Divisions Of Reality)
One in progress but I've had a mental block on it (As Reality Crumbles)
One commonly updated (Just Another Day)
3 current collabs (Code Blue... Rebirth... 00Carter)
Stories in planning - Summer projects (possibly 3 at my rate lol- One's with Dee)

Then I have a 2 discontinued ones that never got very far. Dunno if I'll ever pick em back up, I doubt it sadly.

Not to mention I have ideas saved because I have SOME self control and told myself NO lol.

Very bad habit of mine, but the muse gets good exercise and breaks cause of it. So I tend not to get too burnt out cause I can always turn to another project and make it my focus. When I had the one for As Reality Crumbles, Just Another Day came back into focus. I should have more self control...but then my collab-whore-ness starts up lmao.

[mare]

I find I need at least two going at the same time. I find myself getting very bored if i'm only writing on one thing. This way if I find myself slumping on one story I can easily occupy myself with another one. I also try to have them be totally different too, If I can. If i'm writing a drama I might also try a suspense or a comedy at the same time. LOL i'm weird like that.

[jellicle]

I said One, since when i work on something i like to give my whole attention to it but from another point i'm a multitasker and i've been known doing more than one thing at the same time. But when i'm writing, i just like to keep the characters close to me, i need to feel their presence to actually crawl into their heads and solve their character. Although i only work for 00Carter at the moment, i try to keep my personal work somewhere close and i think of how to build up the characters more deeply. Ok now i'm confused.. LOL

[dewfreak]

Maybe my vote doesn't count cause I really don't think I'm much of a writer, but I voted just one story at a time. I guess cause I'm a very simple-minded creature with a VERY short attention span, but I can never work on more than one story at a time. The one I was trying to concentrate on never got finished cause I lost my inspiration and my laptop no longer works. I tried to start another story, but with that one I lost my storyline and ended up forgetting what I wanted to write about to begin with. So considering that, I really don't consider myself much of a writer. But yeah, there's my input.

[A-RokzStalker]

I usually have like, a million stories going at once. Though, they're mostly just ideas for stories or random scenes for no story in particular and then at some point in time I might mush a couple ideas together and come up with a good story. But, as for the stories I actually keep working on, I'd say I usually have about three going at once.

[kristy]

Writing I usually stick to one, but reading, several lol.

[HeathenMaiden]

I usually stick to one story at the time but I might have several ideas for stories in my head at the same time. So what I usually do is write down all the ideas I have for the various stories when they come to me so I don't lose them and then decide to focus on just one of them at the time!

And no, I don't have any of my fan fics posted on online, at least not anymore