This is a topic I find fascinating with authors. How in the world can someone handling multiple projects at the same time when it comes to writing? Juggling multiple projects boggles my mind, but it is something I would love to be able to do one day.

The how behind it…

Let’s unpack this. Writing a series is a commitment. It requires an unbelievable level of concentration to keep details in your noodle to make sure the narrative stacks up by the end. I can understand an author wanting to plug away at a series until the end before moving onto something else. That makes sense to me, and how I’ve operated for the most part.

But switching gears completely? Sometimes in the same day?

The time factor

I think this plays a lot into this. I hope it does, or I’m just a lazy sack who needs to step it up ten notches and get back to work.

Having the time to work is huge for this kind of juggling. If you have a full morning dealing with mythological creatures, you can pull yourself away for an afternoon of aliens, or romance, or whatever it is you’re working on. Maybe break it up with a nice lunch, or say some blogging to completely separate the tasks.

So yeah, time has to be a huge player in juggling multiple projects.

What if you can’t?

I constantly try my hand at this. Want to know what happens? I stress eat a bunch of chocolate (stolen from my kiddos – thanks, kids!) and realize I do not have the headspace to pull off multiple projects, multiple series, multiple chapters even with the time I have allotted for work. (At the moment…)

It’s a frustrating conundrum. The ideas are there. The outlines locked in the deep recesses of the brain. Two series running simultaneously, in theory, will be two times the product and the sales, right? Wouldn’t that be nice?

The clock, though, continues to work against me. Against most of us, I would imagine.

Finding a balance

I finished DSA Season Two last month. With the momentum I had from reviewing the novels during the editing process I took it one step further to roadmap the third season.

Then I stopped and shifted gears.

Part of me wanted to continue. The momentum was still there. I could have gone on for the next nine months putting together another six books in the series.

Instead, I returned to Greystone. Part of that was not wanting to put off closing out Greystone. It’s been five years since A Circle of Shadows was released and fans deserve to see what happens to Soriya (wait, she’s dead, isn’t she?) and Loren.

The other part was in keeping with juggling multiple projects. Some readers have zero interest in DSA. Some are begging for more urban fantasy. (I’m right there with them.) Greystone is what they want, and what they’ve been expecting for quite some time.

Do I wish I could switch gears, putting out one of each and flipflopping between the two or three or four series I have projected to come out in the next five years? Absolutely.

Would they be exactly the way I intended if I did it that way? Probably not. It’s tricky to hold yourself back, but for the benefit of the final product it can actually be a good thing. Quality over quantity is what I try to tell myself, but man, there are days when I wish I could just drop everything and throw all the ideas on the table and run with them.

Someday, right?

So why the rant today?

This really is nothing more than that. (It helps me work through things…)

I sat down a year ago with a comprehensive publishing schedule that took me to 2034. Ridiculous, I know. It juggled three series (Greystone, DSA, and an unnamed space opera that is fully scripted and ready to be drafted).

I’ve edited the hell out of that plan in the last few months.

Why?

I didn’t want to screw up on the details. This happened with Greystone’s First Cycle. Having gone back to check out certain details I realized how bad I messed up. That irks me to no end. Story points are crucial for series writing and I blew it multiple times.

I don’t want that to happen again. When Greystone finishes I want it to be as close to perfect as possible. I don’t want anything to be off because I couldn’t remember the details. So, for me, sticking it out the way I am is crucial to a reader’s enjoyment.

The other reason is I didn’t want to break up the flow of a DSA Season. Publishing quarterly will already stretch out certain things, so this will at least mitigate that aspect.

Am I wrong to stick with a single series instead of juggling multiple projects? You tell me.

(Cause I have no clue anymore.)