Why Do I Work on More than One Project?

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Or “Wouldn’t it be faster if you just focussed on a single story?”

Frankly, no. No, it wouldn’t, and the quality of my work would suffer. Firstly, these stories don’t come easily and I need to take the time to get them just right. Secondly, because these stories aren’t easy to write, I sometimes just need to step away from them and give myself space.

CrimeNovel1 is a prime example. It’s graphic. It speaks of violence that’s happened, might be happening, and could happen again. It deals in subject matter that I find hard to face. Because I hadn’t worked on it for a long time, I’m going over it chapter by chapter so I can reacquire the story in order to finish it without missing anything important. I’m doing this one chapter a night. When I started on it a couple of weeks ago, each chapter was difficult to read, and I was glad I don’t have to go over another in a night.

Don’t get me wrong, the story is there; it’s just very hard to write without flinching, and I need to take time to step away and become objective about it again. That and I tend to write too fast. I find if I take the time to switch between projects, then I tend to be able to come back and edit the other project more objectively, picking up things I miss, or resolving plot knots that I just couldn’t get a handle on before.

CrimeNovel1 has now reached 50,000 words, my usual sticking point, but I have finished revising, started completing the outline for the last five or six chapters, and am able to keep going.

Having the option of independently publishing has given me the ability to believe my work stands a chance of being made available to readers, whereas under the traditional model I had discovered that it didn’t matter how good a writer was, the quality of their work was no guarantee for publication.

Now I have the courage to believe.
Location: Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

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