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There tends to be a stigma about having more than one project running at the same time. If you have more than one project going, you can’t truly put the focus into the projects that they need to be the best versions of themselves.
In my opinion, this is ridiculous, and a harmful narrative that I wish wasn’t pushed as hard as it sometimes is. Having multiple projects, while it does in the broadest sense of the word take the focus away from one project is incredibly helpful in the long run, at least for me. I was out to lunch with my mom this last weekend, she’s also an author and the person I bounce all of my ideas off of and go to when I’m struggling with something, writing related or not.
At this lunch I was ranting to her about my current project, I’m four chapters off the end of a sixty-five thousand word novel and I can’t force myself to work on it. For a while, I’ve had that little voice in my head telling me that the book is boring, and it’s not worth finishing. Of course, I know that this is just the insecurity that every author deals with, however, I didn’t deal with this during my last project and It’s making me struggle more than normal.
I know that I can’t get input on this project, to see if my fears are justified until I finish it, but on the other hand, I can’t force myself to write it because if it is as bad as I think it to be then what’s the point? By the end of this rant, she was looking at me like I had missed quite an obvious solution to my problems.
She laughed before telling me to take a breath and just, stop. Her advice was something I’d heard from her multiple times before but this time it was more imperative than ever. She told me to simply stop, to take the project and put it in a digital drawer, and most importantly take a break. Start something new, work on something that I had put into the drawer before this, write a short story. Do anything that is not staring aimlessly at the same thing I’ve been looking at for the last several months without any progress or assurance that I’m working towards something worthwhile.
To the shock of absolutely no one who knows my mother, the advice proved useful. I closed Scrivner, opened a notebook, and started to work on plotting a story that’s been rattling around my head for probably a year at this point. It shouldn’t have surprised me that her advice would help, but the second my mind turned away from the project I was finally able to make progress, even if it was on what I was originally trying to finish.
I’ve always had more than one project running at once, at the very least more than bouncing around my head. I swear my mind is never quiet is ridiculous. However, this helps me when I hit a wall, sometimes having more things to focus on can help all of them.
About the author
Milla Picket is a senior at Poudre High School, and this is her first year writing for the Poudre Press. In her free time, she is involved in the school's choir and theatre department. She is also a writer currently working on her first fantasy novel for publication.
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