Multitasking

When it comes to writing, I’ve never been much for multitasking. Just ask Marta. If inspiration is flowing, if I’m in the groove, it’s best to leave me alone until my thoughts play out and I find a good stopping point.

With this in mind, I now find myself contending with an unfamiliar challenge: managing multiple writing projects at the same time. While writing and revising Bent, that was my one and only focus; I was 100% invested in that one project and had no distractions. It was the same when I was preparing and sending my initial round of submission material early last spring. And with no diversions, I worked efficiently and purposefully, moving forward in a measured way each day.

Then, in April, I started writing Time Lapse. Suddenly I had two irons in the fire for the first time, and now, on top of writing my new story and building my online platform, I’m trying to find time to work on query letter and manuscript revisions for Bent, as well. So far, I’ve really struggled with this juggling act. I don’t want to stop working on Time Lapse in order to go back to Bent, but I know I need to get back into Bent in the interest of tightening things up and resolving some point of view issues before I send out more submissions.

I’ve been giving some thought to the notion of setting aside specific times to work on each project, and this is what I’ve come up with: my commute on the train will be devoted to Time Lapse, lunch breaks to Bent, and evenings to my online activity. Hopefully with this schedule, I can move forward in that same efficient, purposeful manner I applied to my initial project while avoiding the gnawing anxiety I’ve been feeling as a result of neglecting two projects in order to focus all of my efforts on just one. After all, Time Lapse is a long way from being finished and in the meantime, I really want to continue querying Bent with the goal of publishing my first book!

Let’s see if I can become a multitasking master!