ProcessFest Day 3: Multiple Projects

[jjtaylor]

Day 3 of processfest ! Share your creative process.

Today's prompt: Multiple Projects

Do you work on multiple projects at once? If you do, how do you juggle them? Do they fight for your attention? Or are you singularly focused? Do you set aside specific time for one project or many projects, or do you let yourself be guided by what you want to work on the most?



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Comments

[gorgeousnerd]

My answer!

[piscaria]

I struggle a lot with finding a balance between multiple projects. Back in the day, I used to start dozens of things and bounce between them depending on my interest. Coincidentally, I also rarely finished anything. I've learned that there's a disillusionment period about 2/3 of the way through a longer draft, at least for me. That's when I find myself completely disgusted with the entire project, and convinced it's never going to even vaguely resemble the vision I originally had for it. It's so, so tempting then to turn my attention to those fresh, new projects that I'm still completely in love with. For me, the trick is not to give into that siren song. There's too great a likelihood I'll turn my back entirely on the first draft. You don't even want to know how many 2/3 complete stories I've got on my hard drive. These days, I try to buckle through until I'm finished unless another project has a closer deadline.

Occasionally, that causes problems for me. Sometimes, two projects have deadlines that are close enough I can't justify completely finishing one and then turning my attention to the other. That's the situation I'm in right now. I need to be working on Yuletide, but I keep wanting to put it off until I'm done with my big bang. I'm not doing a good job of balancing between them at all. Also, I work from home, and I sometimes struggle balancing my work writing and my fiction writing. My job gives me a lot of flexibility with the hours I work, but sometimes that's a drawback. I keep exploring options to add more structure to my days, but I'm not very good at it.

[reflectedeve]

Yeah, this is exactly the pitfall I'm trying to avoid, myself! I have a bunch of different long-form stories in waiting, but I'm pretty sure if I don't pick one and stick with it, I also won't finish it. (It helps that my medium of choice has a widely-utilized serialized format--webcomics--which makes switching projects especially hard and should keep me honest/focused. Hopefully.)

Deadlines are tricky. I try to use them to force prioritization, but that doesn't always work. /o\

[alba17]

I have a lot of the same problems. I get bored with longer things and jump to new, more exciting stuff and then never finish the longer stuff. I say longer, but I really mean anything, LOL. Also I don't work out of the home and have similar problems structuring my life.

[k_a_webb]

Very short day three: http://moonwolf.dreamwidth.org/74445.html

[reflectedeve]

Late and kind of tl;dr. You can tell I've been struggling with some internal conflict around this topic. /o\

[ilthit]

Always. I need one project to relax from working too hard another. Of course, this counts work and study as projects, too. I put down my study books, bleary-eyed, and pick up some knitting and a cop show so I don't have to think anymore. I put down my knitting, wanting something more challenging, and start filling out complicated fictional world. This is why it's so hard to get any exercise done. I have so many other more interesting things to do.

Some projects do fall by the wayside, and I need to prioritize to make sure the important ones get done. I do schedule - I have to, or I'd forget half the things I'm supposed to get done. If I give myself unlimited time on something, it might never get done - just ask the cut but unsewn dragon plushie that's been waiting in my cupboard for two months, despite the fact that sewing is usually my favourite part. (By the way: I sew by hand, for many reasons, but it's also just easiest when your plushies are palm-sized and relatively complex.)

I schedule - but I don't follow my schedule perfectly. If I didn't get a thing done, I just push it forward one more day. Sometimes I rearrange the schedule to fit my preferences. It's really more like a to-do list with dates. I couldn't stop myself following my whims and desires even if I tried. The best I can do is try to nudge myself, guide my energy into what needs to get done.

[pennyplainknits]

Weird, I totally thought I'd posted this comment. /0\

I have a list of ideas i want to write or record, but having a long list of WIPs stresses me out, because I feel like I'll never finish any of them (or finish and then be the only one left in the fandom). For long stretches of this year I only wrote one fic because the style was so intense and distinct i couldn't risk losing that by writing something else. I also tend to only be able to work on fic OR podfic, not both at the same time.

Most of my wips are currently notes in multiple notebooks or not-ficcy outlines in email. I should really finish them because, like I said they are stressing me out.