Jeremy C Kester

That’s really is 9 too many. And I don’t mean that there are 10 projects that I am outlining or planning out. No, these are projects that I am actively writing or have started writing. Way too many.

As part of my word tracking spreadsheet, I had added a rough, simple project tracker. Yesterday I went through and updated it trying to get a more complete list of all the stories I am working on. There’s still some missing that I am working on, and there are plenty more that are missing that are in planning stages. There’s even several that are in planning but might have a chapter or two written. It’s no wonder that I spin my wheels in trying to get things done. Even having this many projects in the planning stages beyond a few notes taken to summarize the idea is too much to keep track of. Spreadsheets won’t even help. Time management won’t help. There is too much to work on.

I am doing deeper dives into the various areas of my life where I have things going on that impact my productivity, health, and general happiness. This led me to my #1 hobby. It is the one thing I want more time for, or to use the time I get for it better. And what I am finding is that I am using the time that I have for it poorly. In fact, I have been completely mismanaging my writing career. These examples, such as how many projects I have open, are detrimental to making forward progress with the very thing I want to do!

How do I solve this? Stopping. That’s how. I need to pick two projects, maybe three at best to work on. One in each stage, planning/outlining, 1^st draft, and editing/revisions. I don’t know if that will even work. Stop the rest in their tracks. I need to consolidate my efforts into a single story at a time rather than spreading my efforts over this many projects. Not like I am making much progress the other way anyway.

Given that, I’ve picked two. Well, three, but that’s only circumstantial. Gravity (books 4 and 5 because I am writing them together) and Of Earth and Ice part 2. Maybe if I concentrate on just these two I can get them finished sooner rather than never.