Failed multitasking

I'm perfectly fine writing multiple stories at any given time; inspiration will lead me to flit from file to file, and I'll write whatever comes to me, for whichever is the flavor of the day. (Although there's usually a tipping point where I'll then hunker down and devote myself to a single story for an extended period.)

However, it turns out that I can't really revise one story while writing another.

I don't count minor edits, the little adjustments that copy-editors tend to ask for. Need me to get rid of a semicolon? Sure. (And the heroine of our other tale shall meanwhile rid herself of a foe…) Is the phrasing awkward? I'll smooth it out. (While the hero over there smooth-talks the heroine into some roguery…) Unclear who's talking? Insert handy dialogue tags. (And here's an important conversation that uncovers its own share of secrets.) I can juggle like a pro.

But deep revisions, where I have to keep in mind the entire shape of the story while I make changes, take up too much of my brain space. I get worried about trying to cram two entire stories in there. Not to say that the world-building edits for my science fiction romance would have leaked into the fantasy I was writing, but my mind just makes that terrible rusty-gears-grinding sound whenever I try to flip over from a story in revision to any other.

I'm not sure what this means. That I delve more deeply into a story during revisions than when I'm writing it? Maybe it's because revisions are closer to the ultimate finish line than drafting, and my brain's protesting how I'm leaving a project when it's just…so…close…

Anyway, this discovery has been brought to you by the letter K and the realization that I really need to wrap up the current novel-length piece for good before I can start jamming on the sf romance short.

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