Switching projects

I once heard that Mark Twain worked on multiple projects at once, which comforted me because until then, I thought I'd been doing it wrong. I thought the proper way to write was to work on one project at a time, completing each before moving on to another. Instead, I would work on one for a while, get stuck and switch to something else, get bored and return to the first, submit to the advances of a shiny new project, become disenchanted and go back to the second ... etc.

I wasn't simply a serial abandoner of projects. I was actually getting them written--just not one at a time. And I still work that way. I can focus on one project for long stretches, especially when I'm on deadline. But I always like to have something on the back burner.

It doesn't work for everyone, but it can work.