Ais’s answer to “What are you currently working on?” > Likes and Comments
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How do you prioritize working with so many to finish? I have just as many to work on but when I flit I flit waaay too much.
I'm not very good at it, to be honest... I tend to do one of two things: either I get really into the world of one of them and that's all I can think about so that's all I write because it's what inspires me, or I'm briefly inspired by one story/world and then start getting ideas for another and flit over to that, and so on until I'm never really finishing anything.
This has been a problem of mine for years, and sounds like it might be a problem you deal with too. It sucks :(
I don't know if this will help you but I've noticed a few things do help me:
1) Use Scrivener (or another program like that) to collect all the information on a complicated project (story/world/book/whatever). Scrivener does cost money, but they usually will let you download a free 30 day trial and then only charge 50% (so about $20 I think) if you do NaNoWriMo and succeed in hitting 50,000 words. I've found this to be invaluable for my fantasy series which just has wayyyy too many characters, plots, world information, etc, to otherwise keep track.
2) It's really important to write a timeline and roughly plot out the chapters of each story. I tend not to do this in the beginning; usually I get an idea for a story, start writing, make things up as I go, jot down convoluted notes about how things interconnect, but I don't actually write a detailed point by point timeline/plotline until halfway through the book.
What I've been doing the last week has been working almost exclusively on timelines and plotlines of all these different stories. It means I have to sit down and do a lot of research along the way for different pieces so it's very slow in some cases, but when I finished plotting the timeline for Cedrick/Julian Files I felt SO accomplished.
The reason I think the timeline/plotline would be really good to focus on while you're still flitting around like I am, is because once all those timelines/plotlines with all the details and research is out of the way--then the flitting around would be much easier and more productive. Then, if I feel like writing in Julian Files one week I can get pretty far ahead, and if I switch to Dead Rain then no problem.
3) I have multiple whiteboards, and I use them when I'm trying to figure out how things connect, or when I'm determining the timelines/plotlines/etc. I'm a visual person so being able to put it on a big board where I can erase things as I change my mind and use different colors really helps me organize my thoughts a lot. I bought some at a big box store but I also buy them at estate sales or garage sales when they're cheap. I also buy smaller whiteboards that I keep up to have notes to remind myself of stories, and I have these things surrounding me at my computer so I keep being reminded.
Right now, I have 4 small white boards, 4 large white boards, and a large corkboard. It might sound like a lot, and it is, but for me it's very useful because sometimes I want to leave half-finished ideas/notes on one whiteboard for one story, so I can use one of the other ones for a different idea or story.
When I finally get everything figured out on the whiteboard, I take a picture of it and zoom in on pieces at a time so it's legible if needed, and then I also write up the notes in a google doc (and/or in Scrivener) or if it's very visual (like connecting ideas between circles and lines and it's important that structure remains) I draw it in Paint and then save it as a picture. That way I don't lose the information and I have it in multiple places. Then I erase that white board so it's usable for something else.
4) Santino and I do sprints when we're both online and this is another really helpful way to focus. I recommend finding a friend who writes, too, and then when you're both planning to write one day, you set a time of 20 or 30 minutes and you both agree to go write during that time and come back at the end to check in. This is actually really awesome because it forces me to focus, and oftentimes whether I start out slow and can't think of anything to write during the time, or whether I'm blazing through it the whole time and don't want to stop even for that check-in point--we usually end up doing multiple sprints in a row. I think that pressure of having a finite time helps me be more motivated than if I just said to myself "Oh I'll go write for 2 hours now."
Also, again that's where having the timelines is SUPER helpful because when I don't have something to check and refresh my memory or give me ideas, I end up just staring at the screen like UGGGGGHHH the whole time.
5) StayFocusd is something I just discovered within the last couple of weeks, with major thanks to Aleks Voinov who mentioned it on Twitter. This thing is awesome! It's an extension for your browser where you identify the websites you want to limit your time on during the day, and then you set a time for the whole day that you're allowed for all of those sites. So for example, I have almost all social media sites (including youtube, which is a huge time waster for me) as my problem sites. I had it set for 30 minutes/day for the first week but changed it to 45 minutes because many things I watch on Youtube are 6-14 minutes long.
StayFocusd will track all the time I spend on any of these websites during the day, and if I exceed the 45 minutes it suddenly shuts that website off and won't let me access it. It's made me be really cognizant of the time I waste on the sites, so I'm much faster about checking things and leaving.
You can set whatever time and websites you want.
6) I mentioned it before but if you don't already do NaNo I also recommend that--it's a good way for you to force yourself to prioritize one story above all others for a month. www.nanowrimo.org if you want to check it out. It's free to do, and a lot of people worldwide participate, so if you also are the sort of person who does better writing in a group out of your home that's another helpful aspect of NaNo. I'm not one of those people but I know a lot of people are.
7) Something I started doing for myself earlier in the year was doing what I called my WIP Files. I was having a problem with not concentrating properly on things, and I was getting depressed because I was so unproductive. I decided to set myself a goal of doing SOMETHING every day, no matter how small, and posting it on my blog/elsewhere so I could feel more accomplished. It made me feel a lot better and let me slowly start to identify which stories I wanted to prioritize over others.
Here's more info: https://aisness.wordpress.com/2014/01...
8) Lastly, I try to set myself goals but I tend to not always follow through on meeting them. I try to not let that get me down and just keep thinking about the stories as I go.
More recently, rather than setting an exact date for when I should finish a book, I just set overall month goals and have that on a whiteboard by my window so I see it any time I look out. I put little boxes for me to check off when I finish the outlines, and then the books, so I could feel more productive. So for example, I just write "January" for the fantasy series--knowing I won't finish it in January but I want to start working on it more then.
I don't know if any of that helps. Sorry for the long reply!
The long reply is perfectly fine. Thank you for the advice. I hadn't expected so much! I also have a fantasy series that has a large amount of backstory and character information for (AND I've been working on it since I was 13 too) so I really think I'll give Scrivener a try. If I want the 50% discount I have to download the free trial AND participate in NaNoWriMo simultaneously? I'm not big on group writing either but I will give it a try if it coincides with Scrivener.
lol that's so funny! Let's make a pact to finish our fantasy series in the next two years--or at least the first book in it ;)
No the free trial is up to you--it will just give you a chance to see if you like it. You could just buy it immediately if you wanted. The 50% off is only if you do NaNo and win. You get 20% off even without joining NaNo if you want to just input NANOWRIMO as a code.
Info on the discounts:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/nan...
Info on Scrivener in general:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scr...
And looks like it's $45 for mac, $40 for windows, normally.
One of the reasons I ended up going with Scrivener is it lets you collect basically EVERYTHING. You can organize things in different ways, it lets you create different collections (helpful for long term stories like ours because I had a number of notes that aren't accurate anymore but I wanted to keep so I have them in an "not pertinent but keep" collection), you can also put in there pictures, sound files, I'm not sure about videos but I wouldn't be surprised, and so on. Also, if you put the chapters in Scrivener, when you're finished with the series it will automatically compile it into a novel with correct formatting for you, if you enter it into Scrivener properly.
Something else that's cool is it has this 'corkboard' function where, when you create folders, if you go in the right screen they show up as individual notecards on a corkboard. You can then put notes there to remind yourself about pertinent info regarding the folder, and you can color code things, and even mark them with stamps like FIRST DRAFT.
If you're interested, I recommend trying the trial just to see if it would be useful for you. If you find it would be, then no matter what you could get the 20% off it sounds like--and you could get up to 50% if you did NaNo.
(You could also just write NaNo for yourself, and only keep track of it on the NaNo site and never share anything with anyone else or add anyone as a writing buddy on NaNo. That way you'd still be writing totally on your own but at the end of NaNo you'd have the proof you participated and won.)
**By "winning" at NaNo you have to write 50,000 words in November, though. if you participate in NaNo but don't reach that mark you don't get the 50% off at Scrivener, I don't think.
Phew! I'm glad you made that clarification! The first book is definitely doable in two years once I buckle down. Pact accepted.
$36 is also totally worth it for Scrivener. The way you describe the features, it sounds as if its what I've been needing for quite sometime. It definitely beats having over 100+ word docs and nearly 3,000 jpeg files scattered about the place. Not to mention all the magazine cutouts I have... Thank you again for this.
LOL yeah sounds like we have the same problem, although you've collected a lot more magazine cutouts than I have (I used to do that more and now that you mention it, I'm wondering why I ever stopped... wtf)
Today I went to Target and bought a bunch of office supplies to help me organize all the printouts and papers and such. I was just thinking now how maybe I should start scanning in pages of source material books so I can highlight and write on things rather than use all these little sticky notes fanning out of the edges of the pages.
I hope you like Scrivener!
And, excellent. We both must hold firm on this 2 year deadline, then ;) End of 2016, we'll both have finished the book :)
So! I just finished 1/27... now I'm going through withdrawal and scouring goodreads and your sites looking for news about the next book in this series. I was only able to find out that you have a general plot created (I saw that answer over and over and I'm sorry that I'm bringing it up again!), but then I came across this post! My interest in piqued for the other works you have in progress but the Julian Files seriously grabbed my attention. I've heard of authors falling out of tune with their stories/characters and this gives me hope isn't the case here. I won't badger you by asking for when the sequel for ICoS will come out, but I sooo hopeee it will happen. If there's anything that will inspire you to make it happen in my power to provide, I'll give it! I'll beg! ;x lol.. okay I'm done being dramatic. Love the series, you & Sonny are awesome possums! <3 =D
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Lunecroix
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Oct 18, 2014 09:23PM
How do you prioritize working with so many to finish? I have just as many to work on but when I flit I flit waaay too much.
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I'm not very good at it, to be honest... I tend to do one of two things: either I get really into the world of one of them and that's all I can think about so that's all I write because it's what inspires me, or I'm briefly inspired by one story/world and then start getting ideas for another and flit over to that, and so on until I'm never really finishing anything.This has been a problem of mine for years, and sounds like it might be a problem you deal with too. It sucks :(
I don't know if this will help you but I've noticed a few things do help me:
1) Use Scrivener (or another program like that) to collect all the information on a complicated project (story/world/book/whatever). Scrivener does cost money, but they usually will let you download a free 30 day trial and then only charge 50% (so about $20 I think) if you do NaNoWriMo and succeed in hitting 50,000 words. I've found this to be invaluable for my fantasy series which just has wayyyy too many characters, plots, world information, etc, to otherwise keep track.
2) It's really important to write a timeline and roughly plot out the chapters of each story. I tend not to do this in the beginning; usually I get an idea for a story, start writing, make things up as I go, jot down convoluted notes about how things interconnect, but I don't actually write a detailed point by point timeline/plotline until halfway through the book.
What I've been doing the last week has been working almost exclusively on timelines and plotlines of all these different stories. It means I have to sit down and do a lot of research along the way for different pieces so it's very slow in some cases, but when I finished plotting the timeline for Cedrick/Julian Files I felt SO accomplished.
The reason I think the timeline/plotline would be really good to focus on while you're still flitting around like I am, is because once all those timelines/plotlines with all the details and research is out of the way--then the flitting around would be much easier and more productive. Then, if I feel like writing in Julian Files one week I can get pretty far ahead, and if I switch to Dead Rain then no problem.
3) I have multiple whiteboards, and I use them when I'm trying to figure out how things connect, or when I'm determining the timelines/plotlines/etc. I'm a visual person so being able to put it on a big board where I can erase things as I change my mind and use different colors really helps me organize my thoughts a lot. I bought some at a big box store but I also buy them at estate sales or garage sales when they're cheap. I also buy smaller whiteboards that I keep up to have notes to remind myself of stories, and I have these things surrounding me at my computer so I keep being reminded.
Right now, I have 4 small white boards, 4 large white boards, and a large corkboard. It might sound like a lot, and it is, but for me it's very useful because sometimes I want to leave half-finished ideas/notes on one whiteboard for one story, so I can use one of the other ones for a different idea or story.
When I finally get everything figured out on the whiteboard, I take a picture of it and zoom in on pieces at a time so it's legible if needed, and then I also write up the notes in a google doc (and/or in Scrivener) or if it's very visual (like connecting ideas between circles and lines and it's important that structure remains) I draw it in Paint and then save it as a picture. That way I don't lose the information and I have it in multiple places. Then I erase that white board so it's usable for something else.
4) Santino and I do sprints when we're both online and this is another really helpful way to focus. I recommend finding a friend who writes, too, and then when you're both planning to write one day, you set a time of 20 or 30 minutes and you both agree to go write during that time and come back at the end to check in. This is actually really awesome because it forces me to focus, and oftentimes whether I start out slow and can't think of anything to write during the time, or whether I'm blazing through it the whole time and don't want to stop even for that check-in point--we usually end up doing multiple sprints in a row. I think that pressure of having a finite time helps me be more motivated than if I just said to myself "Oh I'll go write for 2 hours now."
Also, again that's where having the timelines is SUPER helpful because when I don't have something to check and refresh my memory or give me ideas, I end up just staring at the screen like UGGGGGHHH the whole time.
5) StayFocusd is something I just discovered within the last couple of weeks, with major thanks to Aleks Voinov who mentioned it on Twitter. This thing is awesome! It's an extension for your browser where you identify the websites you want to limit your time on during the day, and then you set a time for the whole day that you're allowed for all of those sites. So for example, I have almost all social media sites (including youtube, which is a huge time waster for me) as my problem sites. I had it set for 30 minutes/day for the first week but changed it to 45 minutes because many things I watch on Youtube are 6-14 minutes long.
StayFocusd will track all the time I spend on any of these websites during the day, and if I exceed the 45 minutes it suddenly shuts that website off and won't let me access it. It's made me be really cognizant of the time I waste on the sites, so I'm much faster about checking things and leaving.
You can set whatever time and websites you want.
6) I mentioned it before but if you don't already do NaNo I also recommend that--it's a good way for you to force yourself to prioritize one story above all others for a month. www.nanowrimo.org if you want to check it out. It's free to do, and a lot of people worldwide participate, so if you also are the sort of person who does better writing in a group out of your home that's another helpful aspect of NaNo. I'm not one of those people but I know a lot of people are.
7) Something I started doing for myself earlier in the year was doing what I called my WIP Files. I was having a problem with not concentrating properly on things, and I was getting depressed because I was so unproductive. I decided to set myself a goal of doing SOMETHING every day, no matter how small, and posting it on my blog/elsewhere so I could feel more accomplished. It made me feel a lot better and let me slowly start to identify which stories I wanted to prioritize over others.
Here's more info: https://aisness.wordpress.com/2014/01...
8) Lastly, I try to set myself goals but I tend to not always follow through on meeting them. I try to not let that get me down and just keep thinking about the stories as I go.
More recently, rather than setting an exact date for when I should finish a book, I just set overall month goals and have that on a whiteboard by my window so I see it any time I look out. I put little boxes for me to check off when I finish the outlines, and then the books, so I could feel more productive. So for example, I just write "January" for the fantasy series--knowing I won't finish it in January but I want to start working on it more then.
I don't know if any of that helps. Sorry for the long reply!
The long reply is perfectly fine. Thank you for the advice. I hadn't expected so much! I also have a fantasy series that has a large amount of backstory and character information for (AND I've been working on it since I was 13 too) so I really think I'll give Scrivener a try. If I want the 50% discount I have to download the free trial AND participate in NaNoWriMo simultaneously? I'm not big on group writing either but I will give it a try if it coincides with Scrivener.
lol that's so funny! Let's make a pact to finish our fantasy series in the next two years--or at least the first book in it ;) No the free trial is up to you--it will just give you a chance to see if you like it. You could just buy it immediately if you wanted. The 50% off is only if you do NaNo and win. You get 20% off even without joining NaNo if you want to just input NANOWRIMO as a code.
Info on the discounts:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/nan...
Info on Scrivener in general:
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scr...
And looks like it's $45 for mac, $40 for windows, normally.
One of the reasons I ended up going with Scrivener is it lets you collect basically EVERYTHING. You can organize things in different ways, it lets you create different collections (helpful for long term stories like ours because I had a number of notes that aren't accurate anymore but I wanted to keep so I have them in an "not pertinent but keep" collection), you can also put in there pictures, sound files, I'm not sure about videos but I wouldn't be surprised, and so on. Also, if you put the chapters in Scrivener, when you're finished with the series it will automatically compile it into a novel with correct formatting for you, if you enter it into Scrivener properly.
Something else that's cool is it has this 'corkboard' function where, when you create folders, if you go in the right screen they show up as individual notecards on a corkboard. You can then put notes there to remind yourself about pertinent info regarding the folder, and you can color code things, and even mark them with stamps like FIRST DRAFT.
If you're interested, I recommend trying the trial just to see if it would be useful for you. If you find it would be, then no matter what you could get the 20% off it sounds like--and you could get up to 50% if you did NaNo.
(You could also just write NaNo for yourself, and only keep track of it on the NaNo site and never share anything with anyone else or add anyone as a writing buddy on NaNo. That way you'd still be writing totally on your own but at the end of NaNo you'd have the proof you participated and won.)
**By "winning" at NaNo you have to write 50,000 words in November, though. if you participate in NaNo but don't reach that mark you don't get the 50% off at Scrivener, I don't think.
Phew! I'm glad you made that clarification! The first book is definitely doable in two years once I buckle down. Pact accepted.$36 is also totally worth it for Scrivener. The way you describe the features, it sounds as if its what I've been needing for quite sometime. It definitely beats having over 100+ word docs and nearly 3,000 jpeg files scattered about the place. Not to mention all the magazine cutouts I have... Thank you again for this.
LOL yeah sounds like we have the same problem, although you've collected a lot more magazine cutouts than I have (I used to do that more and now that you mention it, I'm wondering why I ever stopped... wtf)Today I went to Target and bought a bunch of office supplies to help me organize all the printouts and papers and such. I was just thinking now how maybe I should start scanning in pages of source material books so I can highlight and write on things rather than use all these little sticky notes fanning out of the edges of the pages.
I hope you like Scrivener!
And, excellent. We both must hold firm on this 2 year deadline, then ;) End of 2016, we'll both have finished the book :)
So! I just finished 1/27... now I'm going through withdrawal and scouring goodreads and your sites looking for news about the next book in this series. I was only able to find out that you have a general plot created (I saw that answer over and over and I'm sorry that I'm bringing it up again!), but then I came across this post! My interest in piqued for the other works you have in progress but the Julian Files seriously grabbed my attention. I've heard of authors falling out of tune with their stories/characters and this gives me hope isn't the case here. I won't badger you by asking for when the sequel for ICoS will come out, but I sooo hopeee it will happen. If there's anything that will inspire you to make it happen in my power to provide, I'll give it! I'll beg! ;x lol.. okay I'm done being dramatic. Love the series, you & Sonny are awesome possums! <3 =D
