Multiple Manuscripts???
In my last post I said, I wasn’t going to work on my first project anymore. I had decided to move on to my second idea, because it felt more like a story that I would want to read. Some advice from my writing friend, Casey, has changed my mind. In a reply to my last post, she said that I had to keep writing the first one, but writing both might be an option, as well. I’m going to attempt the latter. I think writing both stories at the same time has some merit. They are completely different from each other, which gives me a reason to write no matter what my mood is at the time.
Manuscript 1 has an All-American hero for protagonist and the other has a darker anti-hero. One is more of your typical vampire/werewolf story and the other has a lot of religious overtones in it. The good boy is harder for me to write, while the anti-hero seems to flow more naturally. The first is being told in the first person perspective from the hero’s POV, and the other is being told in the third person perspective by an omniscient narrator. With the books being so much different from each other, I can switch back and forth depending on what mood I’m in at the time. I used to think it was a bad idea to divide my attention this way, but the more I thought about it, I realized that in my imagination my attention is already divided by these two ideas. I find myself day dreaming about both of them, so I don’t think it is going to hurt either story to write about them congruently.
What are your thoughts on working on multiple projects at the same time? Do you find it harder to focus, or is this your preferred way to work? I’m interested in other peoples writing habits, and I would love to hear about yours.
–Jerry Stewart
Artist: Soundgarden
Album: Superunknown
Song: Black Hole Sun
