Multiple Books & Writing Projects
Posted by David Duhr in 
Discussion questions: Do you ever work on multiple writing projects at once? What are your strategies for keeping them separate, from letting one affect the other? How often do you read multiple books at once, and same question: How are you able to keep them separate?
On a recent episode of Yak Babies, my pals and I discussed reading multiple books at once: the benefits, the pitfalls, our own experiences, how it affects our comprehension.
I’m able to read two books at once if one is fiction and one is nonfiction. I can’t read two novels at the same time. I probably could read two nonfiction books at once, but it almost never happens.
I can read multiple short story collections, but that’s different than trying to read two novels, for obvious reasons.
How about you? Are you usually working on more than one book at a time, or are you, as Aaron calls it in the episode, a book monogamist? If you do read multiple books at once, what’s your approach? Can you, unlike me, read multiple novels at once, and if so, how do you keep them straight?
With writing, I have a similar pattern. I’m working on a novel and on a story collection, and I go through phases with each rather than being able to work on both. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working only on the stories. For a couple of months prior to that, I was working only on the novel. And so on.
However, I can write fiction while also working on something nonfiction. (You might even argue that I’m doing this right now!) Assuming it’s a short piece of nonfiction, a book review, essay, what have you. Back in 2017 I spent six months working on a memoir; I wrote zero fiction during that period.
And you? Can you work on multiple writing projects at once? If so, how are you able to keep them from bleeding into each other? If not, what have been your past experiences that keep you from doing it now?
WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer and co-host of the Yak Babies podcast. He writes about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.
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Like David, I can’t read two novels at once – nope ,nope can’t do it. But, I can read two, sometimes three books at a time with different genres. Case in point: I may be reading a novel, with a poetry book, even the Tao (full of metaphorical inspiration) and/or a history book. Now when it comes to writing, I agree that’s a different story…get it a different story? Anyheeew, yes, that transition from writing fiction to writing non fiction though is a chaaallenge to say the least. Because just the process alone, the mode to find that a la… Read more »
A friend of mine has various reading spots throughout his house, and he leaves a book at each one of those spots. Sometimes he’ll choose his reading spot based on which book he’s hankering for, but most of the time he’ll choose whichever reading spot sounds most comfortable at the time, and the book will be secondary. This fascinates me. So if he feels like going totally horizontal, he’ll get in bed, and then read whichever book is by the bed. If he feels like sitting, he’ll go to his desk, and then read whichever book is there. There’s a… Read more »
Dang! I thought I was quirky. Here’s one quirk: I leave books around the apartment particularly the ones I’ve already read – they are my babies and I didn’t learn to properly read till in my twenties due to dyslexia so they are my personal trophies too. Now I often read for the length of it outside, in a cafe, in a park, or in a library, etc.) Thank you for your comment David.
I hope you leave a book exactly where you were when you finished reading it. Like a mic drop.
I can, and usually do, read more than one book at a time. That means unless a book grabs me, I won’t finish it. If I can’t remember where I was, that’s also a bad sign for the book (not strong enough). Lately I have been limiting myself to two books, until I officially quit one, or finish one. That has worked, I’ve finished reading two books in the last month. (Yay me.) Writing has to be a little separate. I can edit/revise while also rough drafting another project – but I can’t duplicate those tasks. I have tried to… Read more »
Thanks for sharing, Kary. When you choose your two books, is one fiction and one non? Or can you successfully read two novels at once?
That’s interesting, the ability to draft something and revise another, but not draft two things. Since revising so often involves deep rewriting, I’m curious to know why that doesn’t bleed into whatever you’re also drafting at the time, and vice versa.
I can read more than one fiction at a time. I don’t read a lot of non fiction. I’m not sure how successful I consider my way, since I don’t finish many book historically. :) Might sound weird, but for me writing leans heavily on another hobby I have, D&D. One of the core aspects in D&D is getting in character, playing with others while inside the character you’ve created. I can rewrite characters I’ve developed over a book, and take off that mantle to put on new shiny characters. When they are both familiar (rewriting) or when they are… Read more »
I really like that D&D comparison. Maybe partly because I sometimes wish I’d gotten into D&D when I was younger.
If a novel really gets my attention I tend to race through it forsaking all others. But I can read two novels at once if they are very different genres and one is not consuming me. (So if I don’t love it.)
I read non-fiction very slowly, so I usually read at least one novel during the process.
Writing is harder, obviously. I have multiple projects started, but usually can only work on one at a time, regardless of the type.
Thanks, Kim. What causes you to read nonfiction more slowly than fiction?
I often have several writing projects in my queue at once (2 or 3 book reviews, a blog post, novel, short story revision, etc) but I tend to work on them serially. That is, I’ll work one to a point, then switch to another. Often, one project will become consuming and I work on it to completion before returning to another. I can get work done like this, but it’s still too erratic to suit my need for feeling like I’m progressing. I still feel like I need to better adopt a working schedule/strategy much like I did on corporate… Read more »
When you try to set a schedule with goals/deadlines, what happens to derail it? It’s the artist/craftsman thing? i.e., if you’re not feeling inspired, you won’t try to write at all?
When I’m not feeling inspired, the inertia against writing can be great. At those times, I often give in to the inertia, but if I make myself write, I just as often accomplish something. So there’s definitely a “belief in myself issue” involved. Of course, a pro will write no matter what, because that’s his/her job. I like James Scott Bell’s discussion of this in his book, “How to Write Pulp Fiction.” It inspired me to write when I’m not inspired (tongue-in-cheek there). Honestly, my heaviest derailing simply comes from an “I can’t do this” attitude. I had a similar… Read more »
So when you give in to the inertia, rather than make yourself write, is it because of the “I can’t do this” self-talk? Or are there other factors?
A good question. Certainly, there are other factors. Surely our motivations for everything are complex, but I think struggling to find the complete answer will only lead to more questions. I find that self-effacing thought alone is enough to squelch inspirations and topple the leggo foundations of great enterprises (such as writing a novel). Yes, no doubt there are other factors but I won’t overcome them by identifying every one. Mr. Freud had an insight, but there’s more to human consciousness than just experience. I think Mr. Buddha had the greater insight: just change your mind. Whatever your distractions, hardships,… Read more »
Also worth considering (and I’m guessing you already have considered it): there are probably times where giving in to the inertia is what you need to do at the time; as in, it’s for the best, even if you don’t exactly know why.
Yes, indeed.
Thank you for the Buddha thought. I’ve come to believe that I can’t write in the evening after a glass of wine or two. (never more) Though I am a Buddhist in nature, I’ve forgotten I’m in charge of my mind.
Going back all the way to high school, I was interested in motivation. After the navy I smoked a lot and noticed other who smoked a lot were unmotivated. I cut down and eventually quit and studied read and listen to everything I could find and listen to on motivation; Napoleon Hill, Denis Waitley, Norman Vincent Peale, Stephen Covey, Tony Robbins and more than I need to list here. I started listening in the car and even at work. I had no problem listening at work or driving and keeping track of the topic or story line with nearly constant… Read more »
“In that last 20 years, I began reading books by location; work, living-room, bed room, office (both Kindle and books), waiting rooms and the car (audio books) usually about six.”
Meaning that you keep a book in each spot (waiting rooms?) and read whatever’s there at the time?
I always keep a paperback in the car for when I have an appointment; doctor, dentist, Papa Murphy’s. Sometimes the waits are short. The Rex Stout I’ve been reading has been there for a couple years, yet I can step into it with little or no back up.
So you’re like my friend above, in my first response to Torria: keep a different book in all of your reading spots, and then your choice of seating area dictates what you read. I like that. I guess I could do so in my apartment, but I can see all of my reading spots without even turning my head, so it’s not as interesting/intriguing. This is the same friend who, during a podcast episode, while talking about a specific book said that he “lost” it in his house. He has books everywhere, and a good-sized house. It’s been a long,… Read more »
The Owl’s Nest, our home used to be a barn, built in 1916, converted to a house in 1964, has 3000 square feet between two floors. We are not the most organized people so there’s some clutter, plus we have usually 60 cases of wine, some in wine racks some still in boxes, and of course 3000 books not all of which are on shelves. Losing books is not unheard of here.
It sounds like a place I would like to visit, especially with books scattered everywhere.
It would be great if we didn’t have a sick cat.
As were doing some remodeling. Finding and getting the house is a good story. I’ll have to send you an email with pictures.
I usually have about three books of different genres going at a time. I have been working through a very large biography of Einstein for awhile now. I can read two novels if they are very different. I could never keep track of two universes concurrently. While working a rewrite on a book this week I noticed being drawn to the “old novel”. Having written it many years ago during a very difficult uncoupling, I am drawn to it when struggling with a current project. It is my most dangerous block. If a new idea comes up during a project,… Read more »
“The task at pen”! I love that.
When you feel yourself drawn to the old novel, do you then pause what you’re doing and go work on the old novel? Or do you just take note of the feeling but continue what you’re doing?
It can be a combination of both. Last week I gave myself an hour to make some notes on the novel to get it out of my head. As I get closer to submitting my book I encounter more distraction demons. This time they will be vanquished!
So you think the interruption of your current project by thoughts about the old book are a subconscious means of distracting yourself? If that’s the case, do you know why your subconscious might be doing that? Maybe so long as both projects are moving forward, there’s no good/bad here, no demons.
As I have not submitted any writing in many years, I am suspicious and cautious about distractions. I have been working with strategies around fear and procrastination. Happily the projects are moving forward and creative ideas are flowing freely and abundantly. There is good artistic energy and support in Santa Fe, NM.
Last year we had a great discussion about our writing fears and how we maneuver around them; you might find some more good ideas/strategies in the comments section:
https://www.writebynight.net/abcs-of-writing/writing-fears/
Thank you, David, I will take a look. Enjoy your day. I am going to play in the snow.
I can read multiple novels at once and pick up within a few sentences of where I left off in the novel, well that is if the novel isn’t too complicated to follow. I also work on several projects at once. When I hit a roadblock or get frustrated with one project, I jump to another one and let that one rest for a day or so. This month, I’m editing short novel for a class, I’m working on a short story for a contest and a class. I’m taking another class on wounds from various implements like swords, guns… Read more »
“I’m taking another class on wounds from various implements like swords, guns from various ages, spears, trauma (like hit with a candle stick or the windscreen of car) and the treatments and most likely outcomes of each era.”
Umm, what?! What is the name of this class? Are you taking it for inspiration and plot details?
It is with RWA chapter HHR. they offer some good classes and this is from Shannon Donnelly. She is giving us the lowdown on what happens on scene with a trauma. I know how to treat them, the outcome, pain levels etc. but not the on the scene stuff, so I’m getting it from the actual person who would see it a medic. She writes historicals along with contemporary so I’ll get info from ancient to today. It’s all about learning and inquiring about things you don’t know and you might or do need to know. (ie did you know… Read more »
This class sounds both interesting and helpful. I love that it exists.
There have been cases where I had to put one down, read another through, and then go back to the first. Does that count? Anyway, going back to the first always takes a bit to remember the story, like putting it down for a long time and then trying to pick it back up again. I found that re-reading a few paragraphs was helpful. AS far as having more than one writing project going, I’ve done that. Sometimes it was writing a short story while working on one of my novels. More recently I’ve started working on the first book… Read more »
There’s an old tactic, attributed to, I think, Hemingway, though probably falsely, and how many commas can I cram into this damn sentence, where the writer ends each session in the middle of a sentence, believing that it’ll be easier the next day to get right back into the flow. Maybe it’s worth trying. What happens in April?
That’s when my 10-hour days at work end.
My default is serial book reading, but sometimes I’m in a situation where I’m reading a non-library book while waiting for a library book to become available. When the library book is then “automatically borrowed,” I step away from the other until I’ve finished the loan and can return. (Most recently, I interrupted Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year — thank you, Project Gutenberg! — to read Dos Passos’s The 42nd Parallel courtesy of my Brooklyn Public Library nonresident card, and then finished up the Defoe.) That being said, there are a few books that I read, on and off,… Read more »
What did you think of that Dos Passos? Will you read the next two? I think I tried to read it once, maybe in late high school or early college. I didn’t make it far. If memory serves, my response was, “What?”
I’ve got 1919 on waitlist. I enjoyed 42nd Parallel on several levels. Loved some of his turns of phrase, not just the lyricism (his opening made me think of Whitman) but his attention to detail, such that even banal and coarse events are given a kind of beauty (e.g., “His urine flowed bright yellow in the sun, disappearing at once into the porous loam of rotten leaves and wood”). Having grown up in Brooklyn, I could relate nostalgically to some of his detail despite the gap of decades — I’m old enough to remember some ancient hangers-on, like the guy… Read more »
Maybe I’ll try again. I’d *like* to think I’m a more mature and capable reader than I was then. If not a more mature and capable person…
To read only one book at a time was my New Year’s Resolution, and I’m mostly true to it so far, but I consider one book the “main course” and then I have my “side dishes.” So I read one and plan to finish it while I sample others. Maybe a dessert of a poem or two…
Re: writing, I am monogamous. I would never do one justice if I allowed myself to get too involved with another one. But when the “other one” comes calling, I do take notes and store them for later.
I love a New Year’s resolution about reading, especially if it’s the only you make.
I usually read only one thing at a time. With my writing, however, while I am waiting for my editor to finish my current project, “Like an Owl Among the Ruins”, I like to work on a short story for a contest, or my other book, “Nurses’ Notes”, just because I can’t stand to just wait and wait. I like to be writing something all the time.
Many writers I know will immediately begin a new project after finishing/submitting a previous one. Like, the next moment. I think that’s the best approach. If you finish, say, a story and then submit it for publication but don’t begin something else, then you might just end up sitting there for weeks waiting for — agonizing over — a response.
I seem to be limited to only two books at a time though I usually read only one. When I do read two, I usually read different genres though they can both be fiction if they are different (a mystery and general fiction). I can also write two different things at a time if I find I must research something or don’t have the information I need for something I’m working on. Since I am just starting out in the creative writing process and writing for myself, I find I can work on a writing exercise and do research for… Read more »
So far, so good. How’s everything going? Have you officially set up shop anywhere or are you still trying to figure out your next move(s)?
This thread made me think of Alice Sheldon (aka James Tiptree. Jr.). She had separate desks for each of her pseudonyms, each in a different part of the house, each decorated differently and equipped with different colors of paper because her different writing personas could not intermingle.
I’ve never heard this, but I love it. I’ll have to go read about it. I wouldn’t mind trying this approach. The desks would have to be stacked, though.
I think that around age 11 or so I followed King Azaz into the Royal Half-Bakery and never left…I’m a bit scattershot with reading; something in a book will grab my interest and I have to explore it, and I end up with five books half read, or half a book reread five times. If I feel disciplined I can usually begin, middle and end a book or a writing project, but when I’m reading for ghits and shiggles I take the path less beaten. I find that this creates odd juxtapositions that stimulate my creativity, for butter or wurst.
So you rarely finish the books you begin reading? This is fascinating. For so long I was the opposite — if I started a book I’d have to finish it, even if it was torture. I’ve backed off of it… a little.
Not “rarely”, but I sort of have to force myself to not get diverted. If something doesn’t grab me early on, I might abandon t for years…