¶ Managing Multiple Writing Projects
Hi friends , I'm Beth McMullen and I'm Lisa Schmid and we're the co-hosts of Writers with Wrinkles . This is season three , episode 34 . And today we're answering your questions . Quick note about how to submit you can visit our website for the link . You can actually text from the podcast notes . You could yell really loudly from wherever you are .
I mean , not really . Anyway , we will put all of this in the podcast notes , so if you have a question you can very easily send it our way . So we have a good one for today .
This is a good one . I love seeing the questions that are coming through . It's making me very happy .
You know , and it also makes me feel less like lonely in the writing universe . I know that it's like a , of course , a very solitary thing , but when you see that other people are thinking the same stuff that you're thinking , you're like , oh so I'm not alone . So this is kind of our public service to help you guys feel less alone .
All right , let us jump into this question . I'm not going to use the name because I don't know if we were supposed to , so I'll just read you the question . I love your podcast . You always inspire me to keep trying , so thanks . Well , thank you too , right back at you .
My question is I have so many dang ideas , mostly picture book , but also novels , short stories and movie ideas . I've queried several picture books , but I'm currently working on a novel . It's really hard to stay on one project or idea , but it feels like I should focus on one thing at a time . How do you handle this if you experience it ?
This is such a good question .
It is a good question and I know that we are going to have two very different answers .
We always we're like totally on opposite ends of the continuum with everything . It's good , though . It gives listeners a chance to hear a wide variety of answers .
We're like cats and dogs . We're like our unsold picture book that we never got really any rejections on except for one . I don't know why I'm throwing this in there . It just came up .
I know because you're feeling a certain level of bitterness about the picture book . So am I . I feel like it was actually pretty good . Anyway , what do you think about this question ? We're like cats and dogs .
That's my whole point . We're very different . You know what's so funny ? This is another thing I just thought of the other day . So the name of our book , our picture book , was cat's rule , and somewhere in like our saved documents I had like another working title and I'm like why didn't we use that ? I'm sure this would have sold .
So the other one we had was cats rule , dogs drool .
Okay , the next time we send it out , that's what we're going to use , cause it's funny and they do dogs do drool . I mean , it happens , it's like a real thing .
So anyway , yeah , yeah that's my , that was , that was the section of the podcast that we call Lisa's random thoughts , where you get a chance to peek inside her head and that's what she's thinking about . But she's always on task , right ? You're always thinking about publishing and writing related stuff , so it all connects True story .
So do you want to answer the question first ?
No , I'm sitting here patiently waiting for you to answer the question , okay . You get to go first today , because I read the question and then you go first .
So I'm one of those people . I'm not like focused on a million different projects . If I have one voice in my head , I'm . I want to get that story out , I want to focus on it , I want to get it done because I want to move on from it , and I also want to have something out in the world that's making the rounds .
I mean , if you just if you're hopping from story to story and you're not accomplishing anything , you're really not moving forward in any real direction towards publishing . And so to me it's I want to finish that story , stay on task and then move on to the next thing .
And so , for example , my my agent had said back some notes on a on my chapter book that's out on submission right now for the second one , and I'm working on my middle grade , and I never even looked at the notes because I'm like you know what ? I'm working on my middle grade , that voice isn't in my brain .
I need to finish this first , and if my chapter book sells and I'll go back and then I'll start working on that . So I think it's really important to stay on task , finish a project and you know something that's going out in the world , whether it's to your beta readers . It's you know , it's all about moving forward .
So that's my response Stay on task with one story . All right , that's a good one .
I think , first thing , like congratulations to the person asking the question for having lots of ideas . A lot of people are desperate for one good idea , and it sounds like you have many , so awesome , right ? That's just an amazing thing to have to not feel like you're floating around thinking I don't even know what I'm supposed to be writing about .
But I think I agree wholeheartedly with what Lisa said , which is that you have to finish something . You've got nowhere to go unless you finish something , and if working on multiple projects is stopping you from finishing , then you need to rein it in and focus . On the other hand , you might be that person who's completely able to multitask on projects .
My personal experience is that this is how it always goes , and I finally just accepted that this is the way it's going to go . So I finished something , something's done .
Now it's like I've written it , I've edited it , it's about as good as I think I'm going to get it , and it's either a book under contract that I now need to send off or a new something that I'm going to send out to publishers . So those are the two directions that it's going to go . So I've gotten it to that point . It's moving off my plate .
Now , what am I going to do next ? And I always have , like you , three or four ideas that are bouncing around in my head and inevitably I have started one or two of them in the past at some point , even if it's just like 20 pages or some outline notes or something , and I'm a hundred percent sure that it's going to be project day .
So I start working on project day diligently , like back in , doing my thing , whatever , and then at some point I'm like but actually what I really want to do is project B . I don't really want to work on project A . So then project A goes to the back of the line . I start working on project B . Some more time goes by .
Oh , actually project A was really the thing that I wanted to do . So I go back and at some point , whichever one it is sticks and that's the one I'm going full forward on . But the problem is that I don't know in the moment which one is going to work .
So I think my advice to our listener is to make sure that you've got something done that's out there . If your intent is to publish , you've got something that you're shopping , at whatever level it is that you're shopping . If you're self-publishing , you've got something that you're shopping , at whatever level it is that you're shopping .
If you're self-publishing , you've got something in the pipeline that's getting ready to go out and you're prepping for that . But also , I think some of it is the project choosing you .
You may be sticking your toes in the water three or four different things and then suddenly you're like yep , that's the one , and then off you are to the races , and the thing is that I repeat this process every single time .
So I think it's like I'm trying to get my head out of the project that I've gotten gotten done with trying to get it into the new space , and and that process is that I'm kind of mucking around in all these different projects before the one that's going to stick actually chooses me , and then off we go . Does that make any sense ?
Totally makes sense . And you're , you're lucky , and it sounds like this listener is lucky too , because you always have several ideas , you know , gliding around in your brain , and it sounds like he does too . And I don't . I'm not like that , you know , I'm very it's .
I I struggle to find the next story idea , but once I find the next story idea , I go with it Like I'm fully committed , even though I'm like , oh , is this ? You know me , is this working ? And like I've been through all that with this middle grade I'm working on right now .
I stuck with it because it's like you know what I'm working on right now , but I stuck with it because it's like you know what I'm already in . I've already started writing it . Well , that's true .
I never have to ask you , hey , what are you working on ? Because I know , because you chose it and that's what you're working on , and you'll be working on that until you say I'm done with that . And there'll be this long period of time when you're like not doing anything and then you have your idea and then you're back in the shoot .
I think that feels a lot more sane to me , that it feels linear , where what I'm doing feels like just a jumbly mess most of the time . The other thing that this listener noted that I think is worth talking about is that he is working in different genres of books and he's also working on screenplays .
So , in addition to jumping from picture books to novels , he's also jumping to screenplays , which all require different skills . So one concern I would have would be making sure that your skill level is up to snuff in all of those .
So maybe you are a more talented novel writer , so maybe that's the project that you're thinking to yourself okay , this is the one that I'm going to prep and get ready to send out into the world in whatever way that you're choosing to do that .
And maybe the screenplay that you're working on in the background is something that you're thinking okay , I'm just honing my craft in this , I'm working to get better at this .
Maybe you don't have massive aspirations for it yet , so that's another way that you could approach it , like something that is at the top , where you're like this is the one that I'm trying to get out in the world and make a book deal , whatever .
This is the thing where I'm like I know this is sort of like training myself , so I'm going to work on this kind of in the background . So I mean , it's good that the listener is conceiving of ideas through these different ways of presenting them . I think that's really interesting .
But I would be careful about just not diluting your skill set so that you're not hitting kind of those high marks in all of it , because for anything to get out into the world , it needs to be as perfect as it can be , like there's no opportunity for stuff that just doesn't feel quite done .
Yeah , that's some really
¶ Support and Accountability in Writing
good advice , beth .
McMillan , sometimes I have a thought that's worth sharing .
You're like a smarty pants today . No , that's , that is really good advice . And I was thinking , would that apply to me ? And it's like no , because I'm so in track . I'm like , can I work with that ?
every time I'm trying to talk Lisa into writing a cozy mystery Cause I think she would be so good at it , but she's got a one track mind and I'm not doing a good job convincing her .
I know I you know what I love , love , love cozy mysteries . But I just , I'm just trying to think how my little middle grade brain , my little nine-year-old brain , would translate into a cozy mystery . Somebody would be like who is this kid solving this mystery in the little town of you know wherever .
Okay , okay , okay , I know when I'm beat . Call it a day , collect my toys and go home .
Someday . I just need to finish this one . I'm at that . You know , at that point I was at with Heart and Souls when we went to Tahoe Again , I digress , I'm sorry listeners and that's where I was at , where I kind of got stuck for a while in the mushy middle . And now I'm finally .
I can see like daylight at the end of this long , horrifying , scary tunnel , with lots of plot holes jumping out at me and screaming at me and yelling boo and like that moment where you were like , oh wow , this doesn't fit together .
No , I've had a million of them .
I and it's I posted this on Twitter . I actually have been waking up in the middle of the night like realizing , like oh , that doesn't work , and so I've had a note . You know , I have my notepad next to me and I wrote these just random notes and I have no . I like I looked at them the next morning and I have no idea what they meant .
And like some , and someplace on the notes there was like I'd written duck with like an exclamation point , and I'm like no , you know what you meant to write a different word , which we won't say because we want to keep RPG reading .
You just misspelled it in the night .
It's just like ducks in this story , was I telling you .
Well , maybe they're supposed to be . Maybe it's the writing gods telling you to put a duck in your story .
Okay , just for amusement's sake , I wrote one into the next chapter because I'm like like , clearly the gods are telling me to write a duck into this story .
You were influenced by the sleeping version of yourself it has no purpose .
It literally just waddles through the yard .
Ducks are cute I think a waddling duck is just perfectly okay . It cracks me up so we have one more thing . We were talking about something that we wanted to just throw out at you , and it's come up a bunch of times in a bunch of ways . We're not going to attribute it to a single question , because it's come from a variety of places .
Do you want to go ahead and talk about this ?
Hi , you know , it's one of those things that I we've had listeners write in a little note about it and then I've I've had lunch with you , know different authors that have expressed this frustration to me .
You and I have both experienced this and it doesn't feel good , but it's that whole concept of don't pull the ladder up after you've climbed it , and what I mean by that is you will see writers and authors that will you know , you're friends with or you've helped along the way , and then now they made it and they're like in a different zone than you are and
they've they've reached a success level that's maybe perhaps higher than you , and then they glom on to other people or attach themselves to more successful authors and kind of leave you in the dust . And I had lunch with some friends the other day and somebody she was expressing something very similar to this and don't do that . Be that author Like you .
Know , if you're working your way up and I'm sure you know this is a community that really lifts you know , that's always like lifting people up , like you I'm .
We're all about lifting other people up and trying to help other people to succeed , and so when you get to that point , don't forget those people that helped you because they maybe could still use a hand , you know , and so it's . It's one of those things . You see it , you hear about it and it doesn't feel good when it happens to you .
And you know , I had a friend the other day . I was like , oh , this doesn't feel good when she was telling me about it .
So just don't be that person when she was telling me about it . So just don't be that person . No , it's not a zero sum game . Somebody else's success does not negate your potential success . And I hate , I hate to see examples of this publishing universe working that way because it does none of us any good .
Universe working that way because it does none of us any good . So , in addition to just not feeling good , we only get better by learning from each other , and there's lots of opportunity to engage with other writers in a positive way that helps them get where they're going , gets you smarter , all of those things .
So , yes , be a positive influence in the universe .
It's not even just . I think it's just .
It's like in middle school or in high school , when you're you all of a sudden you find yourself in the popular group , like all the popular kids are hanging out with the cool kids , and you're , you know , if you're that jerk , that's like , yeah , I don't want to hang out with these people anymore because they're not cool enough for me .
That's the thing that makes me crazy .
It's like yeah , and you do unfortunately see it .
Like you do , and it's just , you know , just sit there and go . They used to hang out with me . Now they don't , doesn't feel good . So just you know what , keep that in mind .
It's good when you reach the point where you're hanging out with the cool kids and I'm using air quotes because I think we're all cool , but don't forget about those , you know , those uncool . Again , I'm using air quotes kids that you used to hang out with because they still , you know , they still want to hang out with you . That's is that .
That's a good analogy . That's my middle school analogy .
That is a good analogy from a middle grade writer who knows middle school very , very well . I do so . That's our spiel , that's our plea to people out there , to you know , let's all be the best versions of ourselves that we can .
I should put that on a t-shirt . Be the cool kid in the cool kid group .
Right , right , absolutely . So , everybody , I hope that you've all bought Lisa's new book , heart and Souls , which is out now and available all over the place . So wherever you buy books , request it at your library , do all of those things , because it is really good and funny and I like it and I want you guys to read it .
One other thing I'm doing this accountability group . If you are stuck in the middle of a manuscript , struggling with a new idea , or many ideas lost in the wilderness of revisions , all of those things that make our hearts race , join my sub stack totally free and you will see all the details there .
I think this could be a really fun way to help each other over the finish line . So take a look for that Anything else you want to add Lisa ?
Well , I just want to speak from experience , like having you as an accountability partner is thrilling and terrifying all at the same time , and so you are that person .
I was that duck in your dream . I showed up and I was like Lisa , come on , let's go . I know I'm dressed as a duck , this is your dream , but let's get moving .
Right , it's so scary because that's how you're going to come to me in my dream tonight , like it's a big giant . I know it's going to come as a duck . And you know what I'm going to say when I see you in my dream yes , I do . Yeah , no , you are a good accountability partner and you always have good tips and tricks , and believe it or not .
Even when I'm not writing , I'm thinking what would Beth do ? What would Beth do ?
Oh God , that's scary . You're hearing my voice in your head .
Not good .
Well , now that you're a duck , quack , quack , quack , quack , quack you're going to have to translate from duck to human . Oh , complicated , wow . All right , so that is it for today's crazy episode .
Listeners , please remember to visit our website and find out how to support the show by subscribing , following and recommending , and please look for the ways to submit your questions , because we do love these questions . They're fun . We are back with episode 35 on September 30th and we're talking to literary agent Kathy Armstrong , who is at Marsal Lion .
And we're talking to literary agent Kathy Armstrong , who is at Marsal Lion , so if you want to know what agents are thinking about and talking about , please join us for that one . These are always super interesting conversations and I always come away knowing things I didn't know before . So until then , happy reading , writing and listening .
Bye , lisa Beth , bye guys .