A recent problem I’ve had while writing is working on more than one mauscript at a time. Some of you may know that I write in multiple genres. I do fantasy, contemporary, paranormal, erotic, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum. (Prolly spelled all those fancy words wrong too).

Anyway, the problem is when I’m writing multiple works in multiple genres. You tell me how easy it would be to write a sweet chick lit fantasy and switching to a dark paranormal then to an erotic holidy story. It all gets very confusing. Which point of view am I in? First or third? Am I writing dirty, naughty, graphic sex or using euphemisms? Is my heroine tortured or sassy? Would she say/think/do this or is that my other heroine? Do his insecurities play a part here, is he tortured and bitter or shy and reserved? Wait, which book am I in again?

It’s a balancing act, one where you have to constantly assess what you’re writing to make sure you keep your characters and plot and story consistent. Not sure yet if I’ve pulled it off or mucked it up. We’ll see when I submit the stories.

So how do you do it? Do you ever write more than one book at a time? If so, how to you maintain consistency? What’s your strategy? Give me some tips!

4 Responses to “Keeping it all straight”

1. Amie Stuart Says:
   October 30th, 2006 at 10:32 pm

   Crystal I have learned thorugh trial and error that I absolutely canNOT multi-task the WIP’s

2. Jen Says:
   October 30th, 2006 at 11:32 pm

   OMG, this just happened to me!! I wrote that erotic short for WRP and went back to my fantasy. My characters wanted to have sex and forgot what heat level I was doing!
   Perhaps I have to take it on wip at a time.
   Nah.

3. Sara Dennis Says:
   October 31st, 2006 at 12:54 am

   I can write on more than one project at a time, but it’s tricky. When I’m doing that, I tend to go in five page chunks. That’s not so long that I can’t read back if I need to, and not so short that I stop before I’ve run out of ideas.

4. Lyric Says:
   October 31st, 2006 at 4:51 am

   I try not to work on no more than 2 at a time. And I’ll ususally go back and forth - one day I’ll work on this one…the next day, work on the other one. That way, my brain doesn’t fizzle out. LOL