Is too many "in progress" stories detrimental to writing well?

[MrStill]

I'll add my unfinished pile of about 40 story ideas in various stages of completion to the pile of unfinished stories here.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

As far as the storage thing goes; I've had one hd crash and it was a Seagate. I have one thumbdrive that might get some connectivity problems, but that might depend on the laptop. I've had Word fuck up three files on OneDrive, and I still thank, I think RejectReality for trying to fix the last one. That's why my stories have multiple saves, to clouds; Google, OneDrive, Drop Box, physical; phones SD, computers HD, portable HD and thumbdrive.

Now the backlog. I've learned it's fairly common for writers to have several WIPs, or started works, or unfinished works. What I'm finding slightly works is that I started writing layouts instead of just full stories. Maybe it's a placebo, but because they aren't actual stories being built up anymore, it doesn't feel like I'm racking up unfinished stories—if that makes sense. I can just work on those layouts and edit it I need, once they're done, I can just write the story without much thought until it's done. If I have writers block, it's mostly at that planning stage and not during the actual writing.

 

[KindredFlame]

I love having several,projects on the go,at the same time. At the moment I have five storylines going and just looking into an Australian farm story, so I guess that makes six. I do get bored very quickly so trying to stick on one storyline gets tedious and more like work than fun.

 

[SkyBubble]

Actively in progrss, as in you're working on it, or just a few words to remind you of an idea you had?

 

[DeMont]

I love having several,projects on the go,at the same time. At the moment I have five storylines going and just looking into an Australian farm story, so I guess that makes six. I do get bored very quickly so trying to stick on one storyline gets tedious and more like work than fun.

@KindredFlame,
Good evening my dear colleague, did I hear you say Australian Farm story?
Just don't forget that men are "blokes", friends are "cobbers", they like to spend more time down "th' pub" than anywhere else, sheep are "woolies", "drop bears" and "yowies" don't exist and, for the record, a real tidy looking girl is "a real grouse sheila".

P.S. Australian male foreplay is poking the missus in the ribs and saying, "fancy a cuppa luv?"
Ooroo, respectfully,
D.

 

[Alice_Angel]

IDK if you're doing it wrong but if you are, so am I.

At one point I actually made a spreadsheet with information about the stories on them so that I could keep track because I kept using ideas from one story in the wrong stories....

That actually really helped me clarify things though. After that I knew the nature of Story A is A, so anything that best contributes to that goes in A, the nature of Story B is B, so anything that best contributes to B goes there, and so on. I had a lot of stuff to sort out but it helped.

Speaking for myself, possibly. I think it can be difficult to move back and forth with multiple stories, something I've done at times, and then reestablish continuity with one after a hiatus. I have a very long unfinished story list.

This is something I'm dealing with as well. So many story ideas so little time to write, plus I'm just so ADD. I can be in the middle of working on a particular chapter of a story and have an idea for another part of the same chapter or a different chapter, or a totally different story. What's worse is that I have so many incomplete chapters of various stories and different versions of some of the same stories/chapters. Even if it's something I worked on recently it can be hard to remember where I was at/where I was going with it/recapture the mood I was in. And yet when I have an idea, even for something totally different I have to write it down immediately because I swear I have Alzheimer's as well, I can literally lose track of what I was thinking mid thought. Then I have a really hard time remembering the thought.

 

[KindredFlame]

@KindredFlame,
Good evening my dear colleague, did I hear you say Australian Farm story?
Just don't forget that men are "blokes", friends are "cobbers", they like to spend more time down "th' pub" than anywhere else, sheep are "woolies", "drop bears" and "yowies" don't exist and, for the record, a real tidy looking girl is "a real grouse sheila".

P.S. Australian male foreplay is poking the missus in the ribs and saying, "fancy a cuppa luv?"
Ooroo, respectfully,
D.

Yes just working out the details. At the moment I have the owner of a 2000 acre cattle farm (I think that’s what he said) he has several cattle hands who live on site (not sure if they are all male or not) he has a lady account who visits regularly and he is bedding as she stays over. And that’s about all I have at the moment.

 

[KindredFlame]

The latest is in the getting the information stage but one is almost finished at 5672 words the next one about a firefighter is only 1170 words but I have notes that go,with it of another 2691 words third is at 2752 words but needs a bit of a rework as the (client) thinks it a little too dark. Along standing one that is bugging me at the moment as it has stalled is at 3768 words but my favourite that the introduction part is pending publication is segments that need to be knitted together but stands at 5973 words excluding the part that is posted and awaiting review.

So that’s 7 not 6

 

[KindredFlame]

Dam I just realised I have just started another one in planing stage about young college student becoming a web girl who dad finds first and becomes a sugar daddy wife finds out and joins in controlling their daughter work in in progress makes 8

 

[Alice_Angel]

So, Hi - I'm new here!

I'm not new to forums and used to own/run/moderate several back in "the day" before Facebook took over everything and yes that does date me very well I think. Anyway my point of adding that was, if I've put this in the wrong place please move it or remove it, I'll understand.

So after lurking, replying to some topics I finally decided which one of my million questions about story writing I'd like to ask first, sparked in part because this morning we had an unplanned internet outtage - and after losing large chunks of stories twice in the past due to hard drive failures I now keep my stories in the cloud. This meant I was limited to stories I have specifically set as "offline" unfortunately it seems though I have been doing SO well in sticking to writing on one story in particular I forgot to set offline on this one.

After fumbling with the modem, searching for network status at my location and finding out it was a wider problem than just my end (I had hoped it was just the modem in need of a restart), I made a cup of coffee, watched various family members do whatever things they found to temporarily amuse themselves in this highly internet dependant house we have and contemplated what I might write.

I currently didn't have any new ideas banging around in my head insisting I get them down on paper so they will at least give me some peace and quiet, I can't blame the stories for wanting this - after all its quite a noisy place in my head, even I'm not sure how to live with that!

So I turned to a story idea I had recently written a few short paragraphs down on, a story (book / novel ?) intended to be one of ten in series two of the one I have reliably been working on for a few months now (also one out of a set of ten stories). And contently played around with fleshing the idea out some more until finally the internet was back.

But it begs the question I am asking now, as I've wondered myself for quite some time.

Is too many "in progress" stories detrimental to writing well?

By this I mean, I have around 40 stories, they all share similar themes the main of which is romance with somewhat explicit scenes, however they also feature a range of other subjects/styles from non-con, werewolves, shapeshifters, dragon/human, stockholm type syndrome, kidnapping, Indians, civil war, you probably get the idea now.

I'm interested to know if other writers generally have several in progress stories at a time, do you have them in progress but only actively write on one at a time, or do you mix it up? Do you find that if you write on more than one it leads to those stories having a similar "flavour" - ie MFC in both has much the same characteristics?

Am I doing it wrong to have so many in progress stories, or is this normal?

To be fair to myself I've been writing for over twenty years now, with a big gap in the middle due to loss of progress on stories and then life events leaving me with no inspiration to write the fun or happy scenes, but also perhaps from lack of time. I have recently given up a time consuming and costly hobby and decided to see if I could pick my writing back up and I have, just a little too well in regards to the number of stories I am writing.

In the year or so since picking writing back up I have possibly started 15 stories in some way or another, though the last 6 months I have been focused almost entirely on an idea for a series that came to me, and mostly particularly one book in that, the third in a set of ten although each would be/are written in a way as to stand alone (with the first and second only partially done, I'd attempt to explain why I'm at this book instead of the first I started with but I fear I have already written way too much at this point).

Anyway if you've read this far and have something to say on the subject please do!

Had a bit of a 'loss of progress' on one of my stories at one point. The chapter I was working on was saved on my computer when I became homeless and had to put my computer in storage. For a long time I wanted to work on that chapter since I had already shared the first chapter and wanted to finish and share the next, but I didn't have a way to access it. And even as the original author I couldn't recreate the chapter as I had originally written it, and just knew if I attempted to rewrite it it just wouldn't be the same, it would be missing something. Finally got a chance to hook my PC up long enough to copy the story so I would have access to it again and I was glad I waited. I just know it wouldn't have hit the same if I'd tried to recreate it, it would've been flatter somehow, less spicy.

I'm super ADD, so I have all kinds of works 'in progress' but sometimes I find it impossible not to have multiple works going when I have multiple ideas for how things could go. I've had numerous ideas for a particular pair of my characters and how their first time might go. One version is more non con/reluctant, one version is more romantic/conscentual, etc. I didn't necessarily want to change what I already wrote, I just want to write the new version, even if I never go back and finish the other(s)

 

[avabacchus]

I usually have 2 or 3 going at once. Right now I have 4. I find they kind of act as a palate-cleanser. It can be frustrating to work on the same thing all the time, especially if it's dark in any way.