How many stories do you have in draft?

[joeyjax]

I’m just curious because I’m starting to feel like a hoarder. I have eight stories in varying degrees of completeness currently and am about to add a ninth!

Part of me wants to just freakin’ finish one of them, but after going six months with zero visits by the muse, I’m afraid of losing any story ideas when the inspiration does come.

Hence eight stories in draft.

 

[NotWise]

I’m just curious because I’m starting to feel like a hoarder. I have eight stories in varying degrees of completeness currently and am about to add a ninth!

Part of me wants to just freakin’ finish one of them, but after going six months with zero visits by the muse, I’m afraid of losing any story ideas when the inspiration does come.

Hence eight stories in draft.

Aside from the one I'm finishing now, I have three in draft. One of those will probably never be finished, but I haven't deleted it yet.

 

[RelentlessOnanism]

I’m just curious because I’m starting to feel like a hoarder. I have eight stories in varying degrees of completeness currently and am about to add a ninth!

Part of me wants to just freakin’ finish one of them, but after going six months with zero visits by the muse, I’m afraid of losing any story ideas when the inspiration does come.

Hence eight stories in draft.

I have one that's pretty much done, but I can't upload it for boring technical reasons. A second one is about halfway completed. Then there are half a dozen or so other stories that I've begun, but they are no more than a few paragraphs each at the moment. None of them have reached 'launch velocity' yet.

 

[TxRad]

Somewhere between two and three hundred is probably a conservative guess. I quit counting a long while back.

I counted: 339

 

[SimonDoom]

I have about thirty stories at various draft stages -- some barely begun, and some nearly finished. I'm hopelessly undisciplined about writing, I guess. I don't really sweat it, though. I'm not earning any money or fame from any of this and the process of writing is as fun as, or perhaps even more fun than, getting a story done.

 

[joeyjax]

Somewhere between two and three hundred is probably a conservative guess. I quit counting a long while back.

I counted: 339

Wait, WHAT?! :-D


Okay, maybe I’m not a hoarder then, or just not a very good one yet.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

Five or six that are actually started. I have another file with over 100 concepts that are little more than a sentence, a paragraph, or a.brief outline.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I'm down to three, and only one is at the point of a coherent opening scene. I've actually done pretty well lately on the backlog. The three stories I've had posted since late February were in deep vagueness for a while, and then became finishable.

 

[litfan10]

A two drawer file cabinet full.

Okay, I'm old school and back up everything I write with hard copies.

 

[ElectricBlue]

One work in progress with 9k written and counting, two parked up with 4k and 8k written, which is not like me at all. My two side projects overtook my "main" project a while back and I've broken my cardinal rule of no more than two on the go at any one time.

 

[jehoram]

Three, of which two are actually stories that will be out when I'm satisfied with them, and another one that I've pretty much given up on until further inspiration strikes and I know where I'm gonna steer it.

 

[oggbashan]

I dumped a lot as oggbashan stew 1 - 4.

But, like TxRad the remainder is over 300. I am currently writing five. The others are waiting...

 

[TxRad]

Wait, WHAT?! :-D


Okay, maybe I’m not a hoarder then, or just not a very good one yet.

I've been doing this for about 20 years now and have 256 stories published here on Lit and another 14 published in the mainstream and another 9 awaiting publishing.

A lot of what I have on draft are between 1k and 5k. My Lit writing is my fun writing now. The mainstream doesn't pay all the bills but it does double my income most months. And do not let anyone kid you, Mainstream writing is a J.O.B.

Not to mention my other hobbies that are more business than anything. Retirement is not boring in the least.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Ummm...

*counts*

Eighty-four...

 

[KeithD]

One novella and three anthologies--all because they are in publishing process, though, and have to wait their turn for the next step in the process.

 

[Voboy]

Wow. I think (hope!) I'm defining "draft" differently than some of you are. I define it as unfinished work I intend to finish one day.

I've got about eleven unfinished pieces, but I don't call them "drafts" because I don't intend to ever get back to them. Then, like Keith, I've got finished (but unpublished) work in the pipeline. I don't count those either, since I'm not touching them again.

My answer is zero. Old business before new. I finished one last night and plan to start my next one, oh, whenever.

 

[SamScribble]

One.

 

[oggbashan]

Wow. I think (hope!) I'm defining "draft" differently than some of you are. I define it as unfinished work I intend to finish one day.

...

My definition is the same. The drafts I put in oggbashan stew 1 -4 were the shorter pieces.

PS: And about 20 as jeanne_d_artois.

 

[Ian_Snow]

I generally tend to have about ten short story collections going on at any given time for self-pubbing on Amazon, largely dictated by premade covers I stumble across that I like and am inspired by. I've generally got about three or four other short stories I'll work on at a time, stuff that doesn't really have a place in a collection. I made the decision a month or two ago to start putting those out in the world in one shape or another, which led me to try releasing a few here.

I used to try and work on one collection at a time, but it's easy to burn out on certain types of stories that way, so now I work on whatever's driving me the most at the moment, or whatever seems to be selling for me. For example, people seem to be hot on a threesome collection I put out a few months ago, so I'm working on a follow-up to that. Gotta strike while that iron's hot, but I allow myself plenty of time to work on other things to keep me from going mentally stir-crazy.

 

[KeithD]

As far as stories for here (which generally don't appear here until a year after I've written them except for contest stories), I have some on a status list with a minimal reference to what they are, but once I start drafting them, that's it. They get written within the week. Sometimes I'm working on two at a time, but I don't do a bit of writing and then put them on the shelf for any length of time. And I don't give up on stories either. Once I start writing, they're all written--all of them--and they all get published too. I don't have a "not finished" holding file anywhere.

 

[oggbashan]

... I don't have a "not finished" holding file anywhere.

I have one for every year since 2002 and subdivided for specific contests and general. I have about 40 Earth Day drafts for a contest that no longer exists.

There were more but I have repurposed them for other contests.

PS: There are more words in my unfinished drafts collection that the total of all my published works.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Two or three essentially finished and awaiting final polishing before submission in upcoming contests. Two more needing a final scene and then editing and polishing before submission at some time in the near future. Maybe a dozen with a good start, ones I am confident will turn out creditably eventually. Plus a couple of dozen which might or might not go anywhere. Plus a plot-bunny file with one or two-line ideas.

A ga-bunch, in other words. Not so many as some, but still bunchly.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I’m just curious because I’m starting to feel like a hoarder. I have eight stories in varying degrees of completeness currently and am about to add a ninth!

Part of me wants to just freakin’ finish one of them, but after going six months with zero visits by the muse, I’m afraid of losing any story ideas when the inspiration does come.

Hence eight stories in draft.

For Lit U have 5 with some degree of words to each. If you could the ones that encompass the story arcs for the existing series and the the 3 side series, a lot.

Par of that is my habit of bouncing from one store to another, letting my hind brain work out scenes for say Penal Slavery 6, while writing Office Servitude, and then bouncing to my SF novel. If i count the SF I probably have 8 going on total

 

[_Lynn_]

Not as many as Tx, but far more than I should have. Many I'll probably never even open again. Some I like enough to finish one day . . . I hope.

 

[oggbashan]

Not as many as Tx, but far more than I should have. Many I'll probably never even open again. Some I like enough to finish one day . . . I hope.

I tend to open every one every couple of months just in case I feel inspired to finish one.

About half my output in 2019 was from previously stalled drafts.