Hi WriteByNighters,
Lately I've been losing steam on the memoir I'm working on.
(I seem to have trouble calling it "my memoir," and so it becomes "the memoir I'm working on." I should explore this.)
And when I lose steam on the memoir I'm working on, that means I lose steam overall as a writer. Because I have no other project.
There's this guy, a copywriter, I hang out with at our local dog run who is also writing a memoir ("the memoir he's working on"), but he told me he needs to set it aside because he's been assigned to write a white paper.
"I only have enough headspace for one writing project at a time," he told me.
He's a one-track writer. So am I.
On the other hand, there are those writers who can juggle
multiple writing projects at once.
You know, the ones who say, "I'm working on a novel and a memoir and a story collection and another memoir and another story collection. And a fantasy
trilogy."
Those writers work best when they're able to operate based on feel and mood: If they try to work on the memoir but can't get into a rhythm, they can switch over to the novel or a
story.
Because I have only the one project, when I can't get into a rhythm I don't write at all.
Which one are you, and why?
If you're a juggler, how do you avoid your projects bleeding into one another? If you're a one-tracker, what goes wrong when you try to work on more than one project at once?
Let us know in the comments. Or reply to this email if you're shy.
