A recent blog post had me working on four books at one time. Let me grant it is an absurd number, but circumstances have given me little choice. As my twin sister, Emily Leider, herself an accomplished writer, asks, “As you work on four books at the same time, how do you keep their plots and voices from meshing?” Well she should ask.
Of course I do not work on these books with each change of every hour. I may work on one book for a week or two, then move on to the next as need and deadlines pull me, push me.
There is one aspect of this that I think is extremely productive. This way of working requires me to put aside one book (Book A) and turn to another (Book B). This can mean a break of a few weeks before returning to Book C. It is the stepping away and coming back that is so very productive. Mind, the books are very different one from the other. The jolt of coming back to a text allows me to see what I have done with greater clarity.
I don’t suggest working on four books. Don’t do it. But, I think it is a good idea to work on two projects, as long as they are very different one from the other. Distance helps. Time away helps. Absence makes the text grow, if not fonder, surely better.
2 thoughts on “More than one book at a time”
AVI: Good advice. Even with anthology I find it interesting to work on more than one at a time, mostly the same reasons you cite when writing a novel. I might work on a collection for very young children and one for a YA group sometimes on the same day. It all helps to keep balance. By the way, I’m glad you enjoyed the ‘surprise hug’ from Natasha Wing. Love-ness .… Lee
I frequently have more than one book going, but at different stages. Right now I am writing a first draft of a middlegrade novel set in the Civil War in New Mexico. I’ve got a contemporary mg novel that’s about Valentine’s Day that will come out in January: it still needs a cover and a final clean up of typos. A third book, a YA dual narrative, is on hold until next fall because it retells the story of Beowulf, and Beowulf is coming to TV next fall. It’s done, but I still have to work on a marketing plan. Of course, my deadlines are more fluid since I self pub. You’ve been a major inspiration to me over the years, Avi. My boys swallowed your novels whole. I hope someday to have fans as devoted to me as they were to you.