Originally I promised myself that I would write one, and ONLY one, story at a time. Well, anyone who's been on this site long enough probably knows how long an author can keep to that commitment *chuckles*. So now, I'm currently writing three.

Right now I'd just like to get these stories accomplished so I can work on future projects I have in mind, but I'm curious what method everyone else has found that works best for them as far as updating goes? Would you advise that I choose one story, complete it, and then move onto the next? Or should I rotate through all three stories and write only one chapter weekly?

Thanks so much!

I'd just move between them whenever you feel one's getting stale.

I've had one story in each fandom plus a crossover going for ages. I've now finished the crossover and am feeling ever so slightly lost.

Oh my gods, only three? I should be so lucky. ;) I have 11 going simultaneously in various stages of WIP. While it might be frustrating to my readers, I can only write in the one that is currently holding my attention sufficiently for the next chapter or two to come out. Sometimes that's a couple of them at once, but since I have so many going, special care has to be taken to avoid bleeding across character lines (and fandom lines, for that matter - that's 11 spread out over 3 fandoms).

So when my attention is focused, I don't necessarily ignore the others. I take notes, essentially. I'll jot down the basic outline for the next chapter of the other fics that are languishing, or further ahead if necessary, just to keep those little sparks of ideas in mind for when I'm fully in the mood for that particular fic. I'm very flighty, mood-wise, so for me, having tons of fics going is doable. I just take loads of notes. :)

And yes, I have completed fics. I have 4 completes, and a couple of the WIPs are getting close. I'm just highly susceptible to shiny objects. And plot bunnies. ;)

LOL! I just started my third one while still working on two other ones even though I had told myself that I needed to finish the two first before starting another one. I was writing on one with another writer and got a little frustrated at the amount of time it took after completing my sections of a story for her to get back to me so I started the second one to keep me occupied. The other writer then pulled out of the story which left me to write on both at the same time. I will then write on what ever story that is speaking to me at the time. And yes reviews do tend to affect which characters are the loudest in my head. :D This week though I just couldn't get a story plot out of my head so I went ahead and wrote the initial scene for the new story though I am insistent that I will NOT post ANY until both stories are completed.

For yourself, just write on what ever story that you want to at the time and the readers will understand if your other story takes precedence from time to time.

You really have to choose what works for you. For me, I'm at a low point now and only have three WIP's I'm currently posting. I have two that I've set an update schedule of once per week, so I flip back and forth between them. I have a few others I'm not yet posting, and I work on those when I get ideas.

I have to have that schedule, or I would NEVER finish anything. My readers expect me to post on a regular schedule, and I once had a reviewer tell me how much she loved Thursdays because that was when I updated. I haven't got any of the stories finished that I'm writing on my own, but of those I've posted, I've finished nine of twelve.

When fresh ideas come at me for new stories, I'll jot down a page of notes, and save it for later. I've got a lot of stories simmering on the back burner, and one I'm writing now is one of those ideas I didn't have time for several months ago.

Those are some terrific ideas; thank you, everyone! As many of you mentioned, I think I really need to get more organized with when I update and also should begin taking more notes. I loved Corinne Tate's idea of taking notes for story ideas I have in mind, but not to begin them until completing my currently running fics (or at least, it should certainly help my sanity, hehe). It might also be great to just take notes in general, even for my currently-running fics (I'm not a very big planner *sheepish grin*).

But yes, thank you. I really appreciated everyone's suggestions, and I'll try out different methods and see what works best for me. It was greatly encouraging to hear that I'm not the only author to have several stories running at once! I just felt pretty awful that I'm not getting updates to readers timely as I should and greatly wanted to improve that. But of course, you get yourself into a pickle and you've got to get yourself out, right? Hopefully I'll manage to write my way out of this one eventually... hehe.

It's so hard to fight those plot bunnies though, eh? ;)

Mystic,

The more I write, the more forgetful I become. I've got stories on my computer I started writing, got about ten pages into, and then was pulled away. Now I can't remember where I was going with them, but I remember they were good! I force myself to do at least a very rough outline, with basic directions of where I'm going, and why I loved the idea in the beginning. Then when I'm ready to come back, I can jump right in and write it. If the idea doesn't stand the test of time, then I can either delete or rewrite it. I no longer have to look at an incomplete story and wonder what it could have been.

Ya gotta watch out for those plot bunnies -- some have pointy teeth! I had a wild bunny take me on an eight chapter ride, for 58,000 words in about three weeks, even while still updating my WIP -- that's faster than a NaNoWriMo novel! Oh but what a ride!

Well for me, I have several stories in various stages of completion, but I'm choosing to focus on only two at the moment (the ones that are most likely to be finished) and have put all the other stories on the back burner for now.

And as for updating, well, I don't, but only because I don't want to post until the story is finished. You might feel different, and that's okay. But for me, I feel like if I post what I have now, I might get distracted with another story or worse, writer's block, then leave my readers hanging. And I don't want to do that. (And I have done that before) Fortunately, my regular readers seem to be okay with waiting for me to finish my current projects.

My suggestion would be to have one "main" story you focus on, then have the other two you write on whenever you need a break from the other story (and you probably will!), but maybe hold off on posting them until you finish your first story. Then once you finish the first story, you can pick which story you want to finish up next. This has worked for me in the past. But of course, it's totally okay to post them at the same time too if you want, up to you. Sometimes you just have to work on whatever story you feel like writing at the time. I know I do and frequently rotate between the two I'm working on. :)

Don't know if that helps in any way, but good luck with it! You're definitely not the only writer with way too many story ideas, lol! ;)

I am writing three at once as well. At least they are in the same fandom. I do try to update once a week but some times a chapter will be a few days late. For one of my fics I actually have a good three chapter leeway because I wrote quite a bit before posting. I can usually get rough drafts for one or two chapters done for that fic on one week and then I edit them the next week. For the other two stories I write and edit the chapter that I am going to post that week.

Try planning a schedule. Write one fic for a set amount of time, then switch over to another. Make sure it isn't too short between the switches or you'll want to keep writing the first fic while writing the second and that could disrupt the flow. But don't give yourself too much time or else you'll get bored and stop altogether like I did. You can even set priorities to choose which fic to work on when- which fic are you most concerned about finishing or posting? That's the one you work on first. I like the schedule because it keeps all my stories off the backburner for too long. I know dang well that when I get lazy and fish out one story for way too long, another fic I was really wanting to work on will never come about because I became too disinterested in it.

Ok, two fics at once is hard. Eleven is just insane. As for writing, I'm focusing on one fic, and during the wait (5-12 days) I write something else. I'm working on my Warrior Brothers story, but in the meantime I'm writing Sonic Origins. And if I can squeeze in some spare time when I'm not doing homework or trying to get SSBB to work without the Wii exploding from an overheat(and repairing that is pretty expensive), I write some one-shots.

Ok, two fics at once is hard. Eleven is just insane.

Tell me about it. ;) And plot bunnies abound, too. I'm a randomizer in the writing department, so I can't think more than a chapter ahead, because I don't even know how the darn chapter's gonna end until I get to the end. Yeah, I've got ideas for end points of my fics (somewhat vaguely), and I'll eventually get to them. Or... you know... in the general vicinity. ;) I'm heads down on one fic that jumped in front of the line and over the last month and a half I've cranked out 110K words on it, with no end in sight. My regulars are probably throwing up their hands in disgust (unless they're reading it, then they're pretty pleased with updates every couple of days!). Man, I hope I'm this wonked out on a rabid plot bunny for NaNoWriMo!

I'm a randomizer in the writing department, so I can't think more than a chapter ahead, because I don't even know how the darn chapter's gonna end until I get to the end.

I can usually think about five chapters ahead in my story in the Maple Story fandom(because I actually have the basic plot idea) but my Sonic story...I don't even know where it's gonna end up.

And plot bunnies abound, too.

Half the time my bunnies are forgotten...

I'm heads down on one fic that jumped in front of the line and over the last month and a half I've cranked out 110K words on it, with no end in sight

That's really what my main fic is. Spit out the words(so far im on 26k) and getting to the point ends up taking thrice the time you expected. I expected to reach the big tournament part (Estimate: chapter 20-25) in 2 months of writing. So far I'm on chapter 13.

One last thing that can make writing even harder: Irregular Beta readers. Haven't had too many irregularities but I know someone who's beta sometimes goes on hiatus without warning.

• Forums are not to be used to post stories.
• All forum posts must be suitable for teens.
• The owner and moderators of this forum are solely responsible for the content posted within this area.
• All forum abuse must be reported to the moderators.