Juggling multiple writing projects: A good idea?

When I get excited about an idea for a short story, I need to start working on it before the excitement dwindles. Once the excitement vanishes, the story almost never makes it from my brain to word processor. The problem is that sometimes I’ll get a great idea for a story while I’m already working on one.

I find it hard to divide my time between two short stories, and usually end up favoring one while letting the other collect dust on my desk. The story that always collects dust is the one I have the hardest time with (either with plot, characters, etc). This is a bad habit because most problems writing fiction can be worked out with enough time and effort.

Right now I am juggling writing two short stories. While I prefer not to do this, the situation is different because both stories are in different phases of ‘production’. One is in the proofreading/editing/revising stage while the other is an incomplete and very rough draft that isn’t even a coherent story yet.

So is it a good idea to juggle multiple writing projects? Of course the answer to this question will vary with each writer you ask. The biggest benefit to working on multiple writing projects is that, if writer’s block does hit you on one story, you can move to the other for a while, until the block passes. The downside is that it’s hard to divide your time and imagination to two or more stories (the problem I have).

So my question to all you readers is: Are you able to juggle multiple writing projects? Or do you finish one story before moving on to the other? Leave a comment below and share your answers.

Photo used in accordance with Creative Commons license.

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