Is this normal?

[Itsjustbeach]

Is it normal to be working on more than one piece of work at a time?

I'm quite new to writing, and am planning to start self-publishing short stories this year. I've completed my first novelette (needs editing), and have just started the second in the series. However, my problem is, I've got about two dozen ideas jotted down for other books/stories, and then I get distracted and start working on others.

I've no idea if I'm doing it right. I have a short attention span, so part of me wants to write some short stories whilst still working on my 7 book novelette series. Is this ok to do? Or is it a case of, as writers we just work how he individually work?

Different people work in different ways.

I tend to have an idea and work just on that for ages. I also have an epic fantasy that is entirely for my own pleasure that I work on when I get stuck. It's at the stage that I just add extra scenes to it now, but I know the characters so well it's easy to write.

Other people I know write several at once. I know someone who wrote a trilogy with all the books going at once. I'm not sure how they managed that without getting confused!

I think I'd struggle to do that as I'm a complete pantser so when I'm writing I'm thinking all the time while I do other things about the next chapter. I get totally immersed in the story, and can't do that if I'm writing more than one.

I’m a one project at a time type, but I certainly know novelists who might write six substantial short stories over the course of a novel as a regular thing — it gives them a change of pace and energy without emerging from the writing space.

Totally normal and honestly quite smart, particularly if you have a commercial aim in mind.

@Urcheon "it gives them a change of pace and energy without emerging from the writing space." This makes total sense, it absolutely does this - thank you!

@istara thank you for the reassurance. I'm going to make myself a schedule as I read this morning on a writer group that many of them write a year ahead, and have their planned books all set out in a timetable. I think I need to do this to give me some focus.

Thanks everyone, I feel reassured that I'm working in a way that works best for me. Once I add in a schedule, I think that will really help.

It's normal for me. I've currently got 3 I'm actively writing and another 2 concepts that I have played out in my head.

The risk is that it's easy to get distracted by the shiny new idea over and over and manage to avoid finishing any of them.

One good idea that was suggested to me was to combine any good ideas together if possible. Not relevent to me massively because I write fantasy with completely different worlds but I have put it to use in smaller ways, scene ideas, character types, impactful moments etc.

I also have an epic fantasy, but I have finished it. Ended by putting it up on Amazon as a series of books each with a prologue...it means I can have a hard copy of it, which is nice, though not, of course, the point of self-publishing (and means I can move away from it, too). I have some non-fiction up, which sells, and my late DH wrote historical novels and dialiect novels. The historical novels sell.