#and the characters in Another current wip of mine are colour coded

[izzyfandoms]

I do love,,, colour coding my ocs

[transmasc-wizard]

question question question question

how in the literal fuck do you work on more than one wip at a time???? like do you have a schedule like one day u work on this, the next u work on this, etc?? or????

this is a plea for help lol because i have too many ideas but do not know how to work on more than one at a time

answer answer answer answer !!

So. it is sort of scheduling! And now I will actually explain! Because you asked!!

yeah yeah. anyway

I have a folder of all my ideas (not the work, just ideas) that's colour-coded by genre. I do not work on two of the same colours at the same time, that's how I become an unproductive puddle of sadness. It's organized so that if I'm working on Secret WIP, I am not working on any other grand epic fantasy. If I'm working on Death and Taxes, I am not working on my other sci-fi ideas.

So, let's take my current example: Out of all my WIPs, I'm working on Rose Librarians, GFW1, and Death and Taxes the most right now. Urban fantasy with 2 narrators in the first draft stage, dystopian fantasy with 5 narrators in the rewriting stage, and sci-fi/tragedy with an omniscient narrator in the planning stage. They're different enough that I can easily categorize their information separately in my head.

The differences don't have to specifically be genre, POV, and status, but those are what work for me. Hell, sometimes their main difference is "vibes"--as in, their Pinterest boards are as opposite in aesthetic as Antarctica and Egypt are in weather. I don't know why this works! But it does! And I will not be questioning it!

So once you have your wips categorized by difference in your head, then you pick a main one.

"But Nico!" you cry. "This is about working on more than one at once!" and yes, it is. But you are almost certainly going to have one that takes up most of your time--probably a first draft or a wip with a deadline. For me, my main wip is the Rose Librarians right now. I focus on it the most, and the others are all in second place beside it. Basically, I have to hit my daily wc goal for it (1000) before I can work on any other WIPs in the day. Exceptions are on specific WIP days, which I'll talk about later.

You might also find you have a wip you fall back on, but this isn't certain. For me, mine is GFW1. What this means is basically that when I have writer's block, or I'm bored, or I don't know what to write, I open up the doc and start writing there.

Another thing: it's very helpful to keep your notes close. Character sheets, random rambles, worldbuilding, etc. Notes make it easier to distinguish the stories in your head, and honestly, that's like 90% of handling working on multiple WIPs.

As for actually writing them: like I said. Pick a main one, so you know where your focus goes. Work on that one first; it should be your default mode. Then, if you really want to consistently have multiple projects, pick days for the other ones.

For me, Death and Taxes is planned on weekends. I can spare mental energy and focus to plan it on Saturday and Sunday, but the week is focused on Rose Librarians. So, yeah, it's kind of a schedule, but it's not limited. It just means the default switches--e.g., my goal is to plan a chapter of DaT every day that I work on it. Once I do that, then I can work on whatever project I want.

TLDR: make your WIPs distinct from each other, pick a main/default one, don't be surprised if you have a "fallback" one, keep your notes close, and pick days specifically for your non-main WIPs so they still get some love and affection.

I hope this helps! a bit! or is at least comprehensible! I just got back from school and i am So Tired but yeah. this is what i do, no i do not understand it either, but it works