LOL! It's actually not as productive as it sounds. [cough] Some of them have been sitting there for years. Occasionally something I started a few years back and then wandered away from will suddenly feel inspiring again, and I'll work on it, and maybe even finish it. Sometimes I'll start and finish a story in a short time -- actually pretty often over the last few years. But sometimes I'll come up with a story idea and bang out a page or two, then just leave it for however long. At least I won't lose the idea.
I finally went through my story folder recently and took everything I hadn't touched in since before the turn of the century and stuffed it all into a folder of its own. It's still there if I ever want to mess with it, but at least I don't have to look at it anymore. [wry smile] That leaves me with seventeen stories, counting both fanfic and original fiction, which are partially done and have some hope of being finished in the next ten years. :)
It sounds awful but it's sort of like a huge, complex biorhythm -- there are times when I'm working on a bit of this and a bit of that and bouncing around like a ferret with ADD and I'll go for a month or three without finishing anything. Then suddenly I'll finish two or three or four stories in a week. It works out. [cough]
I think where I got this was reading something when I was a kid about how one of the big SF writers (Heinlein comes to mind but I wouldn't swear to it) used to have an office set-up with five or six typewriters around him on a U-shaped set of desks, with his rolling swivel chair in the middle. He'd work on a story until he ran out of ideas for it, or got blocked or whatever you want to call it, then he'd turn to another one and work on that for a while, etc. So he was always productive even if he wasn't focusing on one thing. It sounded like a cool idea so I never felt like I "should" focus on a single project and finish it before starting another. It's sort of weird, but I've been doing it for thirty years and it works for me. :)
At least, it works until I have an editor expecting something from me on a deadline. O_O Then I feel like I have to buckle down and work on that one thing until it's finished.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-10-29 12:46 pm (UTC)I finally went through my story folder recently and took everything I hadn't touched in since before the turn of the century and stuffed it all into a folder of its own. It's still there if I ever want to mess with it, but at least I don't have to look at it anymore. [wry smile] That leaves me with seventeen stories, counting both fanfic and original fiction, which are partially done and have some hope of being finished in the next ten years. :)
It sounds awful but it's sort of like a huge, complex biorhythm -- there are times when I'm working on a bit of this and a bit of that and bouncing around like a ferret with ADD and I'll go for a month or three without finishing anything. Then suddenly I'll finish two or three or four stories in a week. It works out. [cough]
I think where I got this was reading something when I was a kid about how one of the big SF writers (Heinlein comes to mind but I wouldn't swear to it) used to have an office set-up with five or six typewriters around him on a U-shaped set of desks, with his rolling swivel chair in the middle. He'd work on a story until he ran out of ideas for it, or got blocked or whatever you want to call it, then he'd turn to another one and work on that for a while, etc. So he was always productive even if he wasn't focusing on one thing. It sounded like a cool idea so I never felt like I "should" focus on a single project and finish it before starting another. It's sort of weird, but I've been doing it for thirty years and it works for me. :)
At least, it works until I have an editor expecting something from me on a deadline. O_O Then I feel like I have to buckle down and work on that one thing until it's finished.
Angie