Multi-Tasking

Anyone a big multi-tasker?

I multi-task a lot. Sometimes to the point of seeming kind of ADD...Clean a little of this, clean a little of that, write a blog post, think about dinner, finish putting laundry away...

It's a little crazy as far as any kind of cleaning "schedule" goes. But I've discovered after however-many-years of adulthood that order only works for me if it's a little unordered.

Totally clear as mud, right?

It occurred to me just now (as I'm in the middle of one of those ADD cleaning phases--and am now standing at my half-clean kitchen island to write this) that I do this with stories too. I rarely ever have one story going that has 1000% of my focus. If I'm under contract, then it has ALMOST that much of my focus, because that's what fair to my publisher. But if I'm not contracted on a story at the moment, I have to have several projects going at once.


Here's a little peak into my brain right now.

1. Another Love Inspired Suspense story. I'm writing this one currently.

2. A full length Romantic Suspense set in the Alaskan wilderness. I'm writing this one currently.

3. More LIS stories--at least two in the I-have-a-synopsis-done stage.

4. Another full length RS--this one is a list of story "clues" right now. Nothing solid.

5. Several series ideas (or at least story ideas/setting ideas) for the future.


This is how my brain works--while it looks crazy to some, I'm sure (but seriously? I'm a writer. Crazy is normal, yes?), I do better if I can multi-task, if I can have a lot of stories in my brain so that I have options. Ways to get my mind occupied when it's stuck on another story.

What about y'all? Are you one-at-a-time people? Some variation? And if you get a shiny new story idea, do you abandon your old story for a few days? Or are you one of the super-commited who won't even touch the new idea until the old one is done?