The Art of Writerly Multi-Tasking | Write Anything

16 Jul 2012 by Emma Venables in Emma Venables | 1 comment

Without a shadow of a doubt, I need to learn to multi-task. I?m pretty good at this in my everyday life but when it comes to writing not so much. I?ve always been a one-story-at-a-time type of girl. I always assumed that was the way to be?

Yes, I?m one of those annoying people who likes to focus on one story at a time. I like to give each story I?m working on my undivided attention. Yes, when other ideas pop into my head I?ll jot them down but I won?t chase them up until I?m done with what I?m working on at the time. I realise this is a bad habit that needs to be broken immediately. I sincerely wish I could be like my writer friends who have multiple stories on the go at once. I want to be a writing machine. I want to be working on a million stories at once. OK, I?m exaggerating.? Merely a couple of stories at once would suffice.

With the start of my PhD just around the corner, this is something I really need to remedy if I?m going to churn out a perfectly polished 70,000 collection of short stories in three years. My short stories will all be on a similar theme and so that might make it somewhat easier to juggle the writing of multiple stories at once. Perhaps it will no longer be a problem when I start studying again because I will, quite simply, just have to get on with it ? there will be no time for any ?and ifs or buts?.? I like to think that because I will be so immersed in my project I won?t have any time to think about it. I?ll just do it. All will be well. Once I?ve embraced the art of writerly multi-tasking, I will never box myself in to writing a single story at a time again.

But for now, I think I need to practice juggling. That shall be my aim for the summer: learn how to juggle (multiple writing projects at once). Here?s hoping I don?t end up with many indelible ink blots splattered at my feet!

Do you juggle multiple writing projects at once or are you a one-story-at-a-time type?

Emma Venables

Emma Venables has recently finished an MA in Creative Writing and is now on a PHD/ dream job hunt. She?s happiest when she?s stringing words together into people and places and problems. She mostly writes short fiction and likes the fact that she can give women condemned to the dregs of history a voice through her writing.

Source: http://wa.emergent-publishing.com/2012/07/july-open-the-art-of-writerly-multi-tasking/

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