Choosing a new project

[sarillia]

How do you go about deciding what to work on next? Does one just call out to you or do you have a process for choosing one?

Normally I can just pick one and work on it until it's done--though occasionally I end up deciding that I'm not ready to start the one I chose after all and it works better if I get back to it later--but lately I my mind has been all over the place and I can't decide.

Sometimes what I do is I make a list of my top choices and then I go through that list and make a new one out of my top choices from that list and keep doing that until I only have one left. But I can't seem to narrow it down this time.

Part of it, I think, is that issue of audience appeal I talked about before. Instead of basing it entirely on my enthusiasm, I can't help thinking about what might be most salable too.

Comments

[siofrabunnies]

I have this annoying problem where I want to work on one story, but my writing muse calls me to another. It's pretty hard to write for story A when you have dialogue for story B running through your head. So I guess it's a bit of both, but mostly the story chooses me. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of stories started, but not many finished in a reasonable amount of time.

I've gotten into the habit of remembering that, no matter what I write, there's someone out there who will enjoy it. Even if I don't end up putting it out anywhere, I usually enjoy what I write on some level.

[sarillia]

I'm trying to get myself in the mindset that you're talking about in your second paragraph but I'm just not used to thinking about people reading my work. I spent 6 years thinking that no one would ever read my writing and I only just decided that I want to try to publish something this year.

[siofrabunnies]

Yeah, actual publishers are a pretty different creature from readers on the internet, so it makes a lot more sense to remember your audience. I write just to get ideas out of my head and into something coherent, so I'm really my own audience most of the time. It's very freeing to only have myself to please!

[inkdust]

It's pretty hard to write for story A when you have dialogue for story B running through your head.

That's what happens to me sometimes. It's only happened once persistently enough to make me actually switch what I was working on, but I worry a little that I'll never get back to the project I put on hold.