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

[agilebrit]

I tend to work on the one that's under deadline first. Which means I really need to come up with something to send to the UFO3 antho and stop dinking around with edits on the Hell's Process Server story...

If I don't have a deadline, I work on whatever one I have the most complete outline for. If I have more than one complete outline, then I pick the one that's pinging me the hardest (which usually has a werewolf or an angel in it, these days, but not always).

But I have an odd process that probably wouldn't work for everyone--I usually outline a bunch at once and then bang out several first drafts one after the other, and then work on edits after all the drafts are done--unless I have a deadline, in which case I work on that story.

[sarillia]

I really should be working on the one deadline I've been looking at but that one won't take me very long to write.

I think your process could work for me since I'm good at banging out first drafts quickly but I need to pick one to start on first.

[lunabee34]

I have to work to a deadline or an obligation myself. So I write the conference paper that I said in my yearly goals that I would write. Or I write the fanfic for the fest I signed up for. Or (I'm part of a writing group in RL), I write the short story or the personal essay that I've committed to write for this month. I'm also doing a Letters Game with a friend that is proving to be very fun.

I have no time any more to write something that I haven't committed to write. I can't remember the last time I just spent time writing something (outside of blogging or meta) that wasn't under deadline or obligation. :(