Is writing two projects at once ever a good idea?

Greetings, True Believers,

For this week's blog (he says, as though he hasn't completely abandoned the post-every-fortnight structure that he once, so ambitiously, set out to adhere to) I wanted to pose a question to the Writing Community and hear the thoughts of the people on writing two separate story projects at the same time. And by this, I mean specifically writing, ie. drafting, because I'm quite familiar with the act of juggling multiple projects in different stages (drafting one, editing another, and promoting another, concurrently).

I ask because (and this will come as no surprise to many of you) this is where I am right now. For months I've been working on drafting my third adult fantasy novel (the first shelved, the second out on submission as I type) and its been going... pretty well, I think. I have an outline, I haven't come up against any major obstacles, and I'm still really invested in telling the story. The voices of these characters ring in my ears, and I want to let them speak. I've written over half of the book now, at just over 50,000 words, and I knew without doubt I'd see it through to the end after completing chapter one. I'm also physically incapable of leaving a job unresolved once I've started it, so there's that.

But recently... I've been really drawn to writing another story, too. In a completely different voice, and for a different kind of audience. If my adult fantasy is H.G. Parry's The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep meets Natasha Pulley's The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, then this is The Princess Bride meets Stardust. It's whimsical, it's boistrous and it's just so much fun. It's a total exercise in frivolity and excess, and I'm throwing elements of every magical, mythological, swashbuckling, adventurous fairytale I've ever read into it. And I'm finding it so easy to write. Maybe the easiest I've ever had it with a first draft. And... I don't know if I'm even going to try and publish it. Right now it's about 70/30 in favour of not. I started to write it initally for all the children in my life, and it might remain that way. And the thing is, I don't even care. I'm having such a great time with it, I haven't really spared a thought to what I'll do with it when it's done. For now, I'm calling it The Star-Silver Cloak.

I haven't lost my passion for the other novel, though, which is a relief, as it was the thing I was most worried about and what held me back for a while from starting to put this crazy fun fable to paper. Most people I've spoken to advise against writing two projects at once, and the majority consensus seems to be that it's a recipe for disaster (or at least, the loss of interest and eventual abandonment of whichever project you're less excited about). Authors always tend to talk about the 'shiny new idea' which pops into their head part-way through a draft and threatens to derail the project by becoming the new focus of the writer's attention. I get that, and I am wary of it, but I'm also too committed to completing what I start to let it get in the way of me finishing a draft. I know that if that started to be the case, I'd put Cloak on hiatus until I waws ready to give it my full attention. For now, though, I'm actually really enjoying the option I have every day, depending on what mood I'm in, to choose which to work on. It goes without saying that I'm effectively doubling the time that either book will take to complete, but the payoff is not having to force myself to sit down and slog through something I'm not feeling excited about that day.

So, on that note, I want to ask the writing community on Twitter for your take on this: do you work on more than one writing project at once? Do you find it productive to be simultaneously writing more than one story, or distracting? Are there any specific problems you run into, ie. ideas getting mixed from one novel to the other, blending/confusing your narrative voice, losing track of plots or losing focus/enthusiasm for stories? How do you tackle these problems, if you encounter them? And for those of you who are agented, how does your agent feel about this approach?

Leave me a comment on Twitter, as I'd love to hear your thoughts and contine this discussion. For now, let me leave you on a REC! The past two weeks I've become obsessed with a podcast called The Rest is History, co-hosted by historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook (they're also authors). Each week (twice a week, in fact, I believe) they discuss a different aspect of history; movements, political and religious; important figures, eras, events, prevailing thoughts... and I'm finding myself more engaged with history than I've ever been before. As a writer, having a rudimentary understanding of history can be enormously helpful, so do check out The Rest is History wherever you get your podcasts.

Speak to you soon,

RT