One Project or Balancing Multiples? By Sandi Somers

Are you a person who can balance several writing projects? Or do you prefer to work on only one project? This question came up a number of years ago when I didn’t know how to organize my time to polish several assignments that were on my plate. 

I began searching for how other writers and artists managed their projects. 

Isaac Asimov, who wrote over 500 books, kept five or six typewriters in his workroom, each with a page inserted in readiness. He rotated from one project to another with whatever momentarily piqued his interest.  

Philip Yancey focussed on writing one book at a time. When he was writing a column for Christianity Today, he enjoyed taking one day off a month to write the column. (One day! It would take me a week!)

Vincent Van Gogh set up as many as 14 canvases of the same scene, drawing clouds and natural landscapes as the light changed during the day.

Madeleine L’Engle combined writing one book with adding ideas and journal entries to several others she had in mind. Then when she was ready to begin a new work, she chose the one with the most complete ideas.

Grace Fox, speaker at our Fall Conferences, batches her work for speaking engagements, book proposals, podcasts, books, etc. She works, for example, two days on one project, three days on another.

 

As well as discovering how authors and artists worked, I‘ve gleaned wisdom, some from our own InScribers. I’ll pass them on to you. 

Discover how many projects you can manage. Alan Anderson said he chose three. (Sorry, Alan, I can’t find the blog post where you wrote this—but I remembered it.) On the other hand, Steph Beth Nickel emailed me that she is a writer-juggler who loves to “keep all the plates spinning. ... Most of the time, having several projects on the go at once energizes me. Most of the time.”   

But in general, maintain at least two projects. When you get bogged down with one, switching to another will enliven your spirits. Marcia Laycock needed to take a break from working on a major novel, so she wrote a delightful children’s book, Merrigold’s Very Best Home, that refreshed her and won awards. 

Ray Bradbury said that sometimes a major project needs to be set aside and incubate for up to a year. When you come back to it, you’ll see it with fresh eyes.  

If your current project is revising and editing, continuing to write new material will keep your creative juices flowing.

Along with the above strategies, Tracy Krauss wrote in one blog post the necessity of keeping balance in all things.  

Like a complex machine, we must strike a balance between marketing, promotion, and business activities…and the actual writing side of things. All of these writing-related activities must then fit into the greater balance of life…work, family, church, household chores, devotional life...  

But above all, we need to draw on the Lord's strength. As Steph Beth said that she needs to, “rely on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide and to provide me with the wherewithal I need to accomplish the tasks at hand.”

I’m reminded of Scripture which says: “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17 NIV). He will do it.

I’d like to know: How many projects or project components can you handle simultaneously? What strategies have you discovered? How do you balance your time and energy? How do you and God partner in this process?

Image by Getty