Bouncing

I've been bouncing around when it comes to stories.

A lot of bouncing. This story, that story, oh, wait, there was this other one!

I am currently bouncing three stories. That is subject to change at any moment. I may add another. I may discard one of these. I may bring it back again.

There was a time when this would have been extremely unhealthy for my writing. Not that it isn't now. It's the worst way to accomplish anything as a writer, that refusal to focus on one story. Your brain can't focus on all that at once.

But my brain is already reaching its focusing capacity. Homeworkhomeworkhomework. This group, that meeting, those plans. The added focus of one story is something I honestly can't even fathom.

It's a strange place to be. I feel like I've rewound my life and gone back to my pre-high-school days, when I started everything and finished nothing and was happy to scrawl bits and pieces of stories down without thought of ever finishing them. {I always thought I would, of course.} I was fourteen or fifteen when I determined to actually finish a novel {I did}, and ever since then, I've always been more or less working on something specific that I intend to finish.

And I'm not now. I don't know if it's good or bad, though I know it's the only option right now. Focusing on one story would draw focus away from my studies, and studies are...important. {That's what they say, anyway.} Honestly, I'm just glad I've been able to steal snippets of time away in which to write things down.

Even if I'm jumping from character to character. From Mara Wade, passionate and selfless heroine, to Aerin, reluctant prince's bride, to Olivia and Maximus, terrified queen and the mage that serves her.

It is not some new method I'm trying out with which to be more productive. It is a desperate attempt at sanity, at being able to let the stories continue, even if I must slow their rush to a trickle. Any bit of story is more than none, and better than none.

And so I bounce. Almost daily, I am exploring a different character. There was a time when that would have bothered me, when I would have sat myself down with orders to pick one and see it through. But those days are paused. I have other things I must see through.

It is sad, I suppose. But I am not complaining. I have stories. I have quick glimpses of time in which to write the stories. I may be on a sort of hiatus, but I am so very grateful that I have not had to give up the words completely.

* To all taking any sort of advice from this: don't do this if you want to finish a book. There is only one way to do that, and that is to stick with it. This method is good for either building your skills or keeping them up, but it won't help you write "the end."