The Counselor

Multiple Novels Syndrome

Article Four: MNS

Have you ever been somewhere in the middle of a story in progress and suddenly gotten hit with a fabulous idea for another story?

If your answer is no, you’re probably a robot. If your answer is yes, congratulations! You’re now eligible to join the club for writers with what I like to call MNS, or Multiple Novels Syndrome.

Now, there are different ways of dealing with MNS. If you’re one of those rare writers who can somehow manage to stay focused on one novel at a time no matter how many ideas you have, I salute you. Unfortunately, I will never be able to join your ranks. To me, a new storyline is like a bag full of fascinating new books that you’ve never read: it is impossible to resist the urge to explore.

That doesn’t mean I jump right in and start writing the minute I’m inspired—usually, anyway. Usually, an idea sits with me for a while as I try to unravel enough of the mystery surrounding it to know where to begin. But once I know enough to start writing, I usually do, regardless of where I am in whatever novel I was writing before, and therein lies the problem: the new, bright, shiny novel is almost always more interesting than the novel that is (usually) in the middle stages (after the first waves of inspiration, before the excitement of the approaching ending kicks in).

So, MNS is sometimes fatal to novels in the middle stages, simply because it’s easy to lose interest even without the added distraction of a second (or third/fourth/fifth) novel. But fear not! The key to surviving the woes of MNS is simple: an ability to balance. (So if you’re a part-time tightrope walker, you’re in luck.)

Personally, I am nearly always writing anywhere from two to five novels, with others on hold/lurking in notebooks/the depths of my computer. I know that many writers on Wattpad write multiple novels, and many of those who do have a lot more success with it than I do. But there are also those who jump from novel to novel without finishing much of anything.

So in order to make yourself one of the success stories, here are Jo’s tips to managing MNS and balancing multiple novels:

1.       PRIORITIZE. Make sure you know which story is most important to you, which is least important, and anything in between. Focus first on the most important, and so on down the list. (My advice is to make the novel you were originally working on your first priority, in order to keep yourself from giving up on it.)

2.       SET GOALS. This one should be mostly self-explanatory, but setting goals will (hopefully) keep you from sitting idly, and will give you something specific to work toward.

3.       COMPLETE YOUR GOALS. This sounds stupid and obvious, but setting goals does no good if you don’t follow through on them. So complete your goals; make yourself finish on time.

4.       TAKE A BREAK BETWEEN NOVELS. This is especially important if you have multiple first-person narrators with distinct voices, but it’s important regardless. You don’t want to confuse voice, tone, plot, or characters between novels, because you’ll confuse your readers and make more editing work down the road for yourself.

5.       REREAD BEFORE YOU WRITE. It’s a simple way to get back on track and re-immersed in your world. You can reread the last chapter, scene, or even just a few paragraphs, and hopefully, you’ll remember where you were trying to go when you left your hero/heroine/robot minion last.

6.       KEEP A NOTEBOOK (OR NOTEBOOKS). I use this method myself, and it actually does help. I keep track of who’s in what book, characteristics, family trees, backstories, plot twists, setting, world details (if you’re an alternate world kind of person like me), and anything else that comes to mind. It’s like your mind on paper, so it doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to work at helping you stay organized. This is especially helpful with MNS, because you can separate your notes for different stories to prevent confusion.