how many books can can you write?

by Kimberley Stevens
24th June 2013

Hi, I'm wondering how many novel ideas that you have, and of how many of those ideas your actually going to write.

I have five novels ideas, three of which I've started to write, and the other two which are still in the planning stage. I don't know if I should just focus on one or two of the stories, or switch and change between all of them to keep the creative mojo working...?

Thanks all :)

Replies

I often get several ideas and then try and worm them all into one story - not very successfully. It's sometimes advised to have a couple of projects on the go at once to prevent yourself getting writer's block or simply becoming bored. I think that I'd get confused with five at once, though - I'd think of a nice description or phrase and want to put it into all of them!

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Alice
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Alice Cattley
24/06/2013

Really, I don't think there is a right answer because everyone has different writing techniques. I have two story ideas and two drama/script pieces, but I'm focusing on writing the first story idea (which is actually a five part series) and then shake it up by writing a script.

Although, I do believe you could get easily confused between plots, stories and characters when you try and write five completely different books at once. What I do is have a document saved on my computer where I write random scenes and new ideas to get back to at a later stage.

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Chantelle
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Chantelle Harvey
24/06/2013

I have ideas and titles for around 40 books spanning over 3000 years or more, if the novels are going to be linked like mine are, its best to write them one at a time I find, so that in the long term story you can be highly flexible and also prevent any contradictions of events between books

but I do always write down the basic plot for each book then adapt it as necessary

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