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How many wips do you have? Right now, I have 3 wips, and a few more ideas in my head. If I put all my wips together, I would have enough words for a novel. Multiple wips frustrate my writing process. I wonder every day, am I a one novel writer? My debut novel is out on Feb 3rd, 2015. That’s about 90 days away. Book two is still in my head annoying me. The to-do list goes on and on. Will I ever finish anything again? What’s stopping me from pushing through and getting at least one of these wips over 25,000 words?
Time? I’m wasting too much time on Twitter. It’s a true distraction. I need to set aside specific time for writing only. I need to protect the little writing time I have.
Fear? I’m supposed to be fearless every day, but all these questions are hints of fear.
Perfectionism? Not liking a chapter or how everything is connecting. I need to keep moving forward, and not let silly things in one scene slam on the brakes.
Excuses? Insert endless list here.
I’m I alone in this? I do not believe so. Nevertheless, I do need to give myself some grace. And so do you. This past month has been crazy busy with photography. I’ve been editing photos from a wedding and sessions all month. Fall is a busy time of year for me. Editing takes hours and hours and hours, and my clients take precedence over my writing time. So, yeah, grace is good. Know when to give yourself grace.
Let’s rethink this. Maybe, it’s okay to have a few wips going if that works for you. Not every idea should be a novel. You’re not a writing machine, and stress takes the fun out of writing.
What is a writer to do? Write!
1. Protect your writing time. Use a sword and shield if you must.
2. Be fearless. Write in a way that scares you a bit.
3. Keep moving forward, perfectionism can wait for edits.
4. No more excuses. Write what you want. Give yourself permission to have more than one wip.
You will finish another novel in your own time. You have to protect your love for writing. Don’t let fear, time, perfectionism, and excuses steal away your passion.
Angela M Caldwell 
Great post, Angela! I’m setting myself a deadline to start revisions, but it means staying off Twitter and other social media for a few months. It will hurt at first, but I find myself squeezing writing around socializing, instead of the other way around. ; )
When I protect my writing time, it’s so much easier to write.
Love this! It’s so easy to get distracted, particularly since I’m a full-time blogger as well as an author. I admire you for being able to keep various WIP’s straight!
I finshed my last WIP, letting it rest so I can revise later. And now I’m prepping for NaNO 🙂
Yay! Keep moving foward!
I love your post, it’s so applicable to me too. I have four or five wips, and I can’t get past four chapters on any of them. I need to be better about scheduling writing time. One thing I learned is that if my creative juices are flowing it’s okay to put other things on the back burner. For instance, I had a revelation with one of my stories yesterday, but had planned to do homework. I wrote instead and got over 4, 000 words written. If I’d ignored my gut, I would have missed out on all that effective writing time!