Writers With Wrinkles

Ask Beth & Lisa: How to Juggle Multiple Writing Projects...Or Not?

• Beth McMullen and Lisa Schmid • Season 3 • Episode 34

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In this listener Q&A episode of Writers with Wrinkles, co-hosts Beth McMullen and Lisa Schmid answer a question about juggling multiple writing projects and staying focused. They share personal approaches to managing ideas and offer advice on how to prioritize projects for aspiring authors.

Key Discussion Points

  1. Handling Multiple Writing Projects: Beth and Lisa tackle a listener's question about managing various writing ideas, from picture books to novels and screenplays.
  2. Beth's Approach: Beth often starts several projects and lets the most compelling one "choose her" over time. She encourages finishing at least one project to have something ready for submission.
  3. Lisa's Approach: Lisa prefers to focus on a single project until it’s completed, emphasizing the importance of staying on task and submitting work consistently.
  4. Managing Genre Switching: They discuss the challenges of working across different genres (e.g., picture books, novels, screenplays) and the importance of mastering the specific skills required for each.
  5. Building Community: Beth and Lisa highlight the importance of not “pulling up the ladder” once you’ve achieved success, encouraging writers to lift others up as they advance in their careers.

This episode dives into the challenges of managing multiple writing ideas and staying focused. Whether you’re a multitasker like Beth or laser-focused like Lisa, the key takeaway is the importance of finishing projects and supporting fellow writers.

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Beth McMullen:

Hi friends, I'm Beth McMullen and I'm Lisa Schmid and we're the co-hosts of Writers with Wrinkles. This is season three, episode 34. And today we're answering your questions. Quick note about how to submit you can visit our website for the link. You can actually text from the podcast notes. You could yell really loudly from wherever you are. I mean, not really. Anyway, we will put all of this in the podcast notes, so if you have a question you can very easily send it our way. So we have a good one for today.

Lisa Schmid:

This is a good one. I love seeing the questions that are coming through. It's making me very happy.

Beth McMullen:

You know, and it also makes me feel less like lonely in the writing universe. I know that it's like a, of course, a very solitary thing, but when you see that other people are thinking the same stuff that you're thinking, you're like, oh so I'm not alone. So this is kind of our public service to help you guys feel less alone. All right, let us jump into this question. I'm not going to use the name because I don't know if we were supposed to, so I'll just read you the question. I love your podcast. You always inspire me to keep trying, so thanks. Well, thank you too, right back at you. My question is I have so many dang ideas, mostly picture book, but also novels, short stories and movie ideas. I've queried several picture books, but I'm currently working on a novel. It's really hard to stay on one project or idea, but it feels like I should focus on one thing at a time. How do you handle this if you experience it? This is such a good question.

Lisa Schmid:

It is a good question and I know that we are going to have two very different answers.

Beth McMullen:

We always we're like totally on opposite ends of the continuum with everything. It's good, though. It gives listeners a chance to hear a wide variety of answers.

Lisa Schmid:

We're like cats and dogs. We're like our unsold picture book that we never got really any rejections on except for one. I don't know why I'm throwing this in there. It just came up.

Beth McMullen:

I know because you're feeling a certain level of bitterness about the picture book. So am I. I feel like it was actually pretty good. Anyway, what do you think about this question? We're like cats and dogs.

Lisa Schmid:

That's my whole point. We're very different. You know what's so funny? This is another thing I just thought of the other day. So the name of our book, our picture book, was cat's rule, and somewhere in like our saved documents I had like another working title and I'm like why didn't we use that? I'm sure this would have sold. So the other one we had was cats rule, dogs drool.

Beth McMullen:

Okay, the next time we send it out, that's what we're going to use, cause it's funny and they do dogs do drool. I mean, it happens, it's like a real thing. So anyway, yeah, yeah that's my, that was, that was the section of the podcast that we call Lisa's random thoughts, where you get a chance to peek inside her head and that's what she's thinking about. But she's always on task, right? You're always thinking about publishing and writing related stuff, so it all connects True story.

Lisa Schmid:

So do you want to answer the question first?

Beth McMullen:

No, I'm sitting here patiently waiting for you to answer the question, okay. You get to go first today, because I read the question and then you go first.

Lisa Schmid:

So I'm one of those people. I'm not like focused on a million different projects. If I have one voice in my head, I'm. I want to get that story out, I want to focus on it, I want to get it done because I want to move on from it, and I also want to have something out in the world that's making the rounds. I mean, if you just if you're hopping from story to story and you're not accomplishing anything, you're really not moving forward in any real direction towards publishing.

Lisa Schmid:

And so to me it's I want to finish that story, stay on task and then move on to the next thing. And so, for example, my my agent had said back some notes on a on my chapter book that's out on submission right now for the second one, and I'm working on my middle grade, and I never even looked at the notes because I'm like you know what? I'm working on my middle grade, that voice isn't in my brain. I need to finish this first, and if my chapter book sells and I'll go back and then I'll start working on that. So I think it's really important to stay on task, finish a project and you know something that's going out in the world, whether it's to your beta readers. It's you know, it's all about moving forward. So that's my response Stay on task with one story. All right, that's a good one.

Beth McMullen:

I think, first thing, like congratulations to the person asking the question for having lots of ideas. A lot of people are desperate for one good idea, and it sounds like you have many, so awesome, right? That's just an amazing thing to have to not feel like you're floating around thinking I don't even know what I'm supposed to be writing about. But I think I agree wholeheartedly with what Lisa said, which is that you have to finish something. You've got nowhere to go unless you finish something, and if working on multiple projects is stopping you from finishing, then you need to rein it in and focus. On the other hand, you might be that person who's completely able to multitask on projects. My personal experience is that this is how it always goes, and I finally just accepted that this is the way it's going to go. So I finished something, something's done. Now it's like I've written it, I've edited it, it's about as good as I think I'm going to get it, and it's either a book under contract that I now need to send off or a new something that I'm going to send out to publishers. So those are the two directions that it's going to go. So I've gotten it to that point. It's moving off my plate. Now, what am I going to do next? And I always have, like you, three or four ideas that are bouncing around in my head and inevitably I have started one or two of them in the past at some point, even if it's just like 20 pages or some outline notes or something, and I'm a hundred percent sure that it's going to be project day. So I start working on project day diligently, like back in, doing my thing, whatever, and then at some point I'm like but actually what I really want to do is project B. I don't really want to work on project A. So then project A goes to the back of the line. I start working on project B. Some more time goes by. Oh, actually project A was really the thing that I wanted to do. So I go back and at some point, whichever one it is sticks and that's the one I'm going full forward on. But the problem is that I don't know in the moment which one is going to work.

Beth McMullen:

So I think my advice to our listener is to make sure that you've got something done that's out there. If your intent is to publish, you've got something that you're shopping, at whatever level it is that you're shopping. If you're self-publishing, you've got something that you're shopping, at whatever level it is that you're shopping. If you're self-publishing, you've got something in the pipeline that's getting ready to go out and you're prepping for that. But also, I think some of it is the project choosing you. You may be sticking your toes in the water three or four different things and then suddenly you're like yep, that's the one, and then off you are to the races, and the thing is that I repeat this process every single time. So I think it's like I'm trying to get my head out of the project that I've gotten gotten done with trying to get it into the new space, and and that process is that I'm kind of mucking around in all these different projects before the one that's going to stick actually chooses me, and then off we go. Does that make any sense?

Lisa Schmid:

Totally makes sense. And you're, you're lucky, and it sounds like this listener is lucky too, because you always have several ideas, you know, gliding around in your brain, and it sounds like he does too. And I don't. I'm not like that, you know, I'm very it's. I I struggle to find the next story idea, but once I find the next story idea, I go with it Like I'm fully committed, even though I'm like, oh, is this? You know me, is this working? And like I've been through all that with this middle grade I'm working on right now. I stuck with it because it's like you know what I'm working on right now, but I stuck with it because it's like you know what I'm already in. I've already started writing it. Well, that's true.

Beth McMullen:

I never have to ask you, hey, what are you working on? Because I know, because you chose it and that's what you're working on, and you'll be working on that until you say I'm done with that. And there'll be this long period of time when you're like not doing anything and then you have your idea and then you're back in the shoot. I think that feels a lot more sane to me, that it feels linear, where what I'm doing feels like just a jumbly mess most of the time. The other thing that this listener noted that I think is worth talking about is that he is working in different genres of books and he's also working on screenplays. So, in addition to jumping from picture books to novels, he's also jumping to screenplays, which all require different skills.

Beth McMullen:

So one concern I would have would be making sure that your skill level is up to snuff in all of those.

Beth McMullen:

So maybe you are a more talented novel writer, so maybe that's the project that you're thinking to yourself okay, this is the one that I'm going to prep and get ready to send out into the world in whatever way that you're choosing to do that.

Beth McMullen:

And maybe the screenplay that you're working on in the background is something that you're thinking okay, I'm just honing my craft in this, I'm working to get better at this. Maybe you don't have massive aspirations for it yet, so that's another way that you could approach it, like something that is at the top, where you're like this is the one that I'm trying to get out in the world and make a book deal, whatever. This is the thing where I'm like I know this is sort of like training myself, so I'm going to work on this kind of in the background. So I mean, it's good that the listener is conceiving of ideas through these different ways of presenting them. I think that's really interesting. But I would be careful about just not diluting your skill set so that you're not hitting kind of those high marks in all of it, because for anything to get out into the world, it needs to be as perfect as it can be, like there's no opportunity for stuff that just doesn't feel quite done.

Lisa Schmid:

Yeah, that's some really good advice, beth.

Beth McMullen:

McMillan, sometimes I have a thought that's worth sharing.

Lisa Schmid:

You're like a smarty pants today. No, that's, that is really good advice. And I was thinking, would that apply to me? And it's like no, because I'm so in track. I'm like, can I work with that?

Beth McMullen:

every time I'm trying to talk Lisa into writing a cozy mystery Cause I think she would be so good at it, but she's got a one track mind and I'm not doing a good job convincing her.

Lisa Schmid:

I know I you know what I love, love, love cozy mysteries. But I just, I'm just trying to think how my little middle grade brain, my little nine-year-old brain, would translate into a cozy mystery. Somebody would be like who is this kid solving this mystery in the little town of you know wherever.

Beth McMullen:

Okay, okay, okay, I know when I'm beat. Call it a day, collect my toys and go home.

Lisa Schmid:

Someday. I just need to finish this one. I'm at that. You know, at that point I was at with Heart and Souls when we went to Tahoe Again, I digress, I'm sorry listeners and that's where I was at, where I kind of got stuck for a while in the mushy middle. And now I'm finally. I can see like daylight at the end of this long, horrifying, scary tunnel, with lots of plot holes jumping out at me and screaming at me and yelling boo and like that moment where you were like, oh wow, this doesn't fit together.

Beth McMullen:

No, I've had a million of them.

Lisa Schmid:

I and it's I posted this on Twitter. I actually have been waking up in the middle of the night like realizing, like oh, that doesn't work, and so I've had a note. You know, I have my notepad next to me and I wrote these just random notes and I have no. I like I looked at them the next morning and I have no idea what they meant. And like some, and someplace on the notes there was like I'd written duck with like an exclamation point, and I'm like no, you know what you meant to write a different word, which we won't say because we want to keep RPG reading.

Beth McMullen:

You just misspelled it in the night.

Lisa Schmid:

It's just like ducks in this story, was I telling you.

Beth McMullen:

Well, maybe they're supposed to be. Maybe it's the writing gods telling you to put a duck in your story.

Lisa Schmid:

Okay, just for amusement's sake, I wrote one into the next chapter because I'm like like, clearly the gods are telling me to write a duck into this story.

Beth McMullen:

You were influenced by the sleeping version of yourself it has no purpose.

Lisa Schmid:

It literally just waddles through the yard.

Beth McMullen:

Ducks are cute I think a waddling duck is just perfectly okay. It cracks me up so we have one more thing. We were talking about something that we wanted to just throw out at you, and it's come up a bunch of times in a bunch of ways. We're not going to attribute it to a single question, because it's come from a variety of places. Do you want to go ahead and talk about this?

Lisa Schmid:

Hi, you know, it's one of those things that I we've had listeners write in a little note about it and then I've I've had lunch with you, know different authors that have expressed this frustration to me. You and I have both experienced this and it doesn't feel good, but it's that whole concept of don't pull the ladder up after you've climbed it, and what I mean by that is you will see writers and authors that will you know, you're friends with or you've helped along the way, and then now they made it and they're like in a different zone than you are and they've they've reached a success level that's maybe perhaps higher than you, and then they glom on to other people or attach themselves to more successful authors and kind of leave you in the dust. And I had lunch with some friends the other day and somebody she was expressing something very similar to this and don't do that. Be that author Like you.

Lisa Schmid:

Know, if you're working your way up and I'm sure you know this is a community that really lifts you know, that's always like lifting people up, like you I'm. We're all about lifting other people up and trying to help other people to succeed, and so when you get to that point, don't forget those people that helped you because they maybe could still use a hand, you know, and so it's. It's one of those things. You see it, you hear about it and it doesn't feel good when it happens to you. And you know, I had a friend the other day. I was like, oh, this doesn't feel good when she was telling me about it.

Beth McMullen:

So just don't be that person when she was telling me about it. So just don't be that person. No, it's not a zero sum game. Somebody else's success does not negate your potential success. And I hate, I hate to see examples of this publishing universe working that way because it does none of us any good. Universe working that way because it does none of us any good. So, in addition to just not feeling good, we only get better by learning from each other, and there's lots of opportunity to engage with other writers in a positive way that helps them get where they're going, gets you smarter, all of those things. So, yes, be a positive influence in the universe.

Lisa Schmid:

It's not even just. I think it's just. It's like in middle school or in high school, when you're you all of a sudden you find yourself in the popular group, like all the popular kids are hanging out with the cool kids, and you're, you know, if you're that jerk, that's like, yeah, I don't want to hang out with these people anymore because they're not cool enough for me. That's the thing that makes me crazy.

Beth McMullen:

It's like yeah, and you do unfortunately see it.

Lisa Schmid:

Like you do, and it's just, you know, just sit there and go. They used to hang out with me. Now they don't, doesn't feel good. So just you know what, keep that in mind. It's good when you reach the point where you're hanging out with the cool kids and I'm using air quotes because I think we're all cool, but don't forget about those, you know, those uncool. Again, I'm using air quotes kids that you used to hang out with because they still, you know, they still want to hang out with you. That's is that. That's a good analogy. That's my middle school analogy.

Beth McMullen:

That is a good analogy from a middle grade writer who knows middle school very, very well. I do so. That's our spiel, that's our plea to people out there, to you know, let's all be the best versions of ourselves that we can.

Lisa Schmid:

I should put that on a t-shirt. Be the cool kid in the cool kid group.

Beth McMullen:

Right, right, absolutely. So, everybody, I hope that you've all bought Lisa's new book, heart and Souls, which is out now and available all over the place. So wherever you buy books, request it at your library, do all of those things, because it is really good and funny and I like it and I want you guys to read it. One other thing I'm doing this accountability group. If you are stuck in the middle of a manuscript, struggling with a new idea, or many ideas lost in the wilderness of revisions, all of those things that make our hearts race, join my sub stack totally free and you will see all the details there. I think this could be a really fun way to help each other over the finish line. So take a look for that Anything else you want to add Lisa?

Lisa Schmid:

Well, I just want to speak from experience, like having you as an accountability partner is thrilling and terrifying all at the same time, and so you are that person.

Beth McMullen:

I was that duck in your dream. I showed up and I was like Lisa, come on, let's go. I know I'm dressed as a duck, this is your dream, but let's get moving.

Lisa Schmid:

Right, it's so scary because that's how you're going to come to me in my dream tonight, like it's a big giant. I know it's going to come as a duck. And you know what I'm going to say when I see you in my dream yes, I do. Yeah, no, you are a good accountability partner and you always have good tips and tricks, and believe it or not. Even when I'm not writing, I'm thinking what would Beth do? What would Beth do?

Beth McMullen:

Oh God, that's scary. You're hearing my voice in your head.

Lisa Schmid:

Not good.

Beth McMullen:

Well, now that you're a duck, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack you're going to have to translate from duck to human. Oh, complicated, wow. All right, so that is it for today's crazy episode. Listeners, please remember to visit our website and find out how to support the show by subscribing, following and recommending, and please look for the ways to submit your questions, because we do love these questions. They're fun. We are back with episode 35 on September 30th and we're talking to literary agent Kathy Armstrong, who is at Marsal Lion. And we're talking to literary agent Kathy Armstrong, who is at Marsal Lion, so if you want to know what agents are thinking about and talking about, please join us for that one. These are always super interesting conversations and I always come away knowing things I didn't know before. So until then, happy reading, writing and listening. Bye, lisa Beth, bye guys.

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Beth McMullen

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Lisa Schmid

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