Writing More Than One Novel at Once

By: Ebonye Gussine Wilkins

I used to think that people who wrote more than one novel at once were a little overly ambitious. Especially since it took me ten years to finish writing my novel before getting it ready to market, I thought I just didn’t have the focus to take on such an enormous task. If it took me ten years to write one, how on earth was I supposed to write more than one in the same period of time?

Well, for what it’s worth, even with on-and-off writing, I’ve managed to get 45% of my second novel written within four months. Not bad at all. And it will be done before the end of the year. But I’ve actually have thought out my third and fourth novels already. I’m kind of really excited about them, so I’ve been itching to write them.

Fortunately for me, I’m the kind of person who must finish whatever I’ve started. That’s just the way I’ve always been, so I have no fear that I won’t finish my second novel. I know I will also finish it on schedule. But I was just really anticipating starting my third one. I have published friends who always write more than one book at once. I didn’t think I had that same power.

I was recently re-reading The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and I was paying close attention to the descriptions used, because for me, that’s the best part. Feeling extra inspired, I suddenly stopped what I was doing, and starting writing my third novel. Within an hour, I had an entire first chapter written (my chapters are always short, so it’s not like I sat there and wrote 5,000 words, but I did get around 700 words written). Again, not bad. I was so fired up, that I went ahead and finished chapter 22 of Bobbing and Weaving which I hadn’t touched in weeks.

Have you ever attempted to write more than one novel at once? Would you ever try it? Why or why not?