Ask Tina: How to Manage Multiple Writing Projects
Ask Tina offers advice to a writer struggling to prioritize multiple projects, advocating for trusting creative instincts over rigid organizational systems.
Tina Goodyear
September 04, 2025
Dear Ask Tina,
I am currently juggling multiple writing projects, and I don’t know which one to focus on. So I end up procrastinating and not getting anything finished. I have a completed manuscript of a novel I’m ready to send out, but I need to give it a full review as well as finish my submission package. I also committed to writing a 50,000-word memoir, and the deadline is next month (I’m about halfway there). I’m also trying to send out shorter pieces to (hopefully) begin building a published portfolio. There are only so many hours per week that I can commit. What is the best way to organize my schedule?
Thank you for your advice!
Sincerely,
Juggling
Dear Juggling,
While I write this advice to you and our readers, I am also writing it to myself, of course. We writers are either woefully lamenting a lack of ideas or overwhelmed by projects in various stages of done-ness. The latter seems a fantastic problem to have: so much talent, so much to offer, so little time!
If you binge Eckhart Tolle like I do, you might come to see time as an illusion, a construct, something we think we can control. It ends up controlling us, and that seems to be what’s going on here, Juggling. So, my advice will not center on purchasing some special software package, buying a giant whiteboard for your office, or investing in Post-It note stock. Although these can all be helpful, they offer the promise of a magic bullet, and I’ve come to the dramatic conclusion that there is no such thing. I find meditation, visualization, and a simple daily “to-do” list work far better than tomato timers and S.M.A.R.T. goals.
That said, many writers swear by Scrivener, a writing software, and others use Markdown Folders and other technologies to help them stay organized, but I don’t feel comfortable endorsing any products or gadgets, especially ones I’ve never used!
It might be controversial to suggest that time spent uber-organizing can be a distraction from doing the work, but there…I said it. So first, take a nice deep breath. Let’s try to apply a sprinkle of reason to what truly is unreasonable: the life of an artist. It’s as if writers are continually walking the plane between consciousness and subconsciousness — one demands order and issues deadlines, the other sends an over-zealous, ill-timed, beautiful muse. All the organizing you can muster will not keep her from having her say. She takes precedence.
Think of the last time you cleaned out and organized a closet, a junk drawer, the garage. What happens a few weeks, months, or a year later? It’s a mess again. Now, think of the last time your muse took over your hands and wrote for an hour seemingly without your knowledge. Which one was more satisfying?
Maybe it is possible that organizing frees the muse. Maybe, but she and I don’t have that kind of relationship. You might. If so, here’s some practical advice. Look at real deadlines, and try to meet those first. Is your editor waiting for that manuscript? Then focus on that project, and try to quiet the voices inside telling you all the other things you should be doing. If you don’t, those voices might be unwittingly sabotaging a potential publication deal.
Next, let’s handle the memoir (which I suspect is for book inc’s Memoir Incubator). Believe me, your fellow writers will be more worried about their own word count than yours. Submit what you have, and see if you can feel proud of your accomplishment. You kept a promise to yourself to write most every day. Consider that the average person reaches this time of year empty-handed, wondering where the time went, but you have evidence of your accomplishment, even if it is ten thousand words shy of an arbitrary word count. I promise, the memoir police will not come looking for you!
As far as the shorter pieces, they will have to wait patiently while you take care of these larger projects. Maybe you can borrow snippets from the larger pieces, as I’ve suggested in a previous post, and send them off for publication to draw attention to these larger works-in-progress. But clearly, they are not the priority right now. Soon, the Short-Piece Muse will work her magic, and you will know it’s time to submit. She can only do so much, Juggler, just like you!
About Ask Tina
Tina Goodyear is a board member of Project Write Now and a book inc Peer Artist Leader. She recently completed a draft of her memoir, FROM THE NECK DOWN. When not writing or teaching the art of writing, she helps adult students earn college credit for their work and life experiences.
About book inc
book inc is a writing collective dedicated to helping writers draft, revise, and publish memoirs and novels. Our book incubators and revision workshops help writers realize their artistic and commercial potential.