In the last week, I’ve started four new documents—an idea for revising a draft, two new short stories (at least one of which will become part of an in-progress novel), and this post for Pseudographia. In addition to the other short stories and novel that I’m working on, that’s a lot to keep track of. Without a system, it can be hard to keep focus. Without focus, I can spend all my time starting projects and no time finishing them. So, it’s important for me to keep track of all works that are “in progress” and focus on moving those through the process from initial ideas through early drafts, revising, editing, and eventually submission and publication.
In Ulysses, I keep all of my active projects in a smart folder by tagging them with the term “in progress”. As I create new projects, they are automatically added to this group. For novels, all chapters are placed in the novel’s folder, and only the active one is labeled “in progress”. Each week, I review the folder and remove the “in progress” tag from sheets I haven’t worked on in the last couple of weeks. Pruning the list helps me keep it limited and relevant.
Another way that I keep the group relevant is to try to limit the projects in each stage of writing. I may be coming up with ideas for one story while drafting a second, revising a third and working on the query letter for another. In addition to my fiction, there is often a blog post or article in the “in progress” folder. Unlike fiction, the lifespan for posts is extremely short—it either moves to publication in a couple days or is archived and subsequently forgotten.
Committing to tracking and completing “in progress” projects has allowed me to focus on the writing that is most important to me and to maintain my momentum. The system is nice to have, but the commitment is necessary.
Do you have a good strategy for staying focused and making progress on your writing or other projects? If so, let me know on Twitter: @jamescraig.