I'm currently editing, and re-editing the dual reality and also trying to start on another faye and jack novel. However, I'm finding that neither task is very successful. I don't seem to be able to get my head out of one book and into the other - if you see what I mean? Perhaps I should wait until I've finished editing TDR until I start another novel but I really would like to get going on the new one. How does anyone else manage? I did read an interview with an author who writes under two names, in two different styles and copes with it by having two desks, two computers etc and just switches between the two but that's not really an option for me!
Sue

I’ve always written two books at the same time! I find that, if I get stalled with one, I can switch to the other and keep writing. I’ve never – touch wood – been at a point where I was stuck on both at the same time. But I’ve not tried writing two stories about the same characters simultaneously. That could be tricky.

If you are serious about being published – and I think you are – you will have to learn how to do this. I know two authors, both crime writers, each writing a series about the same main characters. One of them has her fourth novel coming out at the end of this month and the other is working on her third.
Now I used to naively think that once my ms had been accepted by a publisher I could forget about it and concentrate on the next one. Not so, according to my friends. The publisher will ‘suggest editorial changes’ which is a euphemism for ‘change these bits or we’re not playing’. At the same time they’re asking you how soon you can turn in the next one. And do you have an outline of the one after that…

So you’ll have to get used to it. What you could do, to keep the two stories separate in you head is try using a different font and/or a different font colour for each one. You’ll develop a Pavlovian response and slip effortlessly into the right storyline.

Or, if it won’t disturb the rest of the family (or if you have headphones and music on your PC) you could try listening to different music for each one. It sounds daft but I think it helped me. I listened to rock/heavy metal while I was writing Driving Force and Baroque for the other one I was writing in tandem (my favourite but, sadly, still languishing in the wings).

Or if your problem is self-discipline with the editing, you could, say, commit to spending two hours on that before you switch to the new one.
I would suggest, for your own sanity, to concentrate on finishing the first one. Keep the second one open and, if bits of it are blocking you, get them out of your head. Just make a few notes so you can forget them and then move back to the first one. There’s something enormously satisfying about finishing a novel. I used to believe that I would never be able to accept that I’d finished one but realise now that I felt that way because it wasn’t as finished as it could be. Over Christmas I’ve revised Driving Force based on the reasons the first publisher rejected it and I feel like my toddler has suddenly grown up.

Hope this helps.
Dee.

Dee's advice sounds good Sue. I was going to make a rather flippant comment that if you needed two computers etc, then you might need two whole rooms as well. It does sound hard having to slip from one to the other though. I remember hearing that Malcolm Lowry had several desks in his room and moved from one to the other, when he was sober enough to write, and just picked up where he left off across several bits of work. I wonder if that's true.
My thoughts are that if you are finding you can get on with the editing of one novel, but not the other, just carry on with the one.
Good Luck,
Becca.

Thanks Dee. This does help. I'll certainly try the music thing! I think part of the problem is I have so much enthusiasm for the new book that I want to put the tedious (for me anyway) task of editing the first one aside. I know that story so well now that I want to move on. I also have to do a lot of research for the new one so have piles and piles of books, notes all over the place. I think I'm drowning in paper! Maybe I need to organise myself a bit better.

Now when do you know that the editing is done? I think I'm there but then I re-read and have to change it again... Sometimes I feel like setting fire to the lot and starting again. Oh well.

How about two houses? With a connecting door in case it's too cold to go outside. Or I could move into a huge mansion and have one wing for the current book, one wing for editing, one for getting some inspiration and the other for spending far too much time (which I do!) on the WW website! Oh wouldn't that be nice? I'd get more exercise than I do now that way too!

On a serious note, thanks for your advice. I hope I'm nearly there with the editing so I might get on with that and just make notes or do my research for the new book. Then I can feel that I'm at least making some progress with it.