Five Ways Fridays: Too many Writing or Reading Projects

Whether your a writer or a reader, spreading yourself too thin can be draining. I ought to know. Just a while ago, I was working on eight books, that's right, count them one...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight.

Whew, it's hard just counting to eight. It didn't work out too well. What was I thinking? Multi-tasking is one thing, but octo-tasking is another.

But...I think I've finally steadied my writing ship. Here are 5 things I learned doing it.

1.  Although it's good to have a lot of ideas, writing a little here and a little there dilutes your effort.
2. Find someone or something to help you decide what to focus on. Get as much information as you need to make a good decision.
3. When in doubt, ask your readers (if you're a writer) or a trusted friend (if you're a reader). If you're both, then, aren't you lucky? You'll have two sources of answers.
4. When a trusted reader gives you information, listen. If it sounds logical, at least try it. In this case, my   trusted reader asked me, are any of these books part of a series? Of course, then it became logical to choose to work on the series book, which by the way, happens to be the best seller.
5. Once you've decided, follow through and stick with your decision. In this case, it hasn't been hard because I'd already finished 1/4 of the book and had detailed notes for the rest. Although I'm writing this as a writer, I've also tried to read several books at the same time. That dilutes the experience, too, so maybe all of these steps also apply to readers...at least they apply to me as reader...

Let me know what your experience has been with writing or reading too many books at once.