multi-tasking like it's my job

current tuneage: Pardon Me - Incubus

So I talked a little bit yesterday about how I've begun outlining for my third novel. In the meantime, I'm researching for my second novel before I begin writing the second draft. I have stacks of books at home on forensics, how detectives and police forces work, and the nature of sociopaths and serial killers among general research on how best to rewrite a novel. Every night I try to skim through at least one of these books, highlighting and dog-earing pages so that when it actually comes time to rewrite I can locate the information I need as quickly as possible. Occasionally another idea to add or change to that novel comes to my head and I'll add it to the ongoing list.

So that's two projects I'm working on.

I've also recently decided that it couldn't hurt to try and publish a short story in a journal. It's supposed to look good in a query letter and it gives me yet another thing to do while waiting to rewrite the second novel, to hear back from agencies that have my first novel and for more ideas to come to me for the third novel. As if I don't have enough going on already.

Project count: 3.

But, my passion is clearly writing and the more I write the better I seem to feel. I've always enjoyed reading more than one book at a time, so why am I surprised to find that I equally enjoy working on more than one writing project at at a time? If nothing else, it keeps me on my toes and improves my writing, which, in the end, is all that matters.