Writing More than One Series At a Time by Marilyn Levinson

For years I marveled at how so many authors I know managed to write more than one series at a time. I have friends who write three cozy series. How? I wondered. Don't you get your plots mixed up? Call your characters by the wrong name? A few told me they finished one book, then wrote another. But some, because of their contracts, ended up writing at least two books simultaneously. How did they do it?

Eventually, I found out when I was in a similar situation. My agent, now deceased, got me a four-book deal for a middle-grade series. The first book had been published; the second book was written and about to be released when the publisher went kaput. I'd even written two-thirds of the third book, Rufus and the Dark Side of Magic, so I hadn't much farther to go.

Meanwhile, I'd been writing an 80,000 plus word cozy mystery every year. This year I was writing the first book in a brand-new series that required a good deal of planning. I had to finish Rufus and the Dark Side of Magic. Now I had two books due within a few months of each other. I felt a surge of panic. What to do? What to do?

First off, I went over my Rufus book, made sure it was in good shape, and plotted out the final third which includes a lot of conflict. Then I concentrated on Death on Dickens Island, my first Dickens Island mystery, and its complications. I told myself I'd try to write a little more than I had been each day. But as the due date for my Rufus book was fast approaching, I now had to write pages for both books. I wasn't sure if I could manage this.

I reminded myself that I read and listened to several books at the same time. I'd been doing this for years and never got the stories mixed up. Hopefully, this ability would work when I wrote my books as well. I discovered that going over the pages I'd written the day before helped get me into my work In progress. When I was writing my cozy, I was in the head of a thirty-eight year old divorcée who often didn't know how to deal with her teenaged son because she'd left him in the care of her parents for twelve years. Next, I was writing about ten-year-old Rufus who'd been lured to the dark side of magic by his evil uncle. Because the books are so different, I had no trouble going from one manuscript to the other.

I am managing to write two series simultaneously, though there are days I only write pages for one of my WIPs. The truth is I prefer writing one book at a time because other writerly "homework" always crops up in the form of edits for a previously-written book, blogs, newsletters, and answering interview questions. 

If you are a writer, are you comfortable writing more than one book at a time?