Anyone else jump stories every other day?

I've been looking through my unfinished (mostly unstarted) stories to see if there's anything that interests me, and I have at least twenty on my jump drive. That's just the ones I was interested in enough to write something down about them. I've probably forgotten a lot more. I've finished a grand total of two long stories (one novella, one novel) in my life. Neither of them ever reached publication-ready stage. I have yet to figure out the magic formula that will get me to finish most of the stories I start; I know I've never finished a story I outlined first, but I don't finish most of the ones I don't outline either.

So, short version: Does anyone else switch between stories so often you don't finish anything? And if you do, or used to have this problem, how do you deal with it?

Multiple Story Disorder. It's like Multiple Personality Disorder, but it only affects writers. I have 10 different story lines, 7 of which I've actually started writing, and only one completed book (as in finished, not published).

I'm always like that, I very rarely stick to a project, things normally gon't get past the 6th page. But Nano helped me, it was the first time I'd actually planned something and the deadlines helped a lot too. The problem I have is that at the moment i hear the slightest tiniest snipet of information, I'm like, 'that would make a good story' . But the fact is, my stories at least, take years to formulate in my head, just because I'm not writing them down, doesn't mean I'm not thinking about them. Sometimes it might just help to think things over first, make sure you know where you want the story to go, then fill in the gaps as you're writing. Hope that helps.

All the time. Sometimes in the space of an hour. Honestly, I don't deal with it. I just keep collecting bits and scraps of stories and waiting for them to catch my interest again so I can finish them off. A confession here: I only ever finish things during nano.
But when I try and stick to one thing, I set goals for myself: x number of words on this story, then I'd let myself go and do the new one or whatever.

THIS. When I finished my NaNo I thought I was cured. How wrong I was. >.> I'm stilling having trouble sticking to one project. I'm working on three stories at the moment. One's a sequel to my Nano, and two are just fun projects. Since I started writing in third grade? Probably somewhere around 100. Finished? My NaNo. That's it. Very. Extremely. Sad.

I've been going through some serious writer's block lately so I'm jumping between stories to try and get something done. Going back to old projects is always a nice thing.

I actually have a bunch of plot outlines and some started stuff.

The started stories are those that I wrote something down without fully exploring the plot outline. Ergo, as I'm writing I realize that the Impact Character doesn't actually give the Protagonist a differing perspective or there are huge holes in the logic of the argument I made in my incomplete outline or whatever. Story abandoned.

The reason I'll abandon a plot outline though is because as I'm working through the Story Mind, I'll discover that the character concepts are too archetypal or maybe the solution won't work out correctly or whatever. In essence, the concept won't create a good story. So it hits the skids.

If I'm able to fully develop the plot outline and create complex characters that fulfill all the dramatic requirements, THEN, I have a story that I can complete and the first draft is done in a matter of months.

For every manuscript I have, there are 10 discarded ideas. No bigs. In the immortal words of Jim Carey, "That's why we do these tests!"

With every story I begin with the thought: "I am going to get the published, and it'll be finished, and it'll be a great story!" And then I get a new idea and abandon it. I've written . . . (Counting right now . . .)

37 stories, all unfinished. :P But that's including the one I'm writing right now, at 72,523 words. I AM going to finish it. *swears oath to self*

Yeah . . . I think this one will be the breakthrough. I am going to finish it if it's the last thing I do, and move onto the sequel, Fallen Angels. (And then Broken Angels . . .)

I tend to work on a different project each day as a way of keeping myself from losing interest. The downside is that I end up with a lot of projects on the go at the same time and I only complete them very slowly.

I have a folder of stories in plastic wallets and only about 3 of them are actually finished first drafts - those are NaNo novels that I managed to complete all the way through and for two of them I have the proof copies from Createspace. There is my August Camp NaNo novel that I am still working on which is turning out to be far longer than I had anticipated. My November NaNo is in what I *think* is the final chapter, then there are various ideas amd half-written stories that I work on in turn. It's getting to the point that I've already readied a second folder as the current one is almost full to bursting. Some stories have got 2 plastic wallets as the pages won't all fit into one.

More recently, I have started doing some planning work in a specific exercise book and for Camp NaNo this year, I may try writing the actual novels in them as well, but I must get better at sticking with ideas and finishing them! It has always been a problem of mine.

I am constantly tempted to switch stories every other day, but once I start a novel it's too stubborn to be abandoned.
It's kind of strange how when you first start writing your worried you'll run out of of story ideas. Then when you write regularly new novel ideas are constantly nagging you to be started.

I'm trying really hard to stick to only one story at a time, but that appears to be failing... my NaNo needs finishing, I'm partway through redrafting another story, and I have yet -another- planned out.

wow every other day would be nice. i currently have two stories open; one set in present day about a thief, the other about a bunch of pirates in two hundred years time. if i get stuck on one i jump to the other for a bit. and if i'm stuck on both, i open a different one and edit that :/

That was the story of my writing life before NaNoWriMo and the Phase Outline. I would write the fun parts of different stories but never the beginning and end.

Then came NaNoWriMo and the Phase Outline. With a Phase Outline, I know where the story is going and I have fun figuring out the details that make up the beginning, middle and end.