Multiple Story Disorder

Recently, I've been seeing a number of people talk about the troubles they've been having involving multiple story ideas. Talking to fellow Wrimo Itzika, I have decided to start a support group for people with Multiple Story Disorder (MSD). Feel free to discuss, rant, or ask questions that you may have about the problems you've been having due to MSD.

I wish to start with a simple rant:
Stupid unfinished story that I was working on before NaNoWriMo decided it wanted to be worked on not long after NaNo had started. I had a great story to work on for NaNo, but all I got done was the prologue before the other story grabbed me by the leg and dragged me away. Now I have yet another story that has started, but needs finishing.

Arrrrrgh multiple story disorder. I know this entirely too well.

What really slammed me into a wall this NaNo wasn't really that the previous story wanted to come out and play, although it did, it was that they're set in the same universe and I had to keep mentally checking to make sure things were consistent. So I scrapped a couple of plots for having too much magic, one for being way too dark, one for fitting into the setting but not fitting the characters... I've finally hit on something that I think works. Too bad it's January, not November.

I have SO MANY stories set in this stupid setting and I have this horrible feeling that I need to work on them all at once, which I really need to break myself of. It's just that all of them tie into the main story and and and arrrrgh.

Multiple Story Disorder probably explains the many, many unfinished stories. Most of them are set in the same universe.

Augh.

Okay, just as something a little different to throw into this thread, how many stories do you have, how many have you started and not finished, and how many have you completed?

I currently have 10 different story ideas (not counting sequels), 7 of which I have started, and a grand total of 1 completed story.

Sadly, that one I completed has a sequel that I have started and need to get back to.

I have MSD as well. I have the following unfinished stories:

DeFord Chronicles 2 and 3
2 DeFord Chroniclers spin-offs (one a true spin-off and the other a prequel)
a Western Jane Austen story
an alternate universe Jane Austen story
a Jane Austen prequel type thing
a Gothic parody
an original Regency story
a deliberately bad Romance novel
two or three untitled Historical fiction novels
a stageplay
something that might or might not be a novel, about history recreators renting a castle for the summer
a soap opera fan fic that never got beyond chapter 3
another soap opera fan fic that made it as far as chapter 6 (different soap opera)
and then there are the stories I haven't even started yet...

I have a big problem with this. My Nano was the longest story I've ever managed to write, with me getting distracted by other ideas about 70 pages in.

After Nano, I wrote an awesome short novel for my final English project. my teacher keeps insisting I turn it full length and publish. I started to, then came up with an idea for another story. Got about 1 chapter of that then came up with a new idea, which I wrote down and promised myself to hold onto for next Nano. Then I got on here a few days later and found a title that inspired a new trilogy, which is my current project. I'm 2 chapters into the first book, which has changed twice, once being when it changed from a single story to a trilogy, at which point the original story went to a MMC instead of a FMC and from past to present tense.

Yeah, I think I suffer from MSD. And by "suffer" I mean "enjoy every minute of it".

I currently have an idea for a sequel to my 2011 novel (which, along with 2007, would make a trilogy!) but it's only the basic premise. At the same time I have a competing idea based on an RPG I played last year and really loved the ending on. And the setting of my 2010 Nano was far too broad to completely fill out in those 30 days so I have seemingly hundreds of loose plot elements that are screaming for integration in one form or another.

Most of my stories take place in one fantasy realm.

My two major sub-series are set about a thousand years apart.
I've got "Elfmarked" with its epic quest and assassins and elves.
I've got my highland series with the knights in shining armor, spies, damsels in distress, and the occasional dragon.

Another major set of stories is set even later in the world's history, but I haven't worked on them in a long time. I'd have to scrap a lot of it, since the rules have changed a lot since then.
I've also got stories scattered in between the major series, most of them little more than a summary.

My 2004, 2009, and 2010 NaNo's were spawned from my epic. (2010 was a rewrite of "The Elfmarked." I'm a Rebel.)
My 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011 NaNo's were all part of the highland series.

Oh yes, and ideas based on my 2008 Nano creep into mind from time to time too.

They should make that an official diagnose, at least that would give me an excuse for never finishing anything *coughs and shoves her unfinished stories under the carpet*

I don't even know why I keep starting new stories. I *like* the ones I already have, it's not even like I was sick of them or something. I just... keep starting something new. And again. And again.

Sometimes, I wish for a dozen clones so I could write all the time and finally finish something...

I have a character( the protagonist) and he is the reason behind my disorder. I let him have his way so its interesting, at the same time he wanders off, telling me about what happened AFTER the 1st book ends.

I am trying very hard to keep him in check...

I have enough story ideas to keep me going from now until the end of the century. They will generate enough spinoffs to keep me going for another century or two. Those will generate enough spinoffs and new ideas to keep me going for even longer.

Now I just have to figure out how to live that long.

At the moment I am juggeling seven. Two shorts (one being edited, the other planned), one fanfic (waiting to be rewritten and finished), and four originals (one to rewrite and finish, three to research and plan). And a ton of ideas sitting in my idea notebook, waiting for me to come back to them.

I'm currently working on one story, but I have an idea for about 4 others. I think I might start working on one of the others too, because this main one is giving me hell. I think I might need a break from it.

Oh man, do I ever have this.

I'm trying to work on this one story that just refuses to get going. I've been working with it for the last, oh, 5 years? I just want it done by this point. Done and out of sight. Ugh. It's got a lot of high thematic elements in it which is giving me problems, not to mention the whole "plot" issue of getting from point A to point B...and not knowing what exactly I'm trying to say in the meanwhile.

Then there's this other story idea I've been working on, which seems to be episodic in nature. I finished writing the Ending of it, and then decided that I could use that to write the Beginning. So I'm working through editing the 50-page manuscript, while trying to figure out how to start off book number 2...

At least I'm not alone in this.

I used to have something like sixty unfinished stories. Then I stopped counting. There's more now. I think I've finished around 13 (a lot of them are pretty short), but I sort of lost count on that, too, and at least one of them decided last week that it didn't want to be finished anymore. If I leave a story alone for long enough, though, it tends to sort of die. I don't know anymore how many have died since last time I worked on them. Hopefully a few from when I was eleven, and nothing too exciting. The one I'm supposed to be working on has been going two years now, and hasn't given me any details about how it ends. This is irritating. It will be dealt with, hopefully, before Script Frenzy.

Personally, I only have four unfinished stories. One is this year's NaNo, one is last year's, one is just something I work on when I need to break writer's block on another story, and the last one is something that is so cliched and unoriginal I only sometimes work on it for immense sentimental reasons.

I don't know about any of the rest of you, but I have a notebook where I keep story ideas. None of them spring into being fully formed, so I put down whatever comes to me and then leave it to sit. Sometimes I don't get ideas so much as scenes with characters. So I have a scenebook that I write those down in. If I need to, I can add those scenes to a story that works for them, or fully formulate the plot and put into the idea notebook later.

This is how I keep from starting too many at once. Oh, and I also have an unfinished fanfic that is rather OOC, so I do plan on finishing that at some point, but not before revising and getting into the characters' heads better, so that I can get it right.

Hey, there are others like me? *Eye twitch faintly calming* *Breaks out in sobbing* I am SOOOOOO glad I'm not the only one!!!!!!

Okay, so I was doing really well over the summer, loved my idea for Nano, however, the closer it got the faster new ideas were popping up. (Think of the gopher game where you have to whack them over the head.) *NO! don't come out now! I don't need you now! Back to the murky depths from whence you came! WHACK!!!*
I did finish my original story and am excited about it as ever. Since the end of November I've only had one or two more ideas. One of which I started. . . . . and only made about 2500 words before it petered out and now I don't know what to do with it. I guess I could always go grab one of the half dozen I have waiting on the back burner, but I'm afraid cabin fever is kicking in and nothing is interesting me. (Which also means the minute I have a new idea and start it I'll get bored with it after the first few pages) *sigh*

Notebooks are very, VERY useful, however, I have a suggestion - In addition to the scenes you get, make sure to jot down the general direction you were thinking for said story. I have a stack of notebooks that hold sporadic scenes (because I can never find the right notebook when I need it:) Flipping through one recently I came across a two page scene that I'd written years ago. It is wonderful! I love the characters, and the whole underlying theme is really intriguing. . . . however. . . . I reached the end of my little blurb, wanting to know what happened next. . . . . . and I drew a complete and utter BLANK!!!!! I can't remember where I was taking this story, or what my original idea had even been!!!! And it is driving me nuts because I love what I have, but I don't have anything to go on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i know they say you shouldn't diagnose yourself from the internet.... but i have all the symptoms!! (lol)

This. This times a million.

I like to refer to this infuriating infliction as AADD - Author Attention Deficit Disorder. It seems like whenever I come up with a vague idea for a potential story, I'll come up with a different idea just as I'm starting to think seriously about ways to flesh out the first one. Then I'll have another unrelated idea on top of that one and so on.

As a result, I have a tonne of story ideas but none with any meat on their bones. Or bones in general. In the fact, the vast majority of my story ideas don't have anything written for them, outside of a few rough notes in WordPad - not even a basic structure! Never mind unfinished novels, I can't even get mine started! XP

NaNoWriMo was one of the only times last year I was able to actually get one of my story ideas up and going, and even see it through to the end. Over Christmas, however, I've fallen back into my fickle ways. How do the rest of you try and keep yourseves from getting too distrac-

Oh, a butterfly!