To write one or to write two, that is the question

[SnakeYukin]

Alright, so I have this nasty habit of creating multiple stories at a time, sometimes I think them up when I'm writing a story already. In doing this, it has caused me to have a stockpile of stories that may or may not ever see the light again: nearly 50+ story ideas I've come up with. So this usually ends up making me either a) giving up on the story I was writing and start the new one; b) continue on the story I'm currently on and lose the other one; and sometimes c) I write both at the same time.

I'm only bringing this up because, currently, I'm about to finish my first novel (yeah, go me). For a story to do after it, I originally thought of a sequel (which is planned); however, I decided it woud be wise to get a break from that character/story and go onto another story. This is where the problem started.

Originally, I had an idea for a story similar to Sly Cooper (if anyone's played that) but involves human. If you haven't played it, just imagine a heist story with a group of theives. Then before I could start that story, I had an assignment in Creative Writing, in which I had to create a character; in due process, made me think of a new story based on that new character. However, that idea, luckily went away, didn't seem that good, but now there's another story that's taken it place.

Now I'm at the point of being unsure if I should try to do like I've done before, write both (alternating which story's chapter I write) or to focus on one. So what do you guys/gals think? Oh, and do you also have this problem from time to time or do I just happen to think about stuff way too much?

[forsythe]

I've been writing for about fifteen years now, and your dilemma is an all too common occurrence amongst artists in this particular field of creativity. A "curse of the writer" if you will.

I often find myself in your situation quite frequently; when you couple that with my tendency to procrastinate, not a lot gets done sometimes, but I digress. Often when you put a project off or to the side, you forget about it or never continue work on it due to lack of interest or other reasoning.

What I've learned though is sometimes you never know how good or bad an idea truly is until you see how far you can run with it. So while it can be a bit frustrating and perhaps creatively straining, if you don't want to miss the boat on writing a masterpiece or number of masterpieces, then work on your projects simultaneously.

[SnakeYukin]

Yeah, however right now, I think I'm going with writing one story only, then go with the next story later. Mainly, because I notice that when I write two at the same time, one's ideas seem to flourish quicker than the other and then overshadows the other, so I quit the other one and continue one. Then if the one I continue to write starts to stink, I have this tendency of going back to the other story and not being able to get into the groove for that story or want to redo the entire story, which I may eventually do. Thanks for the response though.