One vs More

So some of y'all may already know this...but I currently only have one horse.

And coming from a girl who loved having 5-7 horses on the property...from a girl who dreams about owning allllllll kinds of different horses...from a girl who has been caring for ~4 horses for a few years now...it's weird to say this, but...

It's kind of nice only having one horse.

For one thing, my vet/farrier/feed costs have gone waaaaaaaaaay down.

Chores take less time.

And, ultimately, I have more time to spend with Pepper.

I no longer have to juggle which horses I need to ride, or beg friends/family to help me get them all ridden. I just...hop on Pepper and go.

It's nice. Less stressful. But at the back of my mind, I miss having all those horses in the pasture. I think of all the horses I could have, and wish I had tons of money to buy and care for them all.

I need to remember...having more horses will not make me happier. Having more horses will not make me a better horsewoman. Having more horses doesn't even make me more "cool" of a person.

What makes me happy is finishing a quick 4 mile ride with Pepper and realizing he was perfectly behaved for the whole trip. What makes me a better horsewoman is seeing how Pepper wasn't so well behaved when I purchased him, and he's only this way after years of me working with him. What makes me "cool" is that I have a well behaved horse that I trained myself.

I feel like this can be applied to writing.

We pride ourselves on all our stories. Our multi-book series WIPs that we are editing. The new idea that just we started fleshing out. That 200,000+ word draft we just completed. We love thinking about and talking about and fangirling about alllllll our stories.

But I think we all could benefit from taking a step back and thinking about something.

I have a friend who half a year ago, owned 9 horses/ponies. She was always begging me to come over and help ride them. She was paying tons of money for shoes and feed and was only riding each horse maybe once or twice on each new set of shoes/hoof trims. And her horses could be a handful because they weren't getting out a lot.

I have another friend who owns one horse. She rides him once or twice a week, and he is super calm and well behaved and is in pretty good shape.

Now think about all your WIPs.

Do you have a ton of them that are begging for your attention? Are you chipping away at all of them, working on each one a page at a time? Maybe some edits on this book here...some drafting another book there...now worldbuilding a third book for a little bit...all the while telling yourself someday these will all be published and it will be awesome!

My friend knew all her horses were good horses...but she just didn't have the time to devote riding all of them.

Currently she has her numbers down to 6, and is probably going to get them down to 4 by the end of spring, leaving her with 2 good horses and 2 good ponies for her kids.

It wasn't easy for her. But she's already happier and less stressed, knowing she can spend more time riding the few she has.

Are you the one ricocheting between all your WIPs, while another person has published one book and is starting on another new story? Are you tired of never reaching the end and having so many projects halfway finished?

I think we can all benefit from sitting back and saying...I will get all of these done someday, but I need to do it one at a time.

I love all my WIPs. My plan is to have them all published someday. But I picked my favorite and I'm pushing it with all I've got. That will soon be finished, and finished completely. Then I can pick back up with the next thing.

I miss 2018, when I had 4 horses. But I am also looking forward to spending all my evenings and Saturdays riding Pepper, or even helping friends get all their horses ridden. It wasn't easy...but I think it's for the best.

I miss the days when I was working on alllll the stories...but I am looking forward to completely wrapping up The Red War Trilogy this year and having that under my belt so I can begin the next adventure.

What about y'all? Do you need to sit back and decide...it may not be easy, but it might be time to put down everything but one story...and begin the long and slow march to finish one book at a time.

Writing only one book at a time does not make you less of a writer. It helps you to be a more focused writer. And it may be the faster path to you being a published writer.

I don't tell people about the 15 unfinished drafts I have. I tell them "I have one published piece of flash fiction, and a fantasy trilogy that is currently out with a few publishing houses."

And that's what I'm working on.

What about y'all? If I asked the dreaded oh, you're a writer? What are you working on? question...what kind of an answer would I get? Drop it below in the comments!