Are Schedules Bad?

Are writing schedules detrimental to writing?

Alright, let me explain. I don't mean setting a specific day and time to release a story. I know that would negatively impact my writing, but what I'm talking about is having a specific order in which you want to write stories.

For example, after writing Her Z-Form, I started working backward, making a story in Kalos, then Unova, and then Sinnoh, and the Hoenn, etc. until Kanto. But this binds me to only work on one story at a time. This has already impacted one story, Thinking About Her, and I'm afraid that the same will happen to other stories.

So schedules, yay or nay? The answer may seem obvious: Ditch the schedule, but I'm a very organized person, and I don't want to abandon my pattern halfway through.

Also, was the wording on this alright? I feel like it was a little unclear.

Falsehoods, falsehoods all along.

Allow me to elaborate. You are saying that working on multiple stories at the same time is counter to working as an "organized person". The thing is you are conflating two different things: schedule (when to work on things, or in what order) versus workflow (what process to follow to work on things). Your workflow should be formed as a series or a cycle of steps from which you can engage or disengage according to eg.: your needs and available time. Something like, for example:

Idea formulation → Design → Planning → Drafting → Writing → Testing / Beta-reading → Publication

Click to expand...

(This is only an example workflow)

If you recompose your workflow, then you should be able to work on say two stories at a time, at different stages (say planning on one, writing on the other). This is even more important to learn to do if the stories are interrelated, as keeping the planning stage open for the related stories will help you avoid issues such as plotholes and retcons that can become nasty if only approached at the writing stage or later.

So, schedules? Yay. By all means. Do work in a certain order. But I think this is far less about schedule and more about workflow: the way you seem to have organized your current workflow model is one that somehow locks you or prevents you from making any progress in a given story, even in the early stage of design, unless you have completed the cycle of the previous one.

I'd say wait until you have completed your current story (it's true it's not a good idea to change workflow midway through), then set up to try something new. That is, life permitting of course. Some people just don't have the energy or the time to keep tabs on two stories at a time - if that is your case and the stories are related to each other, I suggest taking advantage of a split workflow and complete the design and planning stage for all your stories before resuming the writing stage; but otherwise I'd just say iterate between the writing stage of one to the planning stage to the next.

Generally, multitasking is done WAYYYYY to much by me nd not always is a good thing. But the main reason it works is more based on mood for me. I do have a work on the forum, but I can assure you that I have another (one I tend to pay more attention to) in development. Now, I'm not advocating for multitasking, I understand it's not for everyone, but I can say that when your burned out in writing one work doing another is a good way to make use of your time.

It may be frustrating to have a schedule for your stories (as you said with the Z-form).
Despite this, it might not be your incapability to multitask with a schedule, but that specific schedule is not right for you to multitask. I find it helpful when working on two stories at once to choose two that are pretty different, so to keep confusion at bay better. So I would advise instead of working on two of your series at once, that you work on one, them divert your attention on some other piece you plan on doing that isn't related. It may seem slow, but it's better than suffering from frustration due to writers block on you main story. Plus, breaks are important. Don't feel that as a writer you can't afford to rest your head or get your mind off typing. It's good to get your head out of the clouds.

I wish you the best of fortune in your future objectives!

I think schedules are only a bad thing if you can't keep to them. If you're struggling to keep up with a schedule it just makes you stressed which hurts your writing and inevitably leads to writers block, but if you're not struggling too much it keeps you actually writing which is one of the hardest parts.