3 Tricks For Easily Jumping Between Projects

In case you're a free-flowing project-hopper like me

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3 Tricks For Easily Jumping Between Projects

On tour for The Executioners Three a few weeks ago, one of the most common questions I got was some variation of:

Since you work on so many books at once, how do you keep them all separated in your head?

I love this question! Although, that said, my first instinct was to rebel against it. Oh, I don’t have any problem with that! It’s just natural.

However, as with many things in my writing process, once I actually sat down and considered it, I could tease out some tricks I rely on to keep so many distinctive stories and characters separated in my brain.

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1. Change the Font

This is by far the most important trick. Like, I can’t overstate how much I rely on this hack—and how much I cannot read one of my own books in Times New Roman ever again.

The standard font in publishing, when you turn it in to your editor/agent/pal, is 12pt Times New Roman (usually double spaced). For years, that was all I used.

Now I hate it.

And other than the font size and the spacing (I still use 12pt, but I set spacing to 1.5) nothing is ever the same between my books. Instead, I select a font that best fits the overall vibe of what I’m writing.

I’ll give you some examples. Below, I’ve got the opening chapter of Witchlight and another epic fantasy I’ve been chipping away at for a few years called The Alchemist and the Nightsong.

On the left is the opening chapter of Witchlight, on the right is the prologue of The Alchemist & the Nightsong

As you can see, I’ve chosen serif fonts for these books because a serif font just fits the vibe of “epic fantasy” in my mind. Witchlight is in Hoefler Text; Alchemist is in Georgia.

As you can guess, the characters in these books are completely different—not to mention the worlds and magics are nothing alike. Also, oh yeah! The tenses! I’ve got third past for Witghlight and third present for Alchemist.

But when I open up the documents? It only takes me a few sentences to slide right into one voice or the other.

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Okay, but what about books that are even more different? Like, not just two epic fantasies with tense changes?

Well, here are two projects. You’ll see that I again picked serif fonts—but note how different the voices are. Also, the genres.

On the left is the opening chapter Sector 26, on the right is the opening for The Hand that Feeds

You’ll also likely have spotted that I’ve got first person present tense in one project and third person present in the other. The one titled Sector 26 is a WWII vibes post-apocalyptic with monsters. The other (titled The Hand That Feeds) is a 1920s vibe detective story set in a fantasy city where gods are at war.

(The fonts, by the way, are Averia Libre¹ and Crimson Pro.)

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Last example, for something more “modern.” These are two screenshots from my upcoming Murder Quartet series. Although each book in that series is a romantic mystery horror set in an alternate 90s with ghosts and murder, each book also stands alone.

Different heroine, different mystery, different setting and romance each time. So, yet again, I must have different fonts for every book.

On the left is the prologue for Four & Twenty Blackbirds, on the right is the opening chapter for One Raven for a Dove

For the second Murder Quartet book (Four & Twenty Blackbirds), which is set on a tiny, blustery island in the middle of winter, I wanted something that felt edgy. Wren is dealing with a haunted Cold War era airfield and horrifying visions—and it’s very Twin Peaks meets Stranger Things. So I wound up with Optima as the font.

For the fourth Murder Quartet book (One Raven for a Dove), set at a remote, forested campus for a writer’s workshop (during fall), I wanted something that reflected my heroine—an aspiring mystery writer. She loves writing about sleuths and reading about sleuths, so I wanted a font that captured the feel of the paperbacks she’s always devouring. That font, in turn, is PT Serif.

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As I’m sure you can guess, I have so many more books I could share here. Some short stories too, all of which I am either working on currently or have finished this year.

I am not exaggerating when I say “I jump projects a lot.” Between Friday and Monday alone, I worked on three different books.

And no, I had zero problem just jumping from one voice + world to another.²

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2. Change the Playlist

This is a more obvious suggestion, since I feel like most writers make playlists for their books. I’m no different.

I’ve got a Witchlight playlist, filled with a lot of Two Steps from Hell and 2WEI.

I have an Alchemist playlist, which is mostly just the soundtracks from Baldurs Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 because I love Borislav Slavov. (This one and this one just gut me.)³

For the Murder Quartet, I have a weird playlist filled with present day hits like this, 80s classics like this, and 90s stuff I once loved like this.

I just pop on these assorted playlists, and bam! Vibes reclaimed.

I especially like listening to my playlists when I’m out for my runs. Because I tend to write a lot of action, I will literally (this is embarrassing to admit) pretend I’m my character running from a monster or blasting out magic or swinging a sword through battle.⁴

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3. Refer to the Color-Coded Moodboard

Moodboards are also popular for writers to make, and I’m no different in this regard. (I talked about making moodboards here.)

However, one thing I do for my moodboards is give them a unified color scheme. This helps me really lock into the vibes—and I will tweak and adjust the colors a bajillion times until the moodboard is just right and accurately reflects what I feel inside my brain.

Here are some examples, and I think you can see with a glance just how different each of these books must feel.

From left to right on the top row, we've got a spring-set Murder Quartet book called Three Mollys in the Well, then Four & Twenty Blackbirds, then The Alchemist & the Nightsong, then on the bottom row, left to right, I have The Hand that Feeds, Sector 26, and Two For Joy (my summer-set Murder Quartet book)

You can see we’ve got a pink spring scheme, a red-and-white winter scheme, a purple epic fantasy scheme, a sunset-and-turquoise mystery scheme, a sepia war/apocalypse scheme, and lastly a green-and-yellow summer scheme.

I have all of these moodboards in my Scrivener files, and sometimes—if I’m really wanting to make sure I nail the vibes and the voice—I’ll paste the moodboard directly into the notes feature on the Inspector panel. Then I constantly see the images and colors as I’m drafting.

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A Note for the Non-Visual Creators

I realize not everyone uses visuals in the same way I do to create—and of course, some of you might be visually impaired. I get it! When my migraines are bad, I cannot look at screens or anything bright.

In fact, my migraines are why I turned to the Voice Dream Reader app after two of my friends (who are visually impaired themselves) recommended it.⁵

So on those days when I can’t rely on mixed-up fonts to help me out—specifically if I’m editing—I will instead let the robotic voices from Voice Dream Reader help me. You can use different accents, different styles, and that also helps me “click” into a new voice, world, and story.

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Your turn! I’d love to know if YOU have any tricks for jumping between projects. Share them in the comments if you do—because I will 100% give them a try myself and see if they work for my brain.

Now, off I go to get edits on Two For Joy turned in before Friday as well as edits on one of my other projects that is a totally different genre and voice (😉). And oh yeah, I have so much promo to do for Witchlight.

I love being busy, though, especially when my personal/family life is (mostly) steady and calm.⁶ So I would not have it any other way.

💚 - Sooz

1. I had to download this one from Google Fonts because I just couldn’t capture the right vibe with any of the fonts pre-installed on my MacBook.

2. Okay, sometimes I might accidentally start typing a different main character name when I’m first easing in—if I’m working in third person, I mean. BUT I immediately catch myself, snort at my silliness, fix it, and proceed on.

3. Also, play BG3 and D:OS2. Incredible, incredible games.

4. This is kind of the only way I can endure my runs. No joke. I mentally transport myself into another world, and look at that! Somehow I’ve gone three miles without realizing it because I was so wrapped up in my character.

5. If you want better voices, you could also try Speechify, but they have shadier terms of service. I was advised not to use them if I want to safeguard my intellectual property.

6. Oh jeez, did I just curse myself?