I went back over my first blog posts and realized I’m making the same mistake I made before I even started this project of trying to become a real author.

Back then, I wrote:

I have dozens of series ideas stored in my swipe file. They all look intriguing, but I know I shouldn’t start them all at once. Instead, it makes more sense to tackle them one by one.

My plan for now is simple: focus on a single series until it’s finished.

The goal was clear: write standalone books, work on my sci-fi saga (a lifetime project), and stick to just one series at a time (currently my 17 series).

I wanted to do this because standalone books are simply easier to write. With a series, you have to think about so much more in order to maintain consistency. Make a side character who only appears for two lines a mumbling fool in book three, and you’d better remember he’s still a mumbling fool in book seven when he reappears.

With a standalone title, you only have to keep track of the details for one book at a time—and you can conveniently forget them once it’s done.

Now, imagine writing multiple series at once…

It’s not just about remembering character quirks and world-building details—it’s also about remembering which details belong to which series. I can juggle my sci-fi saga alongside one other series, but adding even more to my daily workload makes it much harder to keep everything straight.

And yet, recently I made the mistake of starting two more series on top of what I was already doing. Halfway through, I realized it was forcing me to rush plot decisions and neglect deeper character development.

Reading those old posts was a wake-up call. I decided to hit the brakes and return to my original plan:

• Write standalone titles (the goal is to finish a book a month on average)
• Write my weekly short stories for Amazon (STORY52)
• Work on my 17 series (a Bond/Reacher/Bourne-style story)
• Focus on my sci-fi saga (basically my own Star Wars with hundreds of characters)

Everything else is simply too much—especially since I’m not yet making a living from writing – maybe I never will. So I’m putting all other projects on hold until either the 17 series or the sci-fi saga is complete.