Maintaining your concentration

So recently I think I've determined my biggest flaw as a writer and aspiring author. It's my concentration. Or rather, lack thereof. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I find it hard to keep myself occupied with one idea at a time, so I tend to flip flop between numerous projects I couldn't hope to manage simultaneously, and I oftentimes quickly lose interest in things which results in them getting left by the wayside. Which of course means I get nothing done. Nothing of any significance anyway.

Anyway, I'd like to change this so I can finally start calling myself an author instead of one of those pretentious college twats who always talks about his writing but never actually does any of it. Does anyone have any tips or pointers? I know this sounds weird, but I really think I need the help.

One thing I always found helped with the issue of losing interest.

What inspired you in the first place? Go back to it.

Sounds a lot like me, too. I've got an over abundance of folders under "Writing" with partially-worked-on ideas. Even the closest I've come to completing has a lot of tidying up to do (POV work mostly) and I've lost interest in it in favour of other things.

For me personally it comes down to a matter of will. Usually at about the half way point of a project I'll begin to feel very tired of it, and other ideas will seem much more appealing. I just force myself to finish what I'm working on right now. I just tell myself 'its ok if it sucks, that's what revision is for' and hold off working on the new exciting stuff until I've gotten a set amount of the old project done -so its like a reward.

One thing I found that does help renew interest is taking a break and rereading the older chapters, when I was more enthused about the project. It helps remind me of where I wanted the story to go and what made me want to write it in the first place.

When I have new cool idea, I just incorporate it in my existing plot. Oh the fun times it gives me!

That's fine so long as the idea is compatible with what you're working on but having an idea for a cyberpunk scenario when you're writing medieval fantasy kinda breaks things...

Kind of like me Prany(high five). I'd rather look at ideas beyond their materialistic form. Besides, I have a setting that allows all kinds of ideas. :P

Cyberpunk medieval fantasy? Sounds like one of my ideas.

I have this exact same issue. Can't say that I can offer much help, still trying to end this problem myself.

Pick one idea. Your most recent one, most likely. Set a goal to finish the scene/story/chapter. Do not work on any other ideas until you are done.

Also, try using Write or Die.

Actually I would consider giving up on the current idea if it's the current idea that is making you lose interest early on, and not the draw from something else causing you to quit. Some stories were never meant to be.

Since KSPAM said the problem was multitasking, not any one idea, I'd assumed that the problem was lack of energy from working on multiple projects at the same time.

I suppose.

I used to be like that when I was younger, but I think a big part of it was also that I had a lot of parts of ideas and they were not things that were fully fleshed-out, or they were cool ideas that I thought were cool but I didn't actually want to write. Running through those and realizing that they were dead ends actually helped me.

In that case, I'm adding "Try to flesh out one idea at a time and discard them if they're unworkable." But the point is KSPAM wants progress and stated that his problem was lack of focus, not lack of interest. Once all the filler's been cut away, working on one idea at a time should result in visible progress.

Same problem for me. If I listen to music while writing it has to be instrumental (vocals are distracting); I can't write on a computer because the delete/backspace button is an evil siren - it has to be me and a pen and a notebook; I have to keep it short so I can complete it in one day.

I have this theory that if I wrote one short story every day and put it in a sealed envelope and didn't open it for a year, by the time it came to open it I'd be re-interested and have fresh ideas for the second draft; another year and I'd have the final draft completed. That'd take a long time but I'd definitely have a huge number of finished works.

I get myself assigned homework, and then I write creatively instead. It's the perfect way to maintain concentration, because I'm avoiding doing something I have to