Multi-tasking for writers

On The Guardian Books Blog, Niall Griffiths explains how the advice of Saul Bellow has helped him move forward with his novel.

...Saul Bellow once advised a friend to work on two projects at the same time; he found that switching from one project to the other constantly refreshed him, inviting new perspectives, new enthusiasms, new solutions. To avoid similar gestalt blindness, Jackson Pollock used to have a number of paintings on the go. When he returned to unfinished work he'd go through what he called his "getting acquainted" period - he wanted to see the statement rather than the composition.