Writing Two Books at Once

I'm beginning to wonder if I should work on two major books at one time.  One may be a light hearted hopeful book and the other a sinister murder mystery or tragedy.  When I wake up in the morning I gauge my mood.  If I'm tired and cranky, then what better time to write about death and destruction.  When I'm cheerful, than my heroine wins the Nobel Prize.

I often marvel at Shakespeare and his ability to write delightful comedy and dark tragedies as well.  How do both genres exist in the same person?  Maybe he just wrote (or planned in his mind) whichever fit his mood for the day.

Bottom line is this, for fiction to be believable, to match the human experience, it needs to have both hope and harm on the same pages.  Nothing new, this really is a writing 101 concept.  But do we allow both to actually flourish together, or do we have a bias towards one or the other.

At times, I need to shed the bias I acquired from my start in writing children's literature.  Writing for children is a whole 'nother story, pardon the pun.  We want to protect our children.  They are not ready to dwell on the ugliness in the world.  They need more emotional tools in the tool box to handle it.  This is why human children live with human parents for so long.  It allows, and requires, us to teach and protect.

So, making that transition for me from happy child's book to up-and-down novel may require not writing two books but two very distinct characters.  I can pick and choose who I will write about each day.  And if my family keeps up on my plot, they only need ask who I wrote about that day to know when to avoid me.  I'm not seeing a down side.