How many manuscripts do you work on at one time?

I'm currently working on five, but my publisher pointed out to me that my machine gun toting hero in one of my stories is just finding out he is pregnant by a sculptor in Frisco, and a heroine from another story is laid up in a motel in Nevada, nursing a shoulder wound and drinking whiskey, while dialing for a hooker and some chow..

so i need to organize my notes and outlines and get to the rewrites.

I hear ya. I have one full length piece that I'm giving my full attention to but two that I've put aside for now. My endings in previous drafts are always very weak and I'm trying to put all my energy into the second half of this one. I have about 10 shorts started as well and was thinking of working on a few of those until I have a better 'feeling' about the ending of this major one. Hard work, but good luck.

I'm in the same predicament as you. Currently I have two novels on the go and a short story. Neither are anywhere close to being completed. I don't have a very long attention span so I always find myself focusing on a different project on a different day. I have urges to write one novel but not the other. Sometimes having two things to focus on finishing is stressful and staying in character is difficult but I'm working really hard to cut back.

Usually one. I'll write the first draft of one and let that sit for awhile and during that time, i'll start another one. Sometimes I end up editing one and finish writing the other at the same time and other times I'll wait until I've written the first draft of the second before I start editing the first.