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How You Do One Thing Is How You Do Everything
One step in front of another
How you do one thing is how you do everything. You may have heard this, but what does it mean?
Take creative writing. For many writers, starting a new story is always exciting.
But then you get to the “messy middle.” Now the writing process becomes arduous, and the story is no longer so fresh but a muck you have to wade through.
That’s why so many writers — myself included — end up abandoning stories partway through. Right now, I’m working with a young woman — extremely talented, but again, has a habit of not finishing what she starts.
Her latest story is incredible. But I can tell she’s already ready to quit.
So what I’m doing is giving her a one word prompt — any random word, like “umbrella” or “basketball.” I set a timer for 10 minutes, and somewhere within that time, she has to introduce the word. Then I give another prompt, set the timer for another 10 minutes, and so on.
This does a few things. First, it takes some of the pressure off of the completion, because she only has to write for 10 minutes.
Also, by giving her a word to focus on, it reduces that overwhelm that typically accompanies writing and other creative acts, where there’s basically infinite…