Photo: Jordan Wozinak
“The journey of a thousand miles
Lao Tzu
begins with one step.”
Welcome to the first post of the Creative Writing Wizard!
In this series for writers I will write a short tip or trick that I’ve learned in my years of creative writing.
I hope you find this interesting and if there’s something specific you’d like me to write about let me know in the comments!
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For the first trick I’ve learned, especially with people who share a mindset like mine, is: Start Small.
I don’t know about you, but when I get an idea that I’m really excited about I’m tempted to go all out right from the get-go. While it can feel fun to get caught up in the hype, I’ve found this doesn’t last very long and leads to unsustainable creative projects.
While I do still keep track of all the interesting and exciting ideas, I try to slow myself down just a tad and pick away the idea slowly.
As an example, writing the first blog for this site! I’m very tempted to have everything set up on day one and have several thousands of words written. But keeping this trick in mind, I’ll be a bit more brief in this initial post and pace myself over time. To kick start the Published Works section, I wrote this short story just to grease the wheels and practice the ‘start small’ method.
The other side of the coin, where you’re looking at all that has yet to be done, it can be quite intimidating! (I’ll write a future post about that) ‘Start Small’ works for this as well. Sometimes just taking small steps is enough to steadily lead us towards our goal.
Do you find you struggle more with starting overzealous, starting of the project itself, or something else?
What tricks have you found work for you?
Let me know in the comments!
- Glen W.
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