How do you eat an elephant?
A little bit at a time.
The idea of writing a novel or a feature film script can be overwhelming. But if you eat the elephant a little bit at a time, it’s a lot easier to stomach.
When it comes to a lengthy process like writing a book, there are a lot of steps. Planning your story, fleshing out your characters, planning your structure and arcs, writing the first draft, rewriting, sending to friends and gathering feedback, rewriting, rewriting, rewriting, editing, formatting, marketing…
The Art of the Nibble: Why Granularity is Your Best Friend
The key is get granular. Chop up that elephant then concentrate on the first nibble. When you’ve finished that, start on the next. E.g. “Today, I’m fleshing out my characters. Tomorrow, I’m making the beat spreadsheet,” or ”Starting the Scrivener project”, whatever.
So how can we effectively break down our massive projects into easily digestible tasks?
The answer will be different for everyone and you should choose the medium that works for for you. I use Notion, but in the past I’ve used a bullet journal, a Google Sheet, and physical post-its.
First, write down what you want to achieve. Write a book. Make a film. Write a symphony. Paint the Sistine Chapel.
Break the project into wide view Phases.
Then, break the Phases down into Parts.
After that, break the Parts into Bits.
Those Bits will become tasks, and each individual task shouldn’t feel overwhelming.
Building Your Roadmap: Phases, Parts, and Bites
Now that I’ve written a few long-form projects, I’ve got the process down to a nifty step-by-step that I keep on Notion. First, I create my new Book as a page in a database:
I have a lot of properties. It’s how I keep track of by ISBNs, URLs, everything.
As a template for a new book, I’ve got a dropdown list of all my tasks that I’ve refined over the last couple of years of publishing, figuring out what tasks need to be done when.
Each of these is a ‘phase’. Next to the phase, I’ve put in brackets how long I expect the process to take (spoiler: it always takes longer than I plan, but that’s okay).
Inside each of these dropdown menus is the steps of that phase:
These are deliberately vague and I can always add more or remove some. Each of these tickboxes is essentially a task, and the important trait of each task is that it’s completable. As in, I know when it’s done. When I have a logline, I can tick the ‘logline’ tickbox.
Task Mastery: Making Every Step Complet-able
If I’m particularly nervous about a certain task, like the seemingly simple task of ‘Write the first draft’, I’ll often break that into smaller tasks like:
[ ] Write Act 1
[ ] Write Act 2A
[ ] Write Act 2B
[ ] Write Act 3
If I’m still feeling like it’s overwhelming, I’ll get even more granular, splitting Act 1 into separate chapters, or scenes.
If you don’t like working in scenes or chapters and prefer to work in time, you can create 10-20 tasks that each say
[ ] Write for one hour
And assign the time tasks to however many days feels good.
Don’t worry if you have loads of tasks. Life is long. You’ve got a plenty of time and the time is gonna pass anyway.
Once you’ve got all your Bits/Tasks written down, you can organise them into a calendar, or simply keep them as tickboxes. Keep them somewhere handy and visible so you always know where you are in the process.
As you go through the process and write more long-form projects, you’ll refine your own process. Keep your phase and task list editable, so you can streamline and add tasks where you see fit.
If you end up with too many tasks and if feels like you’ll never finish the project, just remember
People often overestimate what they can do in a day, but they underestimate what they can do in a lifetime.
👩🏫 What I’m Reading: The Players by Minette Walters
The sequel to The Swift and the Harrier, this Austen-esque romance is set during the late 1600s in England, when King James’ throne is being fought over and rebellions and uprisings are all over the place.
The core of the story is a romance between an intelligent, housebound woman with palsy of the leg, and a political spy.