Often when we work on a big project, we do as we’re told and focus on the big picture; the large scale ramifications of the thing, on it’s importance, on it’s influence in the world. What happens is that instead of the big picture inspiring and giving us the fuel we need to go the distance, all that thinking can actually grind us to a full stop.
What can you do when you are at a full stop? Or you ran out of gas, or you lost the directions to the next scenic view?
Rest Stop in Vietnam
Get out of the car.
Walk around, pee.
Stare at the scenic view, allow your breath to be taken away. Say wow.
Grab a tattered notebook with about seven clean pages left and write down some thoughts about that view.
Toss it in the back of the car and move foward just a few miles.
Get out.
Scribble down a couple more thoughts.
Reduce that big picture to post card size. Write silly things, weird notes, crazy ideas using just enough sentences to fill the back of a postcard with a Jackalope on the front. Write for about five to ten minutes. These scribblings are not new members of your ultimate dream team, these are just hardy little workers, delivering gas, cleaning the windshelid, chekcing the oil. Theses notes are the new fuel pushing you from A to B. The more you often you scribble them down, the quicker you can assemble them to gain back the view of the big picture.
Newbie Writer's Guide 