Tuesday Tips: Break It Down

Recently I found myself giving similar writing advice to two different people. These two women are both working on BIG projects and finding themselves overwhelmed. They have lots of content that they’re anxious to share with the world but not sure how to go about it.

“Break that big writing project down,” I recommended. “Write part of it. And blog about it along the way.”

This made sense to them and makes sense for their projects too. I had already taught one woman how to blog and to do research and organize it. For her, I suggested taking the parts that are most interesting and immediate and turn them into blog posts making her research immediately available to others online.

For the second person, first she is organizing her materials and we are going to meet several times in June to get her going, then we’ll meet again in August to evaluate her progress, her goals and her needs. We’re not sure when she’ll be ready to start blogging her content. It might be in June or in August.

Both women could write their blog posts using a word processing program then upload them to WordPress. Or they could go directly to WordPress, publish them there then later download the various posts and organize them, printing them as necessary.

By publishing their work along the way, they will be able to build audiences for their books when they finally get them published in a book form. It is also possible they can put a paypal donation button on their websites and either take orders for the books and accept donations toward their research and projects.

This strategy of researching and writing and publishing along the way is what I will be doing this summer when I am working on my Winery Kids book. My son and I will be traveling, writing, and researching then publishing blog posts about winery kids and winery life for families. When we return from our month-long road trip, I’ll use the blog posts as a first draft of the book.

If you have a book project and you’d like some help, let me know! We can meet in person or on Skype. If you’re local, this fall I will be facilitating a writing group for people working on book length manuscripts. Let me know if you’re interested in participating! We’ll be meet 10 times over 12 weeks and the group will have no more than 10 people in it. I’ll also be hosting a blogging workshop in August.

And remember, with big writing projects, take it one page, one part, or one post at a time. As Fat Boy Slim sings above, “It’s a wonderful night, gotta take it from me, it’s a wonderful night, come on and break it on down!”

Have fun with your writing project!

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Tags: how to tackle big writing projects