Make Small, Satisfying Bits

I was talking with a friend and lamenting about how not fun the creative process can be. We basically came to the conclusion that the most annoying part of the process is when we are having to put forth effort. I know it's laughably stupid, but it has a certain logic.

What's actually satisfying? For me, it's having a finished product I can be proud of. It's having something work right. It's even building the mechanism, knowing how it will work when completed.

What's aggravating? Building that plan, especially from scratch.Trying to scrape together randomly floating ideas and make them concrete, weave them to work with each other, and to do so seamlessly. That is a tremendous amount of work, and more often than not, when you finally do figure out the basic plan, you spend just as much time patching holes or ripping out pieces and making new ones.

So from there, the conclusion is that the best part of a creative task is having the finished product, and building it from a solid plan.

But this is where you ask yourself what a finished product is. Most people would say, "well, duh, it's the book." And, they would be right. But you could also say it's the outline. Or it's the chapter. Or the paragraph. Or the elevator pitch. Or the closing line. Or the opening scene. Or creating the pivotal twist. And all of those would be right.

If you know how your mind works, you can take advantage of it. I break down projects into small, satisfying bits. I can't honestly believe that writing one word is real progress, but if I wrote a good chapter, or even a good page, it's progress I can be proud of. It's enough to keep me heartened and wanting to do more. If I can keep reaching the next checkpoint, it doesn't matter if there's a thousand of them, I'll reach the finish line.