Five Steps to Overcome Project Writing Blues

Daphne Gray-Grant reports:

"Be brutally realistic about how much time your project will require. For the editing stage, edit a sample page or chapter and then multiply that by the total number of pages/chapters in your project. This will reveal how many hours of work you have left...Set a reasonable goal. It's a good idea to start by working backwards from your ideal completion date...Play around with the numbers until you come up with a completion date and a daily requirement that makes you happy...Plan to work on your project every day. Most of us are more likely to accomplish tasks we do daily. They become part of the woodwork and background noise of our lives -- and therefore don't appear to require so much effort. As well, working daily will give you momentum. (Note: It's okay to take weekends off or scale back your weekend goals.)...Don't do too much on any given day...Know when to stop. If you burn yourself out, you'll regret it (and probably fail to meet subsequent deadlines.) It's all about pacing...Keep a record. Just as dieters write down how many pounds they lose and runners chart how many miles they cover, you should keep a record of how your writing project is progressing. Create a simple chart in Word or Excel and then fill it in each day as you do your work."