How to Tackle a Large Writing Project

Most people -- regardless of whether or not they are "real" writers -- can write a 500-word article with no problem. Tackling a large writing project, however, is an entirely different animal. When you set out to tackle a large writing project, you might feel overwhelmed or intimidated, which is completely normal. The trick to surviving the fear and anxiety is learning to "think small".

Breaking It Into Parts

In order to tackle a large writing project, you might need to break it down into parts. This is often known as "compartmentalizing" and it works for many different endeavors. A large project broken down into several small projects is less formidable of a task than to approach a large project in full, and you'll feel better about yourself each time you accomplish one of your smaller goals.

For example, let's say that you want to write a 350-word suspense novel. You've always wanted to be published and see your work on bookstore shelves and writing a novel seems to be the most exciting way to accomplish this goal. Of course, a 350-word novel is quite daunting when viewed as a hole; that's approximately 85,000 words.

Planning is your first ally when you tackle a large writing project. If you plan the endeavor from the very beginning -- making sure to set realistic goals -- you'll be able to separate the project into several different parts that are easier to manage. The most logical way to separate a novel is into chapters, which are usually between five and ten pages long.

To make it easier, we'll say that your chapters will be an average of seven pages each, which means that you will need to write fifty chapters in order to complete your 350-page novel. If you write a chapter a day, you'll have your book in less than two months. That's what I mean when I say to "think small".

Taking It Day By Day

Once you've finished the planning stage of tackling a large writing project, the next step is to start the actual writing. I know, you didn't expect this stage to come so quickly, but if you continue to put it off, you'll never get anywhere.