Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Pick A Peck Of Piles


Piles can sometimes be overwhelming.  We look at the piles all around us...work, school, laundry, unfinished manuscripts...and most of the time we can't see the potential for the sake of the piles.  We may stop, stare, and scratch our heads as we try to figure out how that pile got so high in the first place.  Some of us may even try to tackle that pile on a grandious scale; bringing in a bulldozer when a simple shovel will do.


I'm pretty sure this past holiday season UPS didn't want to have to deal with piles.  Piles to them meant long hours, time away from family, and back breaking work that came with little rewards, few kind words and maybe even an ankle bite or two.  UPS drivers should be considered the King of Piles and yet every day they return to work, knowing a peck of piles await them.


Yet some piles are eagerly wished and waited for.  Every year at Christmas we hear pleas to help fill the stockings of needy children.  Toys For Tots.  Angel Tree.  Hells Angels Toy Drive.  This one time of year compels us to open our hearts and wallets to help brighten some child's Christmas with the promised gift of toys.  To THOSE children, a pile of toys wouldn't bother them at all.  In fact, I'm pretty sure they would simply dive in and enjoy the task of working their way through it all.


Writers have their own piles to deal with.  Our heads are crammed with ideas, characters, voices, plots, locations, etc...filling up our brains and creating a pile of stories yet to be written.  Sometimes those peck of piles can seem so overwhelming that we are frozen in time.  Unable to look past the blank computer screen to attack the pile.  Time is wasted as those peck of piles grow ever taller and our confidence in our own writing ability grow every smaller.

So how do we handle the piles in our lives?  It really doesn't matter what type of pile you are thinking of.  Whether work, home, personal, professional...all piles can be addressed in the same three step manner.

1.  BREAK IT DOWN...those piles are simply a group of common items...white clothes versus colored clothes, inside toys versus outside toys, first drafts versus submission ready, etc.  Make that pile more manageable by dividing one huge pile into smaller piles.

2.  SIZE MATTERS...take each smaller pile and determine what to handle first.  Sometimes you might want to start with the most difficult or time consuming item in the pile.  Other times you can do as many of the smaller tasks as you can within a certain time frame to give yourself a sense of accomplishment.

3.  EAT THE FROG...like Brian Tracy's book, there is always a way to tackle any obstacle that comes your way and that is ONE BITE AT AT TIME.  No one has the ability to tackle a pile of anything all at once, but everyone has the ability to take things one at a time until that pesky pile disappears.

We writers need to keep that in mind.  We don't need to be thinking about getting that agent if we haven't begun writing anything.  We don't need to be submitting our stories if we haven't gone through the revising/rewriting process.  We don't need to be killing off our main character of our story if we never even brought them to life through the strengthening of our writing skills.

Everything we do in life should be a product of our best efforts...one bite at a time...one pile at a time...because the rewards can be...well...rewarding!






16 comments:

  1. Boy, have you nailed it with this post! It can be so hard to see a path when the brain is spinning with everything it thinks it needs to do. Great advice here.

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  2. Good post. I really need to make a priority list and follow it... I don't but I should! Thank you for the post of encouragement!

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  3. Thanks, Heather. I figure if everything is jammed up in MY head, then it's probably spinning around in someone else's as well! Thanks for stopping by...come back any time!

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  4. Always happy to see you here, Louise! I don't make a priority list either and it's a wonder I can get anything done between writing and teaching at the school! Thanks for stopping by!

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  5. What a wonderful post! It gave me the writing boost that I needed today, and I know I will be coming back to and rereading later! Thanks, Donna!

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  6. Thank YOU, Annie! It's always nice to know that what I write is being read and maybe for some people, like you, it helps them in some small way to stay on track with their own writing...come back any time!

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  7. Wonderful post.
    You just reminded me of a list of things I need to accomplish at work today. Will use your 3 step analysis.. thankyou Donna. (love your last picture...Yum)

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  8. Thanks, Diane! I was digging the last picture myself until I took a good look at the fish and realized all of it was plastic! Hahaha...thanks for stopping by!

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  9. Thanks, Melissa, for stopping by. I'm glad you liked the post. Come back any time!

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  10. For some reason, I didn't get here until this evening... partly because (gasp) I made a plan this week for my "work" days (work = writing, for me), and I'm working my way through the tasks, and leaving this fun stuff until later.

    I have to admit that as I read through your post, I kept saying "Eat That Frog!" -- that book helped me so much when I was working at a job that had very many tasks, and quite a lot of responsibility. I even bought a mousepad with a frog on it, to remind myself to Eat That Frog (and I brought it home when I left that job... but I think I've grown too accustomed to its face, and it doesn't give me the prod that it should anymore.)

    Thanks for another excellent post. I was going to say excellent "article" because that's what they feel like. They feel like more than simple blog posts.

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  11. Thanks for stopping by, Beth. I'm beginning to think my niche is blogging and maybe not writing in general. But maybe it's because blogs are simply an extension of the people we are inside and doesn't have to follow any certain set of criteria. My mind is free to roam and then cast my thoughts to the four winds in the hope like minded people will discover my little corner of the world...;0)

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  12. I'm very certain that you have a niche in writing, as well! Just give it time.

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  13. I've been writing and thinking about writing for over 40 years. Patience is obviously the one thing I have an abundance of...lol...

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  14. Great post! As someone who hates clutter I try to avoid even creating piles...but although there are few piles in my home there are HUGE piles in my brain! Time to de-clutter the head!

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  15. Hi, Marcie! Glad you stopped by! I know how you feel about the huge piles in the brain...I can hardly think for all the thoughts already in there...lol...

    Come back any time!

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