Big projects vs. small projects

I have a wide variety of projects that come across my desk at my day job. Some are bigger and take a lot of time and research and rewrites (like white papers), and others are smaller and can get turned around on the same day (like press releases). The variety is good. It keeps work interesting, and the intensity of the big projects can be broken up with the smaller projects so I don't let myself feel too overwhelmed with the bigger projects.

I was talking to a co-worker last week about a particular project I've been working on that started as a small one but has become a large, much more complicated one. She likes small projects, too; especially the ones that can get done in the same day. It gives you a sense of accomplishment to be able to add something to your task list, and then cross it off before you leave the office for the day.

The good news is that working on the collection has helped prepare me for big, complicated projects at work. I'm able to prioritize the tasks to complete the projects, and bring the pieces together to do what needs to be done. (Besides, nothing I've had at work so far has come close to being as involved as the collection!)

The biggest thing for me is to have a list of the individual tasks that need to be done for the project and take them one at a time. Each little task that gets crossed off is an accomplishment, and takes me one step closer to being done with the big project.

How do you handle big projects at work or in writing?

What's in a name?

I know the title I give my coffee house book isn't the be-all end-all of the book.  I know that it could easily be changed on the recommendation of an agent and/or publisher.  I know all this.

But I still want a title.

I think I'm tired of just calling it "the coffee house book."  Now that I'm making real progress on the writing, I want a title to reflect the work I'm putting in, and my excitement about the project.

So I'm opening the floor to suggestions.  What would you title a collection of vignettes linked by a coffee house and its owner?  (Note: the over-reaching arc of the book is following a typical day in the coffee house through all these voices.)

The freedom of knowing your niche

The process of The Artist's Way has been a very good one for me.  I won't say I've had thunder and lightning changes the way others do, but I have felt myself changing in quieter ways.  My spirituality and creativity are linked more closely, my faith is strengthened, and my writing life has been...clarified...to me.  I know what I'm going to write now.

I don't know that my writing path has a genre name the way some writers can declare Mystery or Young Adult or Speculative Fiction.  But it's what I'm going to write.  Let me explain my plan for the coffee house book.  (And if you steal my idea, I will hunt you down.  Fair warning.)

The coffee house book is a collection of vignettes that are threaded together by the owner of the coffee house and the coffee house itself.  Each vignette will reveal something about the owner, as well as something about the coffee house.

This is how I decided to set up the coffee house book some time ago, and it's what I've been working toward.  But an amazing, wonderful, scary thing happened this past week.  I got about seven additional project ideas that seem to go along with how I've set up the coffee house book.  (Looks like I know what I'm writing for the next seven years or so.)

When I first started getting the ideas, I was afraid it was my brain's attempt to sidetrack me from the coffee house book.  But something else strange happened.  As I was getting these ideas (and they were half-developing in my head), I was excited about them, but I didn't want to stop my current projects to jump into one of these new ones.  Instead, I wanted to finish the coffee house book so I could start the next one.

The ideas came because this is the way I'm supposed to be writing.  This is my niche.  And once I discovered it, my creativity opened up in the form of these ideas, and the progress I'm making on the coffee house book!

It's a wonderfully freeing feeling to know you're on the right path.



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Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net