Big Projects, Small Lists
By Yuvi Zalkow | March 17, 2012 |
I’m a total coward. When I’m faced with a big project – something time consuming, something that will require sacrifices to be made – my instinct is to run away. Fast. No looking back. For that reason, it took me a long time to come around to the point where I (somewhat) enjoy the challenge of a big project. I’m talking about something like writing a novel or being in a long-term relationship. These are things that require work. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year.
The funny thing is that a key method I use to confront these big projects is so simple, so low-tech (so cheap in therapy costs!) that it almost seems like it’s cheating. If you’ve read Keith Kronin’s post about outlining last week, you’ve already got the gist of it. But I take this further than outlining. I basically organize almost every aspect of my life using lists. Some lists are informational (5 things my character loves to say), some are task-oriented lists (4 people I need to interview for book), and some lists fall somewhere in between (3 chapters that eventually need to be revisited). And just like Keith explained about his outlines, these lists are a lot less formal and less tedious than you think. They aren’t things that you need to present to others on 24 lb. résumé paper. They only have to be (relatively) comprehensible to you at a later time.
But there’s more. I also have some specific rules to make sure these lists remain relevant and don’t leave me intimidated. Here is a video where I explain it in more detail:
So what do you think? Do you have similar (or totally opposing) techniques to manage your big projects?
Yuvi Zalkow is the author of the novel I Only Cry with Emoticons (Red Hen, 2022) as well as A Brilliant Novel in the Works. His stories and essays have been published in Catapult, Narrative Magazine, Carve Magazine, Rosebud, The Los Angeles Review, and others. Yuvi received an MFA from Antioch University. He uses his poor drawing skills to make YouTube videos and mobile apps that ooze with his worries and anxiety.
LOVE your videos. LOVE your voice. Ira Glass is in deep doo doo and doesn’t know it.
You asked: do you have similar technique(s)?
Well, yes, I do. When I have a germ of an idea for a story, I start what I call a ‘scene sequence’ whereby I imagine the arc of a story with bullet points for each event. On my computer I can rearrange them or squeeze in an extra or take out an unpromising ‘event’ (scene) with a button push. If I am to have writer’s block, this is where it happens. When it starts to look like there is some continuity and plot twistiness and (again) arc, it’s time to fill in the blanks with actual writing but in no particular order. Sometimes I start writing at scene #1 and sometimes at scene #6. I follow a which-scene-seems-intriguing-right-NOW priority. Later will come a cut-and-paste phase and writing the transitions.
Is it any good? Well, it works for me.
Thanks, Alex! I love your scene sequence method. It seems like a great middle ground between too much outlining and too little outlining.
I am also a list fanatic. Simply making the lists helps reduce the clutter in my mind so that I am free to process the story that I’m working on. Thanks for sharing your method and best of luck to you!
Thanks, Nicole. While doing this presentation I was curious whether everyone makes lists or not…
I’m a list maker too! Lists are how I make things happen. Every day I make a to-do list and work at getting the items on it crossed off. This keeps me focused and intentional. I also make lists of plot points. I don’t begin a novel until I have made my list of 40 things that can happen. This is my way of determining if I have enough going on to carry the story all the way through. Take those 40 things, write 2,000 words about each and you’ve got an 80,000 word novel. Of course it never works out that way but it sounds nice, doesn’t it? Love your ideas for sub lists of character traits, themes, motivations. Going to have to try that. Thanks for some Saturday am inspiration!
“40 things that can happen”. That’s great!
Thanks for this post. I too use lists. Even my free writing often flows into lists. For me the “numbering” of the items on the list is important. I love numbers, math, and even though I am a writer and should love words I love me some numbers. So just using numbers with my ideas somehow starts the creative process. Weird I know.
A, B, C, D doesn’t cut it, has to be 1., 2., 3.
I too love numbers. One thing that never made it in the video is how I have some numbered lists and some unordered lists, depending on whether order or priority matters… Thanks for watching!
LOVE me some lists, of all kinds. I love finding old lists tucked in books I haven’t read in years.
I do all my lists on paper, which makes them less accessible when I’m out and about, but easy to jot down a new item wherever I am. There’s something about the physical act of writing that helps me remember. I keep a little file caddy next to my writing desk with files for the projects I’m working on, so I can take that and carry it with me if necessary. I also keep files for future projects, so I add items to those lists as they come.
I was so excited when I saw that there was a new Yuvi video up this morning. Thank you for doing them!
Thanks so much, Natalie! I do think there is something so fabulous these days about a low-tech, hand-written list. It’s so easy to get bogged down and derailed by technology…
I love lists! Some of my best writings are lists. They are like little short stories, five to seven words long. When I don’t follow a list, I re-write the list. Everything not done on today’s list shows up on tomorrow’s list.
1. Comment on Yuvi’s post.
2. Tweet
3. Add fifty people to my Facebook friends list.
4. Tweet some more.
5. Buy Tweet Adder.
6. (Insert to-do list #7 here)
7. Write my novel.
This list is great, Dane.
(Will Tweet Adder automatically add funny tweets to my feed? If so, I’m in!)
Lists are so helpful! I never thought about keeping lists on dropbox, but I think that is a great idea. I use lists much like you do, and then stick them in the notebook I started to keep track of my novel. I like the idea of having them all on the internet – all the loose pieces of paper upset my OCD tendencies!
For so long I felt like an anomaly because all the writers I knew kind of put down the list making/outlining writing process. Lately, I’ve been running into fellow plantsers (plotter/pantsers – the rough outliners) and feel a little more justified that I’m not such a weird writer.
My husband (not a writer) loved the video too! Very funny!
I’ve never heard the term “plantser” but I like it a lot. I bet a lot of people fall somewhere between the two extremes… Thanks!
My list is much shorter than Dane’s.
1. Comment on Yuvi’s (awesome!) post
2. Drink a beer
Hey, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, and my last name is Walsh for a reason.
Thanks for another great post and video, Yuvi!
I love it. I’m learning a lot about lists just from these comments. Thank you! Merry St. Patricks’s Day! Enjoy the beer.
Yuvi,
Really awesome video, I totally cracked UP. Very inspiring too, yes, we gotsa get the info into our consciousness, agree! Sub or otherwise!
Think my favorite list line was the one that said “my novel likes me!”
Go have yourself a guinness and forget number 2. (whatever it was, it’s obsolete now.)
Thanks so much!
ps. The teenager will get through high school.
Thanks for the feedback, Dorette! (Whew! The teenager years are tricky. Actually, I feel it’ll be tricky from age 14 to 34… but that’s for another video… or another therapy visit.)
Honestly, I write the first drafts of my books and then go back and see what I need to research, tighten things up, who’s complicated enough to need a bio, etc.
As far as the writing itself goes I have three things I do: 1. I write in scenes and colour code the document by narrator 2. I put those scenes into chapters and colour code the file by narrator 3. I go back and add in anything necessary/take out anything that doesn’t work.
I do all of the afterwork by being a Scrivener nut (love the little view of Scrivener in your video, btw). Anything that I need to research or make notes on after the first draft is down goes into this program. I have my character bios, inspiration, photos, and artwork files all organized on that program. That way, I have all my notes and drafts in one place and I can pull it all up as needed without opening something else.
So, I guess, no lists really until after the first draft is done. Revision is done in lists and organization more.
Christiana — Wow. I love your method for writing. It makes a lot of sense. I’m a little more scatterbrained but still roughly follow that general method. Though I still don’t keep my notes within Scrivener for some reason.
It is always nice to know I am not alone in my little organizational methods.
I put my lists in a table–usually 3 columns. One for the item, one for comments/info I may think of to help me with that item and one as an “after action report.” For instance, I have a list of things I need to research. Column one is the item needing research. Column two is where I might be able to find the information. Column three is what I found out.
I learned to list at my mother’s knee. She would get up every morning, shower, dress, eat breakfast and make the day’s list. It would start:
1) get up
2) take a shower
3) get dressed
4) eat breakfast.
That gave her four things to cross off right away. She hadn’t even left the house and she already had proof of her industry.
Oh! You bring up a good point… I think it is important to have things on the list that are readily cross-offable. I even put items in the list like “veg out for 15 minutes”… I try to keep them realistic to what I’m really like… even accounting for how I won’t burn-out in a day…
sounds like a great way to stay on top of things and I can see how that would work for some people. I tend to be obsessive compulsive but not quite in that way. I have folders which I put everything related to Thing A in to separate it from everything related to Thing B in that other folder over there. Then I have every document within those folders carefully labeled so that I know what everything is and where it is in a glance. That includes a dot-point summary of the chapters in the novel I’m writing.
I laughed all the way through this! Thanks for sharing. I do exactly the same thing (although I used to do it on computer, palm pilot and notebook until I got a snazzy new iPhone and tried to replicate ‘notes’ on it and then lost them all, argh!!! Then my iPhone locked because I’m living in Thailand and the phone will only work in the US… double argh!!!). But, I digress. Along with all my lists that are saved in different folders on my computer, I also have a litany of yellow sticky notes all over my desk that are random thoughts that occur to me in the run of the day that don’t have anything to do with the task at hand and I can’t concentrate unless I write them down to refer to at a later date! If they’re still relevant when I finally get back to them they’ll wind up in one of the lists already created or trigger the start of a new list.
Anne :)
Most of all, I love your voice and your drawings. I’m captured and entertained. Thank you.
Yeah, I do the same thing. I have a folder on the desktop of my MacBook that I peruse several times a day to be sure I am on task.
Thank you again, Yuvi.
Patti
*raises hand* Another list-maker here. They help me with organization, but I’m also (slightly) addicted to the sense of competency and power that comes when I cross an item off. “Clean cat litter” contains zero cache otherwise.
Loved this. Add me to the list of list-makers. :)