The Big Thing: How to Complete Your Creative Project Even if You’re a Lazy, Self-Doubting Procrastinator Like Me by Phyllis Korkki, 2016, available through Amazon and many other sources. (Title link is to my Amazon Affiliate page.) Visit the author’s website at www.phylliskorkki.com/.
What are some of my own “big things”? I want to:
1. Prepare all of my music posts (now mostly over on the “Behind the Music” page) for use by choral groups, re-formatting them into pdf files and eventually (I hope) making some money from them.
2. Finish up my e-book on the Benghazi tragedy. (I’ve done a ton of research on this topic and would like to put together a straight-down-the-line “here’s what happened” account that brings all of the threads together.)
3. Re-do the audio version of Intentional Happiness.
4. Write my Intentional Love book, a followup to Intentional Happiness.
5. Stick a toe into the contentious waters of writing about abortion in America and the dangers of being one-issue voters.
Enough to keep me busy for many months to come, right? Actually, the thought of doing all these things could keep me busy for the rest of my life. There I’ll be on my deathbed, saying, “Wait! I had all these great plans! Give me just another ten years!” But it will be too late.
Korkki had always wanted to write a book, initially thinking that she had a novel in her waiting to come out, and she did indeed participate in National Novel-Writing Month and produce the requisite 50,000 words. But she has never gone back and revised that first draft. Instead, she decided that she wanted to write a book about . . . writing a book. A meta-book, as it were.
Those of you who are self-starters, who just naturally and normally divide up your work into workable goals, who can’t imagine needing to be accountable to someone else in order to do what you really ant to do anyway–you’ll find this book to be extremely puzzling. ‘Why can’t she just go ahead and do it?’ you’ll find yourself thinking. ‘What’s her problem?’ But those of us who struggle with the very problems that Korkki examines will understand completely. Now, I’m not going to hire a posture expert, or a workspace expert, or go to a therapist. I have never suffered from clinical depression as Korkki has. I will admit to some skipping and skimming. And will also say that even after looking at her ideas and acknowledging their truth I’m still spending way too much time reading other people’s words instead of writing my own.
But I found the book overall to be helpful. I’ve been trying to ask myself,’Is this part of the Big Thing?’ Just now, as I was working on this post, I set the little work timer on my phone and saw on my screen that I had a ton of new e-mails. ‘Can’t I just take a quick look?’ I thought. ‘No. I can’t. I have to write this post on not being distracted from the things I really want to do.” Talk about meta!
Korkki has written a brave and honest book. I’d encourage you to take a look and see what applies to you.