For Easter, Captain Cavedweller gave me a chocolate rabbit. Only it wasn’t your run of the mill chocolate rabbit. It was a solid dark chocolate rabbit handmade at the local candy store where you can stand outside the glass and watch the candy being made. The store always smells of rich chocolate, caramel corn and sugar. It is one of the most divine places on earth!
I digress.
Captain Cavedweller, knowing my deep and abiding love for chocolate, gave me this wonderful bunny knowing I would enjoy every single bite. The first few days after Easter I sat staring at the rabbit. It was so cute, so bunny-like. I have a hard time eating anything that cute, even if it is chocolate.
Finally, I untied the ribbon and opened the plastic wrapping. Gingerly taking out the rabbit I was just going to nibble a little bit of its ear. Only I couldn’t bite through it. When it said solid chocolate, it meant solid chocolate. Short of putting the thing in the microwave and melting off an ear, I didn’t think I was ever going to get a piece to break off.
Annoyed and chocolate deprived, I stuffed the rabbit back in the wrapping and went off to find my stash of peanut M&Ms.
A few days later, I decided to take on the challenge of the rabbit. Digging out my meat tenderizer, I placed the rabbit on the counter and gave it a couple good whacks. Suddenly, I had bite sized pieces of chocolate bliss, still in the pretty cellophane bag. Fishing one out, I enjoyed the smooth, rich flavor.
While I did, I realized that rabbit was like some of my writing challenges. I sometimes look at a project or problem and see this huge, big thing that I don’t know how to deal with. Do I start here or there? Do I take on this part or that area? What to do? What to do?
That great saying “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” applies to writing as well. Don’t look at the looming deadline or the fact that you’re stuck on chapter eleven or the entire process before you.
Instead of looking at how many pages you need to write before your deadline, focus on how many pages you can or did write today. Don’t focus on being stuck at chapter eleven, focus on writing the next paragraph, be it the next in sequence or the first paragraph of chapter seventeen.
Break it down into small, manageable bites, even if you have to get out the meat tenderizer and smack the dickens out of it to make small bites.
