Excerpt
One of the most frequent problems I see among new writers is a desire to “eat the entire elephant.” I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, and that’s a great way to approach writing. For instance, if you want to write a story about your family vacation to the Redwoods, you need to stick to what actually happened on that trip. You should, of course, include enough information about your family, the scenery, the weather, and the magnificent trees to bring your story to life, but you don’t have to write an encyclopedia on trees in general. Or, if you are thinking of writing about a particular spiritual experience you once had, you don’t want to attempt to write an apologetic on the entire Bible. In other words, successful writing is about finding and keeping your focus, unlike the eight-year-old with the limited attention span who rambled on and on about the movie because he wasn’t able to formulate and express one clear thought. In essence, he was trying to eat the entire elephant in one big bite. I’ve seen a lot of writers attempt the same thing, and it simply does not work.