Just Start

“I don’t even know where to begin.” My son told my husband at the beginning of the remodel of his business.

“Just start,” was my husband’s advice. “Then, go from there.”

I’ve learned some of my best writing lessons from my husband. He’s not particularly literary, not into books too much, hasn’t really a clue what I do in my office every morning other than the finished product. Yet, he has given me my best principles for writing.

• When you don’t know where to begin, just start. That is the solution. From any kind of start, you can write that poem, story or novel. One word can do it. From that insignificant beginning everything can flow.

The next principle I learned as my husband and I began our own remodel twenty-three years ago. It was a huge undertaking—an addition to our modest one-level tract house. As we were about to get the financing my mother asked my husband how he was going to accomplish such a big project on his own.

His answer: “I’m going to do one thing, worry about that step and then go on to the next.” It always reminds me of a comment by Charles Emerson Winchester III from the old M.A.S.H. series when he first came to the unit. I paraphrase: “I do one thing at a time. I do it well and then, I move on.”

Second principle:

• When you begin a project that seems overwhelming, do one thing, worry about one thing at a time. Only then, move on.

That’s the way I write: I begin and then, I continue, one-step at a time. And you know what? That’s how everyone gets the work done, no matter what else they tell you.