Even though we wrote Finish Your Book! about books, the ideas apply generally to other projects you’ve dreamed about but never gotten going – or never completed. Maybe you want to collect your family photos – there are such cool on-line tools now for that, but it takes sustained attention and multiple sessions to do them justice.
Maybe you have hours of video of precious offspring doing something darling in the company of others. I don’t want to watch all the other people’s darlings again – but I would enjoy watching my kids turn from five-year-olds to 20-year-olds in one video stream. I think it would be both hilarious and bittersweet). This would involve a lot (A LOT) of video editing. If I want the film, I must start the project.
Or do you have a project that you started but abandoned? I started a quilt in graduate school, but after spending hours in the library hunched over books and journals, I just didn’t find it relaxing to come home and hunker over a quilt frame. You might think abandoned is too strong a word, I had other priorities. And I won’t finish that quilt.
But I will finish the scarf I started last winter for a friend. I just have to plan to watch TV — something interesting enough to make me sit down but not demand my full attention. Football is good — the instant replays take care of the action, and I can knit away. Plus it’s family time.
Now I just have to finish that marketing plan for my book and speaking tour…
Lorette