This past week I spoke at two schools for a total of five presentations. (Four groups of 50 kids on Monday was A LOT. I don’t know how you teachers do it.) My talk covers writing tips, a bit about how I started as a writer, my BOOKS (obviously), and I end with a little motivational pep talk. This is the second-to-last slide:

There are usually a few “eww!”s from the kids, and here’s what I say:

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Now imagine there’s a huge elephant in this room [I wave my arms to show how the elephant reaches the ceiling] and you were told you had to eat it. Do you start with an ear? The tail? A toenail? It’s gross, I know, but you’ve gotta do it.

With an elephant this big, is doesn’t really matter WHERE you start, all that matters is you start.

Say you have a group project and it’s due in a week. First you need to figure out who’s responsible for what. Maybe you need to do some research on day two. Then start a draft in the middle of the week.

If you have to write a paper, figure out what the topic is and write down a couple ideas. It doesn’t have to be perfect or pretty—you just have to start.

Or say you want to write a novel. If you tell yourself you’re going to WRITE A NOVEL [I hold out my arms to show how BIG the idea of writing a novel can be] you’ll be so overwhelmed with anxiety that you’ll never start. So start with a couple ideas. Create a few characters. Maybe put together a rough timeline or outline—something to help you know where you’re headed. Then come up with a daily goal.

For me, I try to write 1000 words per day. That’s about four pages. Sometimes I hit that, but other days I only write 200. And that’s okay. Because each little bit chips away at that elephant, and before long he’s nothing but a distant memory.

I like to think this is helpful, and I try really hard to tie it back to things other than writing so the kids who don’t like to write feel included. (I start my talk by asking the room who likes to write, then I ask who DOESN’T like to write. The second group is always WAY more enthusiastic.) Because we all have an elephant we need to tackle. Sometimes we just need help getting started.

Especially me.

I recently posted on Instagram that I was starting to panic about all the things I still have to do this month, but when I checked my monthly goals page in my bullet journal, I realized we still have half the month to go. I’m fine. I just need to take one thing at a time. And maybe breathe a bit more frequently.

That elephant will be gone in no time.

Image from Shutterstock