How to Start Writing When the Whole Project Feels Too Big

Starting a short story, essay, novel or memoir can feel overwhelming when you think about the whole thing at once. There’s the structure, the theme, the ending, the voice, and the question of whether any of it is actually any good.

Sometimes the best way in is not to start with the whole project. Sometimes the best way in is to write what you want first.

Start Writing With the Part That Has Energy

For me, that often means dialogue. I usually start whatever I’m writing with a conversation, or little voice notes of what I hear in my head. The final scene may not have any dialogue at all. That isn’t really the point. The dialogue helps me find the scene. It gives me a way in before I know exactly what the scene is doing.

Other writers start with setting. They need to see the room, the street, the landscape, or the “establishing shot” before anything else can happen. Others begin with an image, a memory, a question, a line they can’t stop thinking about, or one moment in the story that feels alive.

None of those approaches is wrong. The mistake is thinking you have to begin with the hardest part, or that you need to understand the whole shape of the piece before you’re allowed to write any of it.

Start Writing Before You Know Everything

A lot of writers freeze because they think they need to start properly. They need the perfect opening line. They need to know the ending. They need the structure to be clear. They need to understand the theme. They need the voice to arrive fully formed.

But writing often does not work that way. You may find the voice by writing the messy version. You may understand the theme only after you’ve written the scene that keeps pulling at you. You may discover the shape of the story by following the part that has energy, even if it is not the beginning.

This is especially useful when you feel stuck, tired, or unsure whether the project is worth continuing. Instead of asking, “What should I write next?” try asking, “What part of this do I actually want to write?”

Maybe it is the argument. Maybe it is the kiss. Maybe it is the murder. Maybe it is the moment your character finally says what they have been avoiding. Maybe it is a description of a house, a childhood memory, a walk through a city, or a scene that may not survive the next draft.

That is fine. You are not signing a contract with the page. You are just getting back into motion.

Start Writing Out of Order

There is a difference between writing out of order and writing without direction. Writing what you want first does not mean ignoring structure forever. It does not mean the piece never needs shaping, cutting, or discipline. It means you do not have to use structure as a gate you must pass through before you are allowed to begin. Sometimes the “wrong” scene is the one that tells you what the whole thing is really about.

A useful exercise is to take ten minutes and make a list of the parts of your project that feel alive to you. Not the parts you think you should write. Not the sensible next chapter. Not the section you feel guilty about avoiding. Just the parts that have some heat.

Then choose one and write it badly on purpose.

Write the conversation without explaining the room. Write the room without knowing who enters it. Write the ending before you have earned it. Write the line that feels too dramatic. Write the memory that may belong in the piece, or may only be there to show you the way in.

You can tidy it later. You can move it later. You can delete it later. But first you need something on the page that still feels connected to your desire to write.

Start Writing From Desire, Not Pressure

That desire matters. It is easy to forget that when writing becomes tangled up with productivity, deadlines, courses, publishing, platforms, and all the other noise around creative work. But most of us started because something pulled at us. A scene. A voice. A question. A place. A feeling we could not quite explain.

So when the project feels too big, go smaller. Do not try to solve the whole book in one sitting. Do not force yourself to begin at the official beginning. Start with the part that wants your attention.

Write what you want first. You can build the rest around it.