The Big Thing: How to Complete Your Creative Project Even If You're a Lazy, Self-Doubting Procrastinator Like Me

Phyllis Korkki, a New York Times journalist, explains why it's important for people to pursue big creative projects and identifies both the obstacles and the productive habits that emerge on the path to completion--including those she experienced writing this book. Whether it's the Great American Novel or a groundbreaking new app, many people want to create a Big Thing, but finding the motivation to get started, let alone complete the work, can be daunting. In The Big Thing, New York Times business writer and editor Phyllis Korkki combines real-life stories, science, and insights from her own experience to illuminate the factors that drive people to complete big creative projects--and the obstacles that threaten to derail success. While discussing her own Big Thing--the book you're holding now--Korkki explores the individual and collaborative endeavors of others: from memoirs, art installations, and musical works to theater productions, small businesses, and charities. She identifies the main aspects of a Big Thing, including meaningful goals, focus and effort, the difficulties posed by the demands of everyday life, and the high risk of failure and disappointment. Korkki also breaks down components of the creative process and the characteristics that define it, and offers her thoughts on avoiding procrastination, staying motivated, scheduling a routine, and overcoming self-doubt and the restrictions of a day job. With a refreshing dose of honesty, The Big Thing doesn't minimize the negative side of such pursuits--including the fact that big projects are hard to complete and raise difficult questions about one's self-worth. While many books on the subject of creativity are earnest manuals that make the process sound fun and easy, so long as you follow the rules, The Big Thing is a welcome antidote--never sugarcoating the experience or reducing it to simplistic principles, but offering practical insights anyone can use to get started on their own creative project. Inspiring, wise, humorous, and good-natured, The Big Thing is a meditation on the importance of self-expression and purpose.

About the Author :
Phyllis Korkki is an assignment editor and reporter for the New York Times Sunday Business section. Sandy Rustin is an actress and playwright. Her sketch comedy musical about parenthood, Rated P (For Parenthood), opened to critical acclaim off Broadway at the Westside Theatre in 2012; her one-act comedy, Fireworks, recently won the seventh annual Nor'Eastern Playwriting competition; and her newest full length play, The Cottage, was selected as part of Midtown Direct Rep's 2013 Theatre in the Loft Reading Series. A graduate of Northwestern University, she currently lives in New York City.