Tracking progress in the early phase of a project is pretty nebulous. What you’re tracking isn’t always clear, because how your ideas develop might not be observable.

An image I find helpful to keep in mind in early ideation is approaching the idea like an iceberg. 90% of an iceberg is beneath the surface. We can’t see it, but we know that it’s there. So most of the ‘progress’ we make in Draft 0 is becoming more and more conscious of the depths of your idea. And finding ways to inspire and develop your unconscious connection with the story.

What is usually my go-to 'meaningful unit of progress' (3 x 30min writing sprints per writing day) isn’t helpful right now. So with that in mind, I’ve been finding more appropriate ways to work on my idea.

In this episode I share what I’ve been finding useful to develop the idea in the ideation phase. I talk about:

• Removing as many of the obstacles as you can.
• Tracking how your resistance shifts at different phases of the project.
• Committing to the habit over the outcome.
• Swapping out my usual writing sprints with other ways of working on the idea.
• Creating a list of non-prescriptive, enjoyable, artistic tasks to move between.
• Bouncing between research, reading source material, analysing play texts, deep story work on the dramatic world, the characters and the locations, process journaling, and writing the story in prose.

Favourite episodes you might like to go back to listen to:
- Episode 19. Writing the Next Thing
- Episode 13. Finishing Creative Projects
- Episode 12. Managing Research Draft to Draft

- Episode 11. Writing to a Deadline

- Episode 9. Dramaturgy, Feedback and Implementing Notes

- Episode 7. Motivation and Momentum 


Thank you for listening. You can learn more about my work on mywebsite or say hi and ask me a question via @emilysheehan__ on Instagram.