Things I repeat to students (and writers), and how to start in the “small place”

You’re giving yourself too much work.

You’re making it hard on yourself.

You’re losing focus.

You’re taking on too much.

You’re getting off track.

These are all the beginnings of the kind of comments I often write on first drafts of projects, and they all have something in common: they are responding to written work that has not started in what I call the “small place.”