#189 Small Victories

I became a full-time writer in late October of 2013.  I began with a couple of ideas, my wife's laptop, and no clue how this adventure would play out.  I had no process.  No benchmarks.  No short-term goals to keep the train rolling day to day, week to week.  I knew I wanted to write a series consisting of at least 3 novels, and I wanted to complete it by the end of 2014.  Combined with this monumental task, an Indie Writer must also develop a website, engage in the social media trifecta (FB, Instagram, Twitter), write a blog, develop relationships with graphic designers and editors, and read more books than ever before.

That's a lot to take on.  And a writer must do it with little help.

I'm ten months in and can't tell you how many times I've been overwhelmed by it all.  I've had to keep my frustration in check.  I've had to battle the intimidation with small victories, taking small steps -- marking off assignments from my to do list one at a time.  No step is too small to celebrate, as long as it gets you closer to your final goal.

Following is a list of small victories that, when added up, equal the great accomplishments in the life of a writer: novels.

• Finishing a chapter.  Breaking up a novel into chapters gives you natural milestones to strive for.  Understand that finishing a chapter is a good thing.  It's a great thing!  Feel proud that you are one step closer to finishing that project.
• Weekly word counts.  I set manageable weekly word counts instead of daily word counts.  If you have a particularly difficult writing day, you can make up words on a different day.  Likewise, if you have an aggressive Monday and Tuesday, then taking a Friday off every now and then is not such a bad thing.  Of course, I've found that when I have aggressive days early in the week I tend to have great days later in the week as well.  In this profession, success breeds more success.  I write 10,000 words per week.  If you have another job and you scramble to write on the side, look to get 5000 words per week.
• 5 blog posts per month.  Keeping up with a blog is a great way to engage readers, practice writing and develop content (outside of the novel) that will help connect you to readers.  Blogs can be fun.  Let your personality shine through.  Explore your passions and connect with readers who like the same things you do.  But you must keep up with it.  You must be consistent.  If readers like what you have to say, they will stay with you.  If they find you quiet for extended periods of time, they will find something else to read.
• Finishing the first draft.  This is a big one for me.  I celebrate this more than I celebrate the novel actually being published.  Not sure why that is.  The novel is far from finished.  There are many remaining steps that must be taken after the first draft.  But there is nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of a new novel, no matter how imperfect it is at that point.
• 5-7 tweets per day.  I'm still new to twitter and have not mastered engaging prospective readers through social media.  All I know is from what I experience.  When people over tweet, it can get on my nerves.  When people do not tweet enough, I'll miss them in my news feed.  There is a balance in here somewhere.  I'm still searching for that balance.  Until I learn definitively what that number is, I generally tweet 5-7 times per day.  Check out my post on tweeting for more info on what to tweet about.
• Read 2 books per month.  Ideally you should read more than this.  Reading is essential to becoming a better writer.  It's part of a writer's life that can easily be overlooked.  Many writers read for fun, and NO writer should be having fun when there's a novel to be completed. Not true!  An inspired writer having fun puts out a higher volume of better work.  Reading other writers helps develop your own style, and it inspires.  Don't get so bogged down in your own work that you ignore the work of others.