Small Steps, Big Stories: How Tiny Wins Help You Reach Your Writing Goals

by Rochelle Melander

“It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”

―Louis Sachar 

On Sunday, at the Basecamp to Brilliance Summit, I talked about how small steps make big goals doable. (You can still sign up—but you have only ten days to watch the summit. So do it soon!)

When my daughter left for the east coast, she left behind a room filled with stuff. I have this vision of a corner of the basement, organized efficiently so she can come home and quickly get what she needs. But I haven’t been able to get beyond putting her stuff in bins. I’m overwhelmed.

Of course, that’s not the only thing on my to-do list that sends me to my chocolate stash. I’ve got a couple of big work and writing goals that I need to tackle.

You can guess how much progress I’ve made on both the basement and the books: zero. Here’s why: my brain cannot cope with huge tasks like, “organize the basement.” I might as well have added to my to-do list, “Tackle global warming.”

Humans do not do well with giant steps or drastic changes. Why do you think so many of us fail at these lifestyle-changing diets? The fear part of our brain freaks out. Instead of organizing the basement, revising the novel, or writing that book, we will do just about anything to avoid that big, scary goal.

Think about your own writing life and tackling that big project you’ve wanted to take on for years. Or consider cleaning out one of the places you’ve packed to the gills with stuff (the attic, garage, car trunk). Did your stomach just sink a bit? Maybe you had a sudden urge to clean the toilet or get a root canal, anything to avoid “the big task.”

Don’t worry. Take a deep breath. I have a solution for you: take a small step. According to Robert Maurer, author of One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, we avoid that sinking feeling by taking absurdly small steps toward our goals. Instead of filling our to-do list with big chunks like, “Write book” or “Clean house,” we list tiny actions like “write a paragraph.”

Why do small steps work?

You get more dopamine boosts! Your brain rewards task completion with dopamine. Yes, your brain rewards finishing writing a whole book, but it also rewards every small goal you achieve along the way. When we break our goal into small tasks and complete them, we get more dopamine boosts. (Research)

You feel more creative and productive. A study by Teresa Amabile and Steven D. Kramer shows that making small progress at work boosts creativity and productivity. People who made progress on a project were three times more likely to feel motivated. The authors call this the Progress Principle—and it works! (Research)

You’re more likely to be successful. Pursuing short term subgoals or small steps increases your chances of success. In a research paper from Aneesh Rai and Edward Chang, they found that breaking down a 200-hour volunteer commitment to smaller goals of helping out just four hours a week increased the amount of time volunteers helped by 7-8 percent. Imagine what focusing on small subgoals, like writing an hour a day this week, could boost your productivity?(Research)

Make small steps work for you

I’ve found it helpful to list a bunch of small steps toward my big goal at one time. They’re sitting in my head anyway—and getting them out of my mind relieves stress. In addition, the list gives me choices about which small step I’d like to tackle.

Then choose a small step you’d like to take today. If your stomach still flips or sinks, then you need an even smaller step. So, “write a paragraph” becomes “write a sentence” or “jot down ideas on the topic.”

You may be wondering, “How will I ever finish my book this way?” Yeah, when you have a big goal like writing a book, taking baby steps does sound a bit counterintuitive. Think about it this way. If you wrote just 200 words a day, five days a week, for a year—that’s less than a double-spaced page—you’d have a 52,000-word book at the end of the year. Wow.

Bottom line, writers: Keep in mind the old joke: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That’s how you write a book, clean the basement, or change the world: one teenie weenie step at a time.

Your turn: How have small steps helped you tackle big goals? Share your story in the comments below.