Ep 134: What Do I Write Next Why Write Small When You Want to Go Big?
Last week I presented you with a long list of ways you can decide what to write next and then I promised to expand on some of them.\n\nOne suggestion was to decide to write something you can finish and ship fast.\nProjects Big and Small\nBig goals and big projects hold potential for big payoffs. If you finish that book, for example, it may propel you closer to your highest, most important life or career goals. I encourage you to see it through, because your big ol' work in progress is going to require focused effort for the next several months or years, and you\u2019ll feel so amazing when it\u2019s done.\n\nBut if you\u2019re in the middle of that long-term project, you may realize you\u2019re not going to get any real feedback on it for a long stretch of time. You\u2019re not going to enjoy a sense of completion until it\u2019s done. As you keep plugging away at it, day after day, you must be persistent and patient and take the long-range view to maintain motivation.\n\nDo that work. Don\u2019t stop. However\u2026consider giving your spirits and brain a little boost by assigning yourself a shorter project now and then. What can you write that you can finish and ship fast? Could you...\n\n \tfinish the short story you started and send it to a literary magazine\n \tpush out thoughtful commentary via social media\n \twrite and submit a poem to a journal\n \texpress one complete idea or story via blog post\n \tsend a letter to the editor about a concern that disturbs you\n \tcompose a thoughtful book review to share via Goodreads and Amazon\n \tpitch guest post ideas to a website you enjoy\n \twrite a fan letter or email to an author you admire\n\nAssuming you\u2019re able to complete a short project like this without derailing your primary work in progress, the quick turnaround will offer a satisfying sense of completion. You\u2019ll feel happy\u2014even proud\u2014and you can return to your big project with increased enthusiasm.\n\nYou mustn\u2019t abandon the big commitment, of course, if you\u2019ve got that in the works. It\u2019s just that deciding to pursue something you can finish and ship fairly quickly changes us. Completion satisfies.\nAchieving Small Goals Motivates Us to Pursue the Big Goals\nProfessors Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats wrote in a Harvard Business Review article:\n[F]inishing immediate, mundane tasks actually improves your ability to tackle tougher, important things. Your brain releases dopamine when you achieve goals. And since dopamine improves attention, memory, and motivation, even achieving a small goal can result in a positive feedback loop that makes you more motivated to work harder going forward.\nA little dopamine hit from shipping those projects sounds like a great benefit. What writer doesn\u2019t crave a positive feedback loop? Heaven knows we could all use some motivation to work harder and move forward.\nDon\u2019t Undermine Your Primary Objective\nCompletion and feedback loops satisfy something deep within as we feel we\u2019ve made progress, so I encourage you to consider shorter projects you can ship faster as a legitimate element of your writing life.\n\nBut I also offer a warning. If you feel jazzed by a hundred likes and dozens of retweets on social media, you might be tempted to devote excessive time to the mundane and too little to important projects.\n\nBe careful not to let the delight of shipping shorter projects undermine the work that matters most. If you have a big goal to complete a big project, make it your priority and be sure to allocate time for it.\n\nOf course, if short-form work represents your primary focus as a writer and you don\u2019t even attempt long-form writing, you\u2019re set. Go for it. Dive into your next short project with joy and confidence, knowing this is who you are as a writer. If you\u2019re an essayist, blogger, microblogger, or poet, finishing faster than a novelist is built into your calling.\nSmall Projects Lead to Big Goals\nIn a 2013 blog post, Austin Kleon wrote:\nBuilding a body of work (or a life) is all about the slow accumulation of a day\u2019s ...