The Joy of Small Wins
I’ve posted before about how my son plays Dek Hockey. After taking the past three months off, we just started a new season. Well, this last weekend he scored his very first goal!
He was beyond excited, as you can do doubt tell from the picture, and I was too.
During his previous season his coach had him playing defense almost exclusively. Playing D means less running, but it’s not as exciting, and it means almost no chances to score. His team ended up with a lot of younger kids, and they struggled against other teams, ending with a losing season. It was tough on him, dealing with the disappointment. But then to turn around and score a goal so soon in this season really pumped him up and left him wanting more.
It got me to start thinking about the benefits of getting some small wins in here and there. If you’re a part-time writer working on a novel, it’s probably going to take you a while to get it finished. Then you have to edit and get it published somehow. It can take years of labor to get to the finish line. And in all that time you might start to feel like you’re slogging uphill, or maybe like you’re stuck playing defense all the time with no chances to score a goal.
This is one of the reasons I work on short stories along with the novel projects I have going. They’re short, I can knock one out in a couple weeks, and depending on the theme I can sometimes use existing universes. Not having to invent something new from whole cloth is nice and speeds up the process.
When you send a new short story out into the either, to be judged worthy or not, you get a little feeling of accomplishment.
But the best thing is when you get that nice email with a contract attached.
In the past couple of months, I’ve gotten three of those for short stories, all from the great folks at Three Ravens Publishing. Yes, they’re short stories. And no, I won’t make a ton of money off them. But they are important. Like that first goal my son scored, each of those wins is a boost to my confidence, reminding me that I am getting better, that I can do this, and not to stop working on the rest of my projects.
All three stories will come out this year, so be on the lookout for publishing dates on those! I’ll have some snippets come out when we get closer to the release dates to give you fine subscribers a little taste of what I’ve been working on lately.
Single-minded focus on a goal like finishing a novel is well and good, but don’t forget that you might need the occasional little win here and there. Don’t neglect yourself by playing defense all the time.
Get out there and score some goals.