April Showers: Small Steps

Hi folks, brilliant sunshine, perfect warmth, and blue skies -- not exactly writing weather, but perhaps I can grab a notebook and find a sweet spot under a tree.  I'm continuing my series about what waters our creative soul. I think one important piece to thrive as as a writer is to take small steady steps.  So many want to leap, and leap right now. I think there is some deep truth in that story of the tortoise and the hare.

One way to make serious forward  leaps  is to make a list of small steps you can complete over time. As you complete each small step you feel deep satisfaction that you are drawing closer to your goal. You build confidence layer upon layer. Small steps help you avoid becoming stuck. You have a plan and the next thing to do isn't that big.

For example, a problem I'm facing right now is a main character who needs to shift her goal. I'm going over two or three pages a day and underlining anywhere in the manuscript she thinks about this goal  Then I journal little paragraphs about various ways her new goal might work in the underlined sections. I've made a chart of chapters vs. goal change. I'm writing an overall plan about how I will achieve the change. Next, I plan to  underline sections and then make my planned revisions. I will highlight each revision and let the manuscript rest for a few days.. I think you get the idea. Small steps. I find puddle jumping is the way to go.

I hope that you water your work with some small steps this week. I hope that you make progress and celebrate that progress. Be kind to yourself. Think happy thoughts. Seek the best of everything, the best in everyone, and the best in you.

I will be back with more showers next week!  Meanwhile seize the day!


Here is the doodle:PINK BLOBBY. 

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