Celebrating the small wins

BY IRIS CAMERON

Think back to the first time you hit a writing milestone. Maybe that was finishing a project or a chapter, hitting a word goal, or having a big breakthrough. How did you feel when you sat back and realized what you’d just accomplished?

In my case, I felt exhilarated. The first time I wrote a book, every single word felt like a victory. I was amazed that I could write five hundred words in one sitting. I would hit 5K or 10K or 15K words, and I would celebrate it. When I finished that book, I was so incredibly proud.

Now tell me, that first milestone—the one that you were so proud of at the time—have you hit it again? Written another project, or chapter, or significant number of words? Had a breakthrough that left you reeling? If you’ve been writing for a while, you probably have. Maybe even multiple times. How did you feel the most recent time you hit that milestone?

I’ve written four books now, and even though I improve every time, each one feels like less and less of an achievement. I still get that thrill when I finally write “the end,” but it’s so easy to downplay the rest: I just wrote 5K words this weekend, that’s not much. I’m only 30K words through this book, I’ve barely done anything. Etc., etc. I always want to go bigger, better, faster.

It’s so easy to lose sight of those early milestones when we’re always focused on how we can improve. There’s nothing wrong with reaching for the stars—sometimes the best work comes from pushing ourselves—but it’s important to remember how far we’ve already come, too.

Writing a book—or even getting more than a few thousand words into a project—used to be the star I was reaching for. It felt light years away. Now that I’m here, I find myself reaching for farther and farther stars while forgetting that making it this far used to feel unreachable.

It’s disheartening to look at everything you’ve done and brush half of it off as not a big deal— to pour yourself into a project and then shrug and say it’s nothing you haven’t done before. It makes it harder to muster the energy to write when nothing feels like an accomplishment anymore. What happened to that exhilarating feeling that made every word feel like a success?

This is why it’s so important to let yourself celebrate the small wins. Even if we’ve written more, or better, or faster in the past, every word still counts. Maybe nothing will ever feel as huge as the first time—the novelty of it is gone—but every time we sit down to write, we’re still accomplishing something.

Next time you hit a milestone, give yourself some credit. Think back to that version of yourself who was amazed by the thought of doing this much and acknowledge how cool it is that now you can. You don’t need to jump for joy or throw a party, but pause and take a moment to smile to yourself.

Writing can be a hard and thankless task, but it’s also pretty incredible what we can do with our words. Your writing matters. So celebrate that.

Iris Cameron is a first-year Writing and Publishing student at Okanagan College. She loves theatre and acting, and when she’s not onstage, she can usually be found reading, writing, attempting to learn a language, or otherwise being a nerd about words.