avatarShaunta Grimes

Summary

The undefined website content outlines the "31-Day Ninja Writer Challenge 2019: Day Three," emphasizing the effectiveness of setting small, achievable writing goals, such as ten minutes a day, to foster consistent writing habits and complete large projects like a novel over time.

Abstract

The article "Challenge Yourself to Think Small to Dream Big" from the undefined website discusses the psychological advantage of setting tiny, easily attainable writing goals to overcome the hurdle between the desire to write and actual writing. It introduces a tool called FRED (Folder For Reaching the End of Your Draft), which is a monthly accountability calendar that encourages writers to give themselves a gold star for meeting their daily writing goals. The concept is that by consistently achieving these small goals, writers can accumulate a significant body of work, potentially completing a novel's first draft within a year. The article also provides a link to download a printable version of FRED and encourages writers to log their daily reading and writing activities, reinforcing the importance of maintaining a chain of success.

Opinions

  • The author, Shaunta Grimes, strongly advocates for the psychological impact of small goals, suggesting they are more likely to be achieved than larger, more daunting ones.
  • Grimes emphasizes that the main objective is to start writing, and even a brief period of writing can lead to longer, more productive sessions.
  • The use of FRED is presented as a powerful and simple tool for writers, providing both a visual representation of progress and a method for logging daily accomplishments.
  • The article encourages a non-judgmental approach to writing, where meeting the small goal is considered a success, regardless of the word count.
  • The concept of "extra credit" is introduced for days when the writer exceeds the minimum goal, but it is made clear that this is not the primary aim.
  • The author believes that the consistency of meeting daily goals leads to the development of a writing career over time.
  • Social accountability is suggested as a motivational tool, with writers encouraged to share their progress on social media platforms like Facebook.
  • The article concludes with an invitation to subscribe to receive the rest of the writing challenges, indicating the author's commitment to supporting writers in the long term.

Challenge Yourself to Think Small to Dream Big

31-Day Ninja Writer Challenge 2019: Day Three

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

If you’ve followed Ninja Writers for any length of time, you know this, but I’m going to say it again anyway.

Tiny goals are my jam.

It’s a psychological thing. Make a goal so small that it’s harder on your brain to skip it than it is to just get it done and over with. Start a chain of days where you’ve met you goal — and it’s just like magic.

When it comes to writing, the main thing is to get over the hump between wanting to write and actually writing. This one trick will kick your butt from #shouldbewriting to #amwriting better than anything other.

That means sitting at your desk, turning on your computer, opening your file, putting your fingers on the keys, and starting to write.

So the tiny goal, then, isn’t actually about setting a timer and making yourself stop when it goes off. It’s about getting started. Some days, you might barely get through your ten minutes. But others, you’ll look up and see that twenty or thirty minutes have passed. Or an hour. Or half a day.

You can write a double-spaced page in ten minutes. You really can. And if you do that 365 times?

If you do that 365 times, you’ll have the first draft of a novel in a year.

If you do that for the next decade? You’ll have a body of work and a career.

Meet FRED

One of the most powerful tools we offer at Ninja Writers is also one of the simplest. We call him FRED (for Folder For Reaching the End of Your Draft.) Basically, FRED is a monthly accountability calendar. Set your teeny, tiny goal — let’s say ten minutes of new fiction writing a day — then give yourself a gold star every day that you meet your goal. (Seriously. Get stickers.)

FRED comes with a log, too, so you can write down what you accomplished for the day. This has been one of the most surprisingly awesome things I’ve ever done. It’s amazing to look back at the end of the month and see just how much I did. It makes me feel like a real writer, which is always nice. I like to log my reading on the FRED log, too.

​If you fill out the form below, I’ll set you a printable FRED for free. The download includes instruction and you can read more about how to use him at this post.

The key to the whole teeny, tiny goal concept is to really make your goal that small. My go-to is ten minutes a day. If that’s not small enough for you to the point where you’d rather do it than break your chain, then make it smaller. Five minutes. One sentence. Whatever it is, is fine. And it’s valid. You get full credit for meeting that goal.

Try not to have an alternative REAL goal of 2000 words or something like that.

It’s perfectly fine if you do write 2000 words every single day. Everything over 10 minutes is extra credit! But it’s also perfectly fine if today, you just meet that one small goal. Trust me on this one, and just see what happens by the end of the month.

Don’t forget that the our Daily and Weekly Dockets include a FRED. All of these tools are designed to help you reach that teeny, tiny daily writing goal. That’s how important a very small daily writing goal really is.

ASSIGNMENT THREE

Download FRED. Print him out. Start giving yourself a gold star for every day that you keep your tiny goal. Since this is day three and you’ve been writing for at least ten minutes a day, you start out with two stars! How cool is that?

Start keeping a daily log of your reading and writing. Just a sentence or two. Something like: Wrote to page 4 of (WIP.) Read 10 pages of (book you’re reading.)

Check out the Daily and Weekly Dockets for more help sticking to your daily goal.

After you’ve downloaded FRED and got him all set up, why not come by and share a picture on Facebook? Let’s see those shiny stars!

Don’t forget to read and write for 10 minutes each today.

If you’d like to see all of the challenges in this series, see this post.

Want the rest of the 31 Day Ninja Writer Challenge in your email inbox?

Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She lives in Reno with her husband, three superstar kids, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes, is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming middle-grade novel The Astonishing Maybe and is the original Ninja Writer. Do you have a writing question you’d like answered? Send it to [email protected] with DEAR SHAUNTA in the subject line.

Writing
Creativity
Challenge
Productivity
Goals
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