Adding Steps
This post goes out with thanks to my friend Derick, who taught me a type of Resistance I had never thought of (or at least had never given a name to.)
Usain Bolt. Resistance is always strongest at the finish line.
Derick had been working for months on two big projects of his own. He was getting really close to the finish of both, when all of a sudden job offers started coming in. He was offered a teaching post. A movie wanted him to come on board. Two other plum positions opened up, begging him to join.
Guess what happened to his two big projects.
A month later Derick and I were talking. “I let ‘em both drop,” he said, cursing himself. “Then I realized what I was doing. I was adding steps between almost-finished and actually-finished.”
I thought, “Wow, that’s a new one. Adding steps. I love it.”
Isn’t it strange, too, how the universe steps in to screw us up? The rule of thumb for the finish of projects is, “Resistance is always strongest at the finish line.” Somehow that diabolical force can even produce job offers and “opportunities” at just the right time to knock us off course.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this type of thing happened to me too. Or I should say, “I let it happen.” I accepted a research position once that I had no interest in. I’ve signed up for movies that had nothing to do with my vision for myself. Right at the finish of Something Big of my own. Arrrgggh.
My first literary agent, many years ago, was a gentleman named Bart Fles. Bart was over ninety when he started representing me and very wise in the ways of the lit biz. He used to ask me, as I approached the end of a manuscript, “How close are you to finishing?”
“Close, Bart. I’m really close.”
“Close is good enough,” Bart would say. “Give it to me now.”
I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but now I see how wise Bart was. He knew from decades of representing crazy writers (and what writer is not crazy?) that, as they neared the finish line, they’d inevitably begin tweaking and retweaking, doodling and noodling, and, in Derick Tsai’s phrase, adding steps.
Delivering late could be fatal. That perfect editor that Bart had been priming for months … she might move to another job, acquire a book similar to ours, get married and take off on her honeymoon. Anything could happen. We could torpedo the whole submission.
How much better, Bart knew, to get a manuscript in to an editor (even if it wasn’t 100% perfect) on October 20, when the publishing business was still functioning, than on December 10th, when everyone in the business had mentally checked out for the Holidays.
To be clear, I’m not lobbying for turning in sloppy work. When we ship, we better ship a product that works. But there’s a big difference between pro-level and super-duper-perfect.
Perfect can wait.
Added steps can wait.
Take a lesson from Derick and don’t let Resistance trick you.
When you’re close, push hard and get it done.
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”, GEN George S. Patton.
Sadly, Patton would likely have been fired as a CPT in today’s Army.
Which just made me think of an interesting discussion I had with a buddy a few weeks ago. He’s a USNA 2002 graduate. He became a Marine Infantry Officer. In his words (which I totally respect and laughed my ass off to), “In my mind, and most of my buddies, there were two types of Officers: Marine Infantry Officers, and everyone else.”)
I asked him how many of his classmates were still in…not a single USNA graduate that opted for the Marine Corps. This is rumint, not researched fact-but the truth must be pretty close. That is a scary statistic about the state and future state of our military.
Love the post. Reminds me of advice from both soccer and basketball coaches, “Follow the shot.” Point is I may miss, and there is always a chance for a rebound and another easier bucket.
bsn
Thanks for exposing yet another of Resistance’s diabolical tricks.
This hit me right where I’m living right now. I cranked through half a manuscript over the summer, and have been inching my way through the final five chapters since September. It’s amazing how visceral the “slowdown effect” becomes once you actually get closer to the finish line. Thanks for bringing my attention back to the central issue here: sit down, get it done, worry about the rest later.
“what writer isn’t crazy?” indeed
As usual, resistance! We could also say we add “extra steps” at the start of a new enterprise. That’s been a folly of mine too.
Hello, Steve.
I couldn’t agree more. Same has happened with me twice in my life. I was about to be more creative and was about to finish my own work and one offer came to leave it and join them. 🙂
Now I knew what it happened!
Best regards,
Waqar
Oh, this one gets printed out for my kick-in-the-pants notebook, Steve! Good one…
Yesterday I was talking to a client who is a truck driver as well as a web designer (NOT while driving…) We both admitted having the red light/green light syndrome about some of our important decisions. Part stop, part go. At that point he said, “I think I’m having the flashing yellow light instead.” To me, adding steps is like getting stuck at the flashing yellow light.
It’s easy to get side-swiped at a flashing yellow light.
Wow. Just… wow. I do this a lot–and not always near the end of a project, either. Sometimes I’ll do it right at a project’s inception. I’ve never thought about this being a type of Resistance, but it makes perfect sense now. Thank you, Steven!!
In the world of management, “adding steps” goes by a number of related names: mission creep (especially in military and peacekeeping operations), scope creep or requirements creep (in project management), and feature creep or function creep (in software engineering).
Writing coach Hillary Rettig applied the phrase to writing in her blog post “Scope creep will poison your projects” where she wrote:
I loved this post, Steve. I “shipped” last week, and let me tell you, it was pretty damn hard. It feels great now, but it felt terrible at the time. No high fives and celebrations for me. I didn’t even realize how much resistance there was until the very last days of the final push. I think that writers often need external pressure or an outside incentive that will enable us to push through this resistance and avoid adding steps, especially for big projects that have been with us for a long time.
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