In American football, teams score when they reach the end zone and make a touchdown. It’s rare for a team to go straight for the touchdown right away, because the decision is risky; instead, the team approaches the touchdown through running and passing short distances. 

With each next checkpoint they make, they buy more regulation time to make new plays.

This analogy is something I’ve been considering for my creative work. I’ve wanted to go from nothing straight into publishing a final, polished, incredible final draft. That’s similar to going straight for the touchdown. It’s a very elegant, memorable, approach when it works; the only problem is, it hardly ever works.

Instead of doing that, it may be more effective for me to approach the next down with a simple play that’s very risk-free.

For example, I published my first book twice. The first time was an independent release as a PDF on Gumroad. In many ways, this was the first checkpoint. I got to complete the manuscript, do some interviews, and sell some copies of the book. This was all momentum that propelled me to the next checkpoint. (The idea for the book started as this article, which was a step toward the first checkpoint.)

The second time I published was with my publisher, Holloway. If this wasn’t the touchdown, it’s certainly very close. I submitted the first book as a manuscript, which earned me the opportunity with Holloway. The book got a much better title, benefited immensely from me working with a great editor (Rachel Jepsen), and gained more credibility which led to more promotion.

This metaphor is useful as long as the checkpoint doesn’t distract me from the real goal—writing the best version of this book possible—which is the touchdown.

I don’t want to make history; I want to win the game I am playing right now.

I’d thought this play—publishing twice or more—was an anomaly; now, I’m starting to wonder if I would be well served intentionally approaching my work like this more often. Maybe this approach could be useful for you too.