Step Up Your Game
Stepping up your game means committing to forward motion.
No One is Coming to Carry You
In the author business, you’re both the talent and the business manager. That means the responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders. No one is coming to carry you to success, and no one’s automatically tearing you down either. Most of the obstacles you face are the ones you allow to exist.
Running your author business means accepting that responsibility. If you want progress, you have to create it. The good news is that this also means you control the outcome. Your efforts and decisions determine how far you go.
Are You Climbing or Not?
Think of your career like climbing a mountain. The top is somewhere out there, but no one can see exactly where it is. The important question is simple. Are you climbing or not?
Sometimes the climb is slow and indirect. Sometimes you slip or even fall. I once fell during a climb and broke a couple of ribs while on a search mission north of the 38th parallel in Korea. It hurt, but the mission didn’t stop. We kept climbing. Your writing career’s the same. As long as you keep moving forward, you’re still making progress.
What is Your Next Goal?
Progress depends on having clear goals. A vague idea like “write a book” doesn’t help much. A better approach is to set a specific goal with a timeline. For example, writing 1,000 words today is far more useful than simply saying you’ll write someday.
Daily goals keep you moving. They create momentum and prevent you from becoming overwhelmed by the size of the project. When each day has a clear objective, the larger goal starts to feel achievable.
Think About Finishing the Book
There’s an important difference between saying you’re writing a book and saying you are finishing a book. The second mindset pushes you toward completion.
Finishing matters because an unfinished book can’t be sold, marketed, or read. Focus on small steps that move you toward the end. Those steps aren’t massive milestones but tiny progress markers. Think of them as inchstones that carry you forward one page at a time.
Big Ideas Become Small Actions
Everyone has big ideas. The difference between dreaming and achieving lies in turning those ideas into small actions. Writing a novel isn’t one giant act. It’s thousands of smaller steps.
If you plan an 80,000-word book and write about 1,000 words per hour, that still represents around 80 hours of focused writing. Spread over two to four hours a day, that becomes weeks of consistent work. Big achievements come from repeating those small efforts again and again.
Final Thought
Stepping up your game means committing to forward motion. Accept responsibility for your career, keep climbing even when it’s difficult, and focus on achievable daily goals. Big accomplishments are built from countless small steps. Keep moving forward, and the climb will take you farther than you expect.
Step Up Your Game — Original Medium Article
Step Up Your Game — Over 1000 Five Minute Focus videos on the Successful Indie Author YouTube Channel
The May I Write a Novel Challenge is live, but it is never too late to jump in and get started.
Join other successful indie authors this May on the SIA Writing Challenge website and record your progress. Collectively, SIA members wrote nearly 3,750,000 words in May 2025.
You set your goal. You establish your own boundaries. The rest of us will support and encourage you. Simple as that.
Don’t miss out on your chance to be part of that success in May 2026.
SIA Writing Challenge website — Record Your Progress on Your Way to Becoming a Successful Indie Author
Craig Martelle is an author, leader, and entrepreneur living in Alaska. Retired from the Marine Corps military intelligence community and physical security, he graduated summa cum laude from law school and went into business consulting. From intelligence, to the inner workings of company boardrooms, to on-the-ground leadership, Craig has seen it firsthand.
He is a million-selling author of over 200 science fiction (post-apocalyptic, military sci-fi, and space opera), thrillers, and the non-fiction series, Successful Indie Author. Craig has been running author conferences since 2017, and also the Successful Indie Author Facebook Group, and the Successful Indie Author YouTube Channel.
Leadership is a service, not a crown to lord over others.