Rewards For Writers

Every now and then I'm asked to describe my writing day and it goes something like this:

Get up.  Do some writing.  Watch Bargain Hunt (there are a few raised eyebrows at this point).  Do some more writing.  Watch Countdown (add in a bit of sniggering) do a bit more writing. Watch The Chase (more sniggering, possibly outright laughter).

Okay, so obviously in their opinion no one worth anything watches day time television. But this is my reward system.  1000 words done?  Okay, you can switch off your brain with a dollop of TV before going back to the laptop.  

My viewing habits are carefully selected - I never watch anything with a narrative in it such as soap operas or dramas when I'm writing.  It's always quiz shows or game shows where there's no connection between one episode and the next.  

I think it's important to cultivate a reward system when you're writing.  Heavens, it's a hard enough business and the chances are no one else is going to appreciate your efforts on a daily basis.  For some it might be tea and biscuits, or chocolate.  Others might like a bit of box ticking and have elaborate spread charts that can be filled in.  Deadlines can be good, so long as they don't stress you when they're missed - the secret here is to have easily achievable ones.  

Other rewards could be nice notebooks and writing materials. The word 'pampering' makes me edgy, so spas and beauty treatments are useless rewards for me, but I do like taking time off to go to an art gallery or museum or just take a long walk.  I buy myself flowers when I hit milestones like the first draft done.  It doesn't really matter what you go for, so long as you build some system of rewards into your writing.  

As writers we get quite a lot of sticks thrown our way, what with rejection and negative feedback; we really ought to give ourselves some carrots...

NEW!!! I've finally got round to organising some course dates....

How to WRITE a Novel: London 3rd May/Birmingham 7th May/

Exeter 21st May

How to SELL a Novel: London 24th May/Exeter 4th June/

Bath 3rd July Details are on my website

Nothing Succeeds Like Success

I'm having a brilliant writing splurge. 3000 words on Saturday, 5000 - yes, 5000 - on Sunday, 4000 on Monday. And it's got me all fired up to write more, more, more. How different it was only a few weeks ago when even the thought of writing was something to be avoided. Writing? What's that? Nothing to do with me, that's for sure.

But now - now I am writing personified. I LOVE being a writer.

And all because it's going well. I'm pretty certain it will fade - I have been in love with writing before; I know I have a fickle heart and can fall out of love quite easily - but at the moment, nothing will part me from my beloved.

And it's going so well because I wrote what I thought was going to be a tricky scene, and it seemed to work. Which inspired me to write the next scene, and the scene after that. Wheee! I was off.

It's vital to have success in our writing to inspire us. Success could come from ourselves - that tricky scene that just wrote itself - or from outside - a word of praise from a writing friend, a mention in a short story competition. It doesn't matter where or who it comes from, so long as we make sure the opportunities for success are built into our writing process.

The two easiest ways of building opportunities for success are to set writing targets and share our work with others. They have to be realistic - a 500 daily word count, not 5000 - or positive feedback in class rather than 4 agents vying for our manuscript. (Not to say that these things won't happen to you, but they're rare rather than regular events.)

Whatever your writing process, make sure you have those successes built in to encourage on the way.