Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Writing - It Goes

I'm in the home stretch for the book I'm working on and that means that I've gotten to the point where I have to start bribing myself to finish.  It's not that I dislike working on it--I love it like cake--it's that I'm impatient.  I want to be done.  I want to move on to one of the other million ideas I've got.

My impatience was one of the first hurdles I had to overcome before I could become an honest-to-goodness writer type who actually finishes books.  I overcame it with bribes.  I have daily little bribes.  Like if I hit my word count, I can have cookies or a special dinner.  Then I have bigger bribes.  Like if I average a certain number of words for the week, I can go see a movie or buy something shiny.  And finally, I always buy myself something nice when I actually finish a book.  It doesn't have to be anything big.  For example, when I finish this book, I'm going to buy myself a new pair of running shoes.  Maybe not the most exciting gift in the world, but my feet will certainly thank me.

I'll actually be happy to finish because I miss talking to my friends here and on Twitter.  I haven't been very good lately.  Actually I've been bad for about two months.  I didn't want to be one of those people who only Tweets during their book launch season and then disappears.  But between real life and book writing, I've not been able to make much time.  With a little luck, that will soon change.

So what do you use to bribe yourself into finishing things?  Not just books, but anything.  I'm all ears.

2 comments:

  1. my rewards are much more small-scale-ish. write this chapter down, then watch t.v. for a while, or hang out on the interwebz or go out and chillax.
    its deff very motivating, even if somewhat lame. but since im kinda sorta really lazy, it gets me getting closer to finishing that book, and that's what counts, isn't it?
    hope your novel goes well! :) (does that make any sense? oh well. too knackered out to rephrase. [see, told ya im lazy. :D])

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  2. Aleeza - I'm with you on the lazy. That's one of the reasons I schedule my writing time first thing in the morning. That way I can get up while I'm still motivated and my thoughts are uncluttered. By the time noon rolls around, I'm pretty much useless.

    I hope your writing goes well too!

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