Friday, September 24, 2010

Poetry Tips: Incentives

There are days, even weeks or months, in which a complete lack of desire to write occurs. You may have been going strong, you may have been diligent, but then the interest begins to wane. Taking a break is always a good idea but when you feel like writing has become a chore rather than a joy, it may be time to bring in some sort of incentive to keep going.
For example, mine has been treating myself to an Oreo cookie when sitting down to work on my poems when I least feel like it. Other times has been treating myself to window shopping if I spend a designated amount of time working on my writing—even if it is just tweaking already existing poems. Your may be allowing yourself a nap on the weekend after you’ve spent thirty minutes working at your own written words. Perhaps you’ll allow yourself a treat like an Oreo for the days you least feel like writing.

Let me know what incentives you use in the comments section, I’d love to hear about them…

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by again next week…

4 comments:

Jim Murdoch said...

I think I probably work the other way round. I reward myself before I do the work. I'm quite good that way. I don't renage on the deal. I find by having the treat first I'm usually in a better frame of mind to work. I don't like the idea of turning work into something that has to be got through, something that has to be endured and deserves rewarding.

Poet Hound said...

Jim,

I wish I had your mindset! I don't necessarily think of it as something that has to be gone through but it certainly reminds me to stop being lazy. Of course, you neglected to let us know what treats you prefer, care to share?

Jim Murdoch said...

Chocolate if there's any in the house. Or cake. But I usually have to settle for coffee and a biscuit.

Poet Hound said...

Jim,

Thanks! I think all of the above sound pretty good.