As I got serious about my writing, I started taking on all the requisite writing rituals. Minimum daily word quotas, designated writing times, specific writing exercises, and 30-day novel competitions. And I fell out of love with writing. Hated it, in fact, and began avoiding it at all costs, going more than a year without writing a single thing other than my grocery list. Something that used to be a natural high suddenly filled me with dread and self-loathing. All the other writers I knew could write thousands of words per day, why couldn't I? Worse still, the stuff they produced wasn't irredeemable crap that wasn't even worthy of the back of a shampoo bottle. What was I doing wrong?
Then I read Drive by Dan Pink, and the upside-down pieces of my writing world flopped back into place. Pink examines the science of motivation and shows that so much of what we consider standard-issue Motivation 101 guidelines don't work. The standard rewards and punishment motivation systems are based on an unfounded view of human nature: that we don't want to work and must be forced to do what needs to be done through bribes or pain avoidance. Pink looks primarily at the standard 9-to-5 workplace and traces the roots of this ideology back through the industrial age, then shows how innovative workplaces are revolutionizing their work models based on what does motivate people.
How does this relate to writing? Word quotas, for one, are the snarky boss in Office Space saying, "Yeah, I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday, too." Not meeting your quota feels like not putting the cover on the TPS reports--what kind of writer are you if you let yourself get away with that? Slacker. Shame is your punishment. If, however, you do write your entire novel-in-a-month, then hey - put a badge on your fb page! You win bragging rights!
Think about it--all this assumes that writing is something you must do, something you don't want to do, and therefore you must be forced, or force yourself to do it. Is that how your writing career started? Not mine. I fell in love with writing because I loved great stories, and I found the world disappeared in the same way--more, even--when I was writing a great story as when I was reading one.
It turns out that the standard rules for motivation (which Pink refers to as "Motivation 2.0") are particularly destructive to creative processes. I think that as an industry, we've fought so hard against the idea that writing is a magical process where pixies will come and guide your hands to write The Next Great American Novel that we've distorted the reality that there is magic in the writing process. Writing is hard. Yes. It's time-consuming and takes a lot of practice, time, and study. Don't expect to skip your way to the Pulitzer or a Newbery. But it's not all drudgery, either. And if it is, you're doing it wrong.
We write to satisfy that inner drive. The drive to create and to do it well. The drive to produce something that is completely our own that other people will want to read. We write for the fulfillment that comes from realizing the end result is something greater than ourselves. Pink writes that what really drives people are Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. That's exactly what writing is. The satisfaction of writing whatever you want, however you want, and doing it freakin' well. Not just well--Freakin' Well, baby. That's why I write. Screw word counts. I'm going for my daily dose of Kicking Literary Butt.
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