Well hello there, Reader!
Last year, my husband baked a sheet of brownies for himself to use as rewards while redoing our downstairs bathroom. 🚽
It was a large task—the whole half-bath needed to be gutted right down to the cement foundation. But by breaking it up into small tasks (with a brownie reward), it was something he could accomplish mostly on his own.
Where’d he get the idea to do such a thing?
Some self-help guru?
A YouTuber?
A genius wonderkin?
Nope. Video games.
He’s a gamer, and he’s just applied the micro achievement and reward system games use to real life. A principle better known as Gamification.
So instead of thinking, “I have to redo the whole bathroom.”
He reframed it as: “Today, I have to put in the floor tiles to earn my brownie.”
And your “brownie” could be anything.
Maybe it’s a baked treat or your favorite meal.
Maybe it’s watching an episode of the latest hit TV show. 📺
Or reading the next chapter of a thrilling book. 📖
One of my friends even has a real prize wheel. Every time she writes 10K words, she gets to spin it and see what fabulous prize she’s won for herself.
By using micro-achievement rewards, a seemingly daunting task like “writing a novel” or “editing your book” instead becomes “write a thousand words today” or “edit 2 chapters.”
And let’s not forget the hidden bonus of this. Gamification takes something that often feels like a slog through mud and instead casts you as a Legendary Character on some important quest.
So if you’re currently up against a difficult challenge, Reader, whether it’s writing your first (or 10th) story, or cleaning out the garage, why not give micro-achievement rewards a try?
Well, Reader, until next time, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat wishing you a wonderfully creative week.
Your cohort in storytelling,
Kat Vancil
🐱
PS 👉 In case you’d like your own brownie reward for completing this quest (reading this email). Here’s my husband’s recipe. Even the gluten-free ones taste great, and I don’t even like GF food. 😸
Recipe Page 1
Recipe Page 2
Did your friend, co-worker, or some rando you met at a con forward this email to you? First off, they have good taste.
Secondly, you can join the Storyteller's Saga too, and get edutaining emails delivered to your inbox weekly by clicking the golden button below.
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The Writers Life, LLC
Laura Matney, book coach
I help fiction writers finish the darn book. If you have a spark of an idea but no clue how to proceed, if you are lost mid-draft or mid-revision and about to give up this content is for you. We'll talk about everything craft and process related with more than a sprinkle of magic mixed in. |
