from The Productive Indie Fiction Writer:
Ever notice that tiny zing of relief when you decide not to write for the day?
You tell yourself you’ve got too much going on. Or you’re too tired. Or—my personal favorite—you just don’t feel like it. And right after that decision, there’s a light, fizzy hit of pleasure. A little aaaah.
But it doesn’t last, does it?
That’s because what you’re feeling isn’t real satisfaction. It’s the illusion of pleasure. A hormonal hiccup in your brain’s reward system, temporarily reinforcing a decision you know you’ll regret in a few hours.
The science behind this is simple and annoying: your brain is wired to reward actions that have traditionally been good for your survival—eating, sleeping, sex, and, apparently, dodging your WIP. These actions release dopamine, which gives you that pleasant kick and trains you to keep doing them.
Problem is, your brain doesn’t know the difference between dodging a tiger and dodging a chapter revision. It just recognizes the sudden disappearance of stress as “success.” So when you skip writing, you’re reinforcing a feedback loop that’s incredibly hard to break.
Every time you decide not to write, you strengthen the conditioning. Your brain files that moment away: Remember this! It felt good! Let’s do it again! And before you know it, skipping a writing session becomes the path of least resistance.
It’s the same kind of psychological mechanism Allen Carr (of Easy Way to Quit Smoking fame) built his method around. He argued that addiction isn’t about giving something up—it’s about believing you’re losing a pleasure, when in reality, you’re giving up a con.
You think you’re choosing comfort when you opt out of writing. But you’re not. You’re choosing the idea of comfort. The belief that the alternatives (scrolling, cleaning, reorganizing your bookcase by color) are more pleasurable. But that pleasure is fleeting, and afterward, you’re left with that familiar hollow letdown.
So how do we beat the system?
Ritual.
You need to hack your own brain.
Make the beginning of your writing session so entrenched in habit that the little voice of temptation never gets a chance to whisper, “Maybe we can skip today.”
Your ritual might be lighting a candle, opening a specific notebook, putting on the same playlist, brewing the same cup of tea. Doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s consistent.
Because once you’re five minutes into your writing session—once habit and ritual carry you through the door—you’re in. You’re writing. You’re not going to quit now.
And here’s the kicker: writing has its own high, too. That post-session buzz, the “I did it” glow. That’s the reward we actually want. That’s the one worth training ourselves to crave.
So next time your brain tries to sell you the old “maybe not today” line, remember: it’s not offering real pleasure. Just a cheap substitute.
You deserve the real thing.
Tracy Cooper-Posey
SRP Author and owner of The Productive Indie Fiction Writer
