Getting my addiction under control

I think I've worked it out now. I have a system, see—a system that made last week the most productive week to date in my work on my novel, to the tune of nearly 5,000 words. I wrote over 620 words every day last week. And here's how I did it.

At one point,I toyed with the idea of laying down the law: No World of Warcraft unless I had written a chapter already that week. Yeah, right. That wasn't going anywhere.

But my new rule is working. It goes like this: No World of Warcraft unless I've already written at least 670 words that day. 

So every day last week, I managed to get up and do at least a little writing in the morning. Then, when I got my son into bed, instead of saying, "Oh, I'm too tired to write... I'll play WoW for four hours instead," I would sit down to write, thinking, "OK, 200"—or 400, or 670—"more words and then I can play WoW guilt-free."

The results were spectacular.

Today's the first real test. I failed to get up early enough to write anything this morning. I'm home from work, my son is busy reading Calvin & Hobbes... I could be playing WoW. But I'm not going to. I'm going to try to write those 670 words, and I'm not going to click that icon down in my Dock until I do.

That's how I'm getting my addiction under control, and getting my novel written, all in one brilliant stroke of self-discipline.