Writer's block, an owner's guide: Self-determination theory
When I was a law student, one of the ways I survived financially was by selling my body to science. I was wired up for early experiments by IT scientists on how humans scan a scene to identify what they are looking at. I was tested for left-handedness and told I was less lefty than I thought. I was observed taking part in some negotiation or other. And so forth.
Meanwhile, over in America, students were getting paid to solve puzzles.
Edward Deci promised some of his volunteers a dollar for every puzzle they solved. A second group were told they would not be paid. Then the students were turned loose to solve the puzzles. When time was up, one group of students wanted to go on playing with the puzzles; the other group stopped willingly at every opportunity and sat doing nothing or doing something else.
What Deci found - contradicting the psychological theories of the time - was that the students who had not been offered money were the ones who took a personal interest in the activity. “Introducing monetary rewards seems to have made students dependent on these rewards, shifting their view from the puzzle as a satisfying activity in its own right to an activity that is instrumental for obtaining rewards.”
Seems strange? Yes, and seems true, too. Once upon a time there was a creative project I was keen to do. I negotiated with a grad school teacher to get three units of academic credit for doing it. As soon as he agreed, I lost interest, I dropped the class and I still haven’t done my project.
Is this why some of us would willingly write for fun and for ever, but as soon as we start to write with the hope of wealth and fame, our minds turn it into a j.o.b. and we treat it the same way as we treat the day job? Is this why actors and writers of proven talent, who come out here to Hollywood, have difficulty doing what it takes to succeed - even apparently-simple things like mailing their resumes to agents? Is this why people who write for their own delight, and manage to sell the product, find it hard to work on the second book in spite of having guaranteed sales and a waiting approving public?
Waddaya think?
Published on August 4, 2004 at 5:48 pm. Linking to this article? Thank you! The permanent address is http://www.todayiwrite.com/journal/self-determination-theory.html
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