By Rosanne Bane One of my agility trainers once commented, “If your dog does everything in class perfectly, you are failing.” I did a double-take. “Failing,” she explained, ”to challenge yourself and your dog often enough.” Are you challenging yourself as writer or are you playing it safe? What was the last big risk you … More The Risks of Playing It Safe
By Rosanne Bane In my Writing Habit class, I invite students to “bet” on themselves each week. If they want to bet, they put a buck in an envelope and write their commitment for what they’re going to do that week: so many days of creative play (aka Process), so many days of this kind … More Wanna Bet?
If you’re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area and you want to be a better writer, be sure you check out the Loft Literary Center’s winter/spring class offerings. I’m teaching two perennial favorites: The Writing Habit and Writer’s Workout. The Writing Habit class will give you a safe, supportive place to apply the Recommended Practices (Process, Self-care and … More Annoucement: Loft Classes Start Next Week
By Rosanne Bane What’s Your Teeter Look Like? Create a checklist of the intermediate behaviors that will lead you from where you are to where you want to go. You should phase out rewards for more basic behaviors gradually over the course of weeks, even months. If it seems you are giving yourself far too … More Rewarding Yourself Part 4
By Rosanne Bane Blue Learns to Teeter-Totter Most of what dogs do in agility are natural behaviors – running, jumping, climbing – but the teeter-totter is not. Take another look at those videos if you’ve never seen a dog on a teeter-totter. The teeter is weighted so that one end stays on the ground. The … More Reward Yourself Part 3
By Rosanne Bane Running Is Its Own Reward If you’ve ever seen a border collie run an agility course, you’ve seen the epitome of self-rewarding behavior. If you haven’t seen a well-trained dog run agility, take a look at this or another youtube video of a border collie running agility (I suggest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDTt4lGhxjw&feature=fvw) Clearly, these dogs … More Reward Yourself Part 2
By Rosanne Bane Is Writing Its Own Reward? When I blogged about using chocolate to bribe ourselves to write (When All Else Fails, Use Chocolate), the post got three times more visits than any other post. But when I ask writers about consistently rewarding themselves for their writing efforts, many react as if I’ve suggested … More Reward Yourself Part 1
Bane of Your Resistance 