Training the Writer...

Anyone who has studied up on animal training knows that intermittent reinforcement is one of the most powerful training techniques.

Intermittent reinforcement (Cheryl's non-technical definition) is rewarding a given behavior some, but not all, of the times that the behavior occurs. I used positive reinforcement to train my dog to sit--she got a yummy treat every time she did it right. Once she'd learned the behavior, I cut back on the treats. Intermittent reinforcement means that I give her a treat some of the time she obeys. Not every time, but just often enough to keep her coming back.

Well, it's occurred to me that my e-mail program (or editors and agents--or the world at large) has trained me to check my e-mail with increasing frequency. It provides that incredibly addictive intermittent reinforcement.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, my e-mail messages are unexciting (and that's not even counting the messages that head straight into my spam folder) but every once in a while--usually just after I've said "there won't be anything good, since I just checked my messages five minutes ago"--I get something great. A request for a manuscript...or a kind word from an editor...or correspondence about an article I have out in submissions land...

Luckily, I write longhand. Far, far, far away from my e-mail program!

:) Cheryl