Three Ways to Celebrate Writing Wins

When I work with authors who are struggling with burnout--or generally feeling apathetic or uninspired about their careers--one of the first questions I ask is: How often do you celebrate?

Spoiler: for almost every single author, the answer is: "not nearly enough." 

Some authors don't celebrate because they were socialized to see their accomplishments as the minimum baseline they were supposed to achieve (and forget what a massive undertaking writing a book is). 

For others, they don't know how to celebrate the little moments. Sure, they'll throw a launch party when their debut comes out, but other than that, what are they supposed to do?

Let's break it down.
 

Why Celebration is So Important

Celebration is the backbone of a sustainable author career.

Regular celebration is a huge part of what keeps writing enjoyable instead of letting it become a source of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. 

Because here's the thing: writing is hard work. It requires a lot of your brain to weave together a compelling story with complex characters over hundreds of pages. It takes effort.

And your brain? It's designed to encourage you to avoid effort. There are parts of your brain that don't give a shit about your hopes, dreams, or goals. All those parts care about is survival, and survival means doing three things.

1 - Avoiding pain

2 - Seeking pleasure

3 - Conserving energy 

By writing a book, you're going against that natural programming to conserve energy. This isn't a bad thing, but it does mean that you need to be intentional about ensuring your writing practice causes more (emotional) pleasure than pain. 

And, you guessed it, celebration is the simplest way to reduce the pain of writing and increase the pleasure/joy it brings you.

Not sure how to celebrate? There are three categories to choose from, and I've organized them below from the most involved forms of celebrating (great for big milestones) to the simplest, daily forms that I recommend you use after every writing session.

 
Trophy Celebration

For the big milestones in your career--finishing a book, publication day, or even getting your first agent--trophy celebrations can be a great way to commemorate the occasion.

Trophy celebration, like the name suggests, involves getting a little something (or a big something) to honor the accomplishment and also help you remember the moment.

Some common forms of trophy celebration include:

• Getting a tattoo (a common rite of passage for publishing a debut novel - I did this one!) 
  • Will I also be getting a new tattoo for my adult debut coming out in September? Yes, yes, I will.
• Commissioning character art to put in your office when you finish a draft/sell a book
• Getting large prints of your book covers framed
• Buying a new laptop or computer to celebrate a new deal (bonus: it's a tax write-off!) 
• A new fancy notebook (which you can use for internal celebration - more on that below) 

The "trophy" you pick can be as small and inexpensive as you'd like - or it can be something massive! For example, I used the advance money from my 2nd book deal for the downpayment on my house. 

I obviously didn't buy a house just because I got a book deal, but it is really fun knowing that my queer af vampire book allowed us to buy our home.

 
Social Celebration

This next form of celebration is one you can do as often as you like, in both free and low-cost ways. 

Social celebration is the act of sharing your joy and accomplishments with people who love and support you. This can be as simple as texting your writer friends about finishing a tricky chapter or as elaborate as planning a fancy dinner out with your partner to celebrate turning in your book to your editor. 

Posting about wins on social media can also work here, but I generally find that sharing with close friends feels better for most authors than shouting into the void of social media and then having Thoughts and Feelings about how much (or little) traction the post gets. 

This type of celebration can also help you practice taking up more space, being more visible, and owning your accomplishments instead of continuing patterns of staying small (often brought on by being told not to be "too much" or "brag" or "shine too bright" - so if that's you, it's not your fault! That socialization shit runs deep.) 

Internal Celebration

That brings us to the final form of celebration, internal celebration, which is both the simplest and the most important. It can be as quick as 30 seconds or extend as long as 5-10 minutes if you want to anchor in a bigger celebration. 

Internal celebration is an intentional practice of acknowledging what you've accomplished and allowing the positive feelings those thoughts produce to live in your body for 30+ seconds. 

The 30-second rule is important, as that's how long it takes your nervous system to remember and associate those positive feelings with your writing. (Conversely, your nervous system remembers negative feelings in an instant.) 

I recommend practicing internal celebration every single time you work on your book--whether that's drafting, brainstorming, revisions, or even copyedits. 

After you finish your work for the day, write down (or think at least think) reasons why you're proud of yourself, what was the most fun, or what you're celebrating.

That might sound like:

• I'm so proud of myself for showing up to write today, even though I was busy
• I really love the banter in this book - it's so good! 
• I know I'd normally like to work for a couple hours, but I'm really glad I spent 20 minutes today instead of skipping it entirely. These little moments really do add up.
• You did such a good job today, babe. I'm so proud of you. 
• I'm so close to finishing this revision! Just a few more days now! 

The emotions that you feel when you do this can vary. Sometimes you'll have high-energy emotions like excitement and celebration. 

Other times, you'll have softer emotions, like pride, appreciation, and self-love. 

The specific emotion doesn't matter so long as it feels good and you allow it to fill your body for 30 seconds. 

I like to take a deep breath, close my eyes, and place a hand over my heart to make sure I give myself a chance to really feel the emotion. 

And on the days I want to celebrate a milestone (like turning in a draft or selling a new book), I'll extend this practice by spending 5-10 minutes journaling about all the reasons I'm proud of the accomplishment. 

Final Thoughts

As you build more celebration into your writing routine, I recommend you prioritize internal celebration.

The social and trophy celebrations are fun (and worth doing if they speak to you!), but the internal celebration practice will make the biggest difference in your overall enjoyment of writing and the long-term sustainability of your career.

Don't let yourself fall into the trap of treating release day like a check-list item and immediately moving on. Let yourself feel how amazing you are to have accomplished something so many people dream of yet so few achieve. 

And as a bonus, making internal celebration a part of your regular writing routine will make it easier to show up to the page consistently, too. 

No burnout required.

Happy writing,
Isabel 

PS - Need help recovering from burnout and incorporating celebration into your writing life? Click here to learn more about private coaching and schedule your free enrollment call. 

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