independentauthor Archives - Chris Budd

The Intrinsic Motivation Of Writing

Chris Budd — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 11:55:32 +0000

Why do people write fiction, or create music.

Is it for money? For fame?

If these are the reasons, then they are poor ones, as these are extrinsic motivations. Let me explain.

The Financial Wellbeing Book

As well as fiction, I have also published non-fiction books. The Financial Wellbeing Book is all about our relationship with money. It provides the reader with a pathway to create a financial plan to make you happier, not just wealthier.

I also write the Financial Wellbeing Podcast. In episode 42, Professor Tim Kasser explains the two different types of motivations – the reasons why we do things.

An extrinsic motivation is something that we do for other people. It might be a reward, status, fame, or perhaps a deadline or to avoid a fine.

In contrast, an intrinsic motivation doesn’t really have a reason why you do it – you just do it because you want to.

Now, research shows us that achieving an extrinsic motivation does not have any effect on our wellbeing.

Achieving an intrinsic motivation, however, does increase wellbeing.

Intrinsic writing

I recall reading an interview with one of my favourite artists, Van Morrison, in the 90s. In it, he said that he saw making music as being his job. Just what he did to pay the bills.

I struggle to believe at the Van Morrison of the 70s and early 80s, when he made his great records, thought that way. And I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I stopped finding his music interesting when he started thinking of it as a job.

Personally, I write because I need to write. I enjoy it. Of course it’s wonderful when somebody tells you how much they enjoyed your novel, when you get positive Amazon reviews (please post Amazon reviews!). If I only got negative reviews I would probably still write, but maybe I wouldn’t publish!

Would I like to be offered a five book deal for my novels? Would I like one of my novels to be made into a movie? Damn right I would.

But that isn’t the reason why I write. For me, writing it is intrinsic.

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Make Good Art

Chris Budd — Wed, 26 May 2021 11:55:48 +0000

In November 2020, I started writing novel four. It’s based on an idea I’ve had for a long time, and when I talk to friends about story ideas, this is the one they always like the sound of best. Provisionally titled How To Escape, it is, among other things, about creativity.

I have a difficult relationship with creativity. I have written stories, poems, songs all my life but it was not something I was ever encouraged to do.

Maybe I just wasn’t any good at taking the hint!

(And a self depreciating comment like that is the result of a life of not being encouraged to be creative).

Could I Make Good Art*?

I have found that people tend to assume that if they know you, then they find it hard to believe that you are unlikely to be able to write anything good.

The attitude tends to be “Only famous people make good art and write good books, and I don’t know anyone famous. You’re not famous, and I know you, so you can’t have written a good novel.”

Consequently, a very common comment I get when friends read my novels is “Do you know, I actually really enjoyed it.”

This lack of faith in my creativity has been a common theme throughout my life. I distinctly recall, age 17, two female friends listening to me play them a song that I had written. Afterwards, they said they liked it (again, with a tone of surprise), and asked me “Did you make that up yourself?”

I was so hurt that they could not bring themselves to use the word ‘write’. ‘Make it up’ somehow robbed the creative process of its glamour.

As a consequence, I never felt that I had the right – the ‘permission’ – to be creative and to express myself.

Just Be Creative

So if, like me, you sometimes struggle with the idea of being creative, maybe you secretly feel you do not have permission to do something that you enjoy which has no real purpose, my suggestion is this.

Do it anyway.

Being creative is something I came to realise that I need to do. It’s not because I want to make money or to be applauded (although nice comments and reviews are very much appreciated!).

I write because it’s fun. I hope you do too.

*The phrase ‘Make Good Art’ comes from a brilliant Neil Gaiman speech

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The Rule of 9

Chris Budd — Wed, 19 May 2021 11:55:17 +0000

Do You Need To Write?

Clearing out a corner of the cabin in our garden from which I work, I recently rediscovered the novel that I wrote when I was aged 21, in 1988.

It’s a complete first draft entirely typed out onto a portable typewriter that I bought as a student.

It was interesting to read it again. It is terrible, but without it, I would not have written my subsequent novels. There was, however, a gap of over 20 years before I started writing fiction again.

My Muzzy Head

In 2010 I went to the GP with what she termed a muzzy head. She suggested we take some blood test to see what might be wrong with me.

I went back for the results two weeks later, and she was pleased to report that they come back clear and there was nothing wrong. She waited for me to leave.

I said that whilst I was pleased she had found nothing wrong, I still have my muzzy head. I mentioned that one website suggested that it might be a mild form of depression.

The doctor gave me a form to take home and fill out. She asked me to bring it back completed two weeks later.

I will never forget sitting at the kitchen table as I unfolded this tatty and much photocopied piece of paper, headed ‘Depression Questionnaire’.

The first question asked: how many times a week do you feel like killing yourself?

Noticing What Was Missing

Around that time, a friend, who was training to be a life coach, asked if I would be a guinea pig for her to practice on. I confess I was a little cynical, but agreed to help her out.

Those three sessions changed my life. We realised that the one thing I felt I wanted to do I was not doing, and that this was what was causing me the depression.

Filling The Void

So I started writing again. I created the space by taking Wednesdays off, and began writing what became my first novel, A Bridge Of Straw, published three years later.

Six months after I started writing again, I realised that the muzzy head had gone.

I truly believe that to write something great first of all I need to write quite a lot of rubbish. Neil Finn calls it the rule of 9 – out of every 10 songs he write, 9 aren’t very good, and 1 is. But he has to write those 9 to get to the 1.

I’m glad that I finished that novel when I was 20, and I have no regrets about stopping until I felt I had something to say.

I do wish, however, I had restarted earlier!

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