What’s Your NaNoWriMo Reward?

Every year, along with a whole lot of other writers around the world, I spend the month of November trying to write 50,000 words. I’ve been doing this for about ten years now, and most years I succeed, but it’s always a struggle. There’s always something. When I first started it was usually papers and midterms, now it’s more often other projects or stuff at my day job. There’s always something that wants to keep you from writing, especially when you’re trying to write 1,667 words a day. I don’t know about you, but even though I’m in the habit of writing every single day, that’s still about twice as many words as I usually manage on a weekday.

So every year at the end of NaNoWriMo, win or lose, I think it’s important to reward yourself. Not necessarily with a purchase or a treat (although I did split a pint of candy cane ice cream with my husband). But something.

For me, this year, my reward for finishing a day early (woo!) was a whole day in my pajamas, doing absolutely nothing useful. I didn’t even go to the grocery store. I turned up some good music, watched my cat sleep in a sun beam from the window, played around with Photoshop and my Wacom tablet, and started knitting a new hat. I watched something ridiculous like four episodes of The Good Wife, and wrote something utterly ridiculous to amuse myself and my writing partner. And then I curled up and read a few chapters of a new book until bedtime. And today, I felt ready to work again.

So what was your NaNoWriMo Reward?