Where's the Juice?
Image Credit: PDPics
Last week, I had a meeting with my Mastermind group. Once a month, I check in with three other authors and we discuss what we’re working on and what we need help with. This time, I needed help with some reluctance I’ve been feeling about starting a new novel.
The problem with being someone who gives a lot of advice is that sometimes people will give you some of your own medicine. So when I told this crew about my worries, one of them said: “A smart writer I know once said: Go where the juice is.”
Damn it. This is one of my key writing dictums. I say it all the time in my writing presentations and when I’m coaching my mentees. I say it because it has worked for me over and over in my career. Yet, somewhere along the way, I forgot to take my own advice.
To go where the juice is means that you should always write the thing you’re excited to write. Instead of slogging through the next scene on your outline (if you’re a plotter) and banging your head against a beat that’s not working, jump ahead to something that you can see clearly or just think it would be fun to work on.
The juice can also be a different project than the one you think you’re supposed to be writing.
You can tell where the juice is because the following things accompany it:
-A quickening in your gut
-People tell you your whole face lights up when you talk about it
-When the scene or character keeps tugging at you (this is a visceral thing for me, but it might just be not being able to stop thinking about it for you)
Now, before I get angry letters from editors, I need to make some caveats.
If you are under contract for a story you may not have the luxury of setting it aside to go work on something else. In this case, jot down some notes for yourself or indulge in an hour to do some research or make a mindmap for yourself. If you’re a pro, you need to act like one and that means meeting your deadlines. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t use the juice as a reward for getting your work done.
Sometimes what we think is the juice is really just us avoidance. I always get to a point about 2/3 of the way into a story where suddenly any other thing is juice. “I really want to do the dishes—that must be the juice!” When in reality, I know I have issues with finishing stories. I loves it and I hates it so much. So I avoid it and try to convince myself that working on anything else is a better idea. This is FAKE JUICE. Do not listen to fake juice because it’s really that part of you that loves to sabotage you and/or avoid hard work. Only 100% natural juice will do, people.
Now that we’ve gotten those out of the way, let’s get back to it. I am one of those weirdos who writes my books non-linearly. I get really uncomfortable when people say you have to write a book in order, scene by scene from page one to the end. I think this is a terrible and boring way to write. Granted, it’s not how I’m wired. It might be how you’re wired and that’s cool. BUT, what do you gain from staring at a scene for three days, rewriting and cursing and banging your head against the keyboard? Be a rebel. Jump ahead two scenes? If you really want to be wild, jump to the next act. I know! It’s crazy.
Benefits of The Juice:
-You’re always working on something that you actually want to work on, which makes writing fun. Yes, it can and should be fun a lot of the time.
-Because you’re writing scenes that you’re excited to write, your scenes will be better. After all, if you think it’s pulling teeth to write it, imagine how your readers feel.
Today, my juice is getting busy on this novel I want to write. I’m still nervous about it but maybe that nervousness is really excitement. Maybe it’s really just the juice coming back for the first time in a long time. Either way, my Mastermind group told me that my face lit up when I talked about it and my belly feels like I swallowed a bunch of Pop Rocks, so that means I know what to do.
Where’s your juice today?*
*Now would be a good time to write this on a Post-It and place it over your workspace.
Remember! I have writing seminars coming up this week and next through Writing Workshops Dallas !
4/23: Mastering the Scene
4/30: Internal vs External Conflict
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Timely, so timely.
This was just the nudge I needed. I haven’t written a word since the quarantine began, getting caught up in a hurricane of busy work and konmari organization of my house. But those are not my will and the juice, as you put it, will never be there. I am taking tonight to reconnect with my WIP. Thanks Jaye!