How to add delight to your writing sessions
Pro-tip: add a relevant side quest
I often say how hard writing is. Yet I don’t share enough about how much fun it can be. Those moments where you laugh maniacally as you torture your characters or how the love interests kiss for the first time—they bring me joy.
For the first time in years, I don’t have a book contract or a hard deadline. It’s a strange feeling. I have to set my own schedules and deadlines so I can send work to my agent. It’s not bad. Just different.
My biggest challenge is how do I motivate myself to make time to write instead of scrolling social media, loading the dishwasher, staring into space, etc?
By choosing delight.
I choose to find delight or curiosity each time I sit down with my manuscript. What part of this chapter brings me joy? Is it giving the love interest’s best friend a granny hobby? (Needle punch) Or maybe it’s describing the villain’s office so readers know right away he’s a rich douchebag?
Last week I went down a research rabbit hole about the Nguyen dynasty. What I discovered was so delightful that I shared it with close friends and my family. They were riveted! (Thank goodness for Google Translate because I can’t read Vietnamese.)
(A MacGuffin is a desired object that is a plot device in the story. Think Indiana Jones trying to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can get it.)
Was this side quest worth it?
The information I learned was more than I needed for my novel but totally worth it. I filed it away as another book idea to explore later. When I sat down to write the next chapter about this family heirloom, the words flowed. All this history allowed me to infuse more depth into my protagonist’s great-aunt and their interaction about the heirloom.
My research also helped me create a deeper motivation for my main character. I was able to outline the next few chapters. Before this, I’d been stuck on how to proceed to the next beat of my novel.
This delight has paid off in multiple ways.
What if I had forced myself to keep writing instead of going on this side quest? I would’ve trudged along with place holder names and events until I gave myself permission to take a break in order to research. In the past when I’ve done this, I ended up throwing a lot of words away. I tossed out almost half of Full Exposure because I forced myself to write when I wasn’t sure how to proceed next.
I’m not saying you should research every little detail right away. It’s knowing what’s important enough to do now versus saving it for one big research session later. There’s a danger of using research as an excuse to avoid writing, but I gave myself a time limit.
Prior to my exciting discovery, I was stuck in my novel. Now, my brain is brimming with new ways the love interests can interact with each other.
The biggest win is that I’m excited to sit down and write because infusing my research into the novel brings me delight.
How do you find delight or joy in your writing sessions?
Interested in more Vietnamese culture and history? You’ll love my musical theatre friends-to-lovers romance, Something Cheeky.
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