How I Find the Right Story

Hint: pay attention to your gut

1. Latest News from the Desk of Sooz:

I am back in the swing of travel, having hit up Dallas for NTTBF and then Tucson for their annual book festival. And this weekend, I head to Houston for Teen Book Con! It has been really…rewarding? happy-making? goal-reinforcing? to see people IRL and sign books again.

I’ve always love events. I’m an introvert, but a “social” introvert who genuinely enjoys meeting new people.

So thank you to all who came to see me, and I hope to see more of you soon!

And HEY! I’ll be headed on tour in the UK this May, so be sure to check out those dates below.

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2. Writing Prompts:

SHORT STORY ✍️

At a kids’ survival summer camp, the camp counselors are suddenly infected by a zombie virus. What happens now?

JOURNALING ✍️

Inertia can be such a powerful force, and I am so subject to it. I hate leaving town, but then always love it when I do. I hate going out for a run, but then I never regret having run. Are there any areas where inertia is holding you back from the thing you know is actually good for you?

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3. For the DenNerds: UK Release + Tour Dates

So much has happened since the last monthly update!

The French edition of Truthwitch released (🥳🇫🇷), and the UK edition of The Luminaries released too! And what’s extra exciting about the Daphne Press edition is that it went back for a second printing before the book was even out!

Woohoo! That is entirely thanks to readers like you!

And as mentioned: tour dates for the UK are shared below! 🥳🇬🇧

Lastly, if you’re not yet subscribed to my fan newsletter, then be sure to head here. I’m starting to shift the LumiNerds newsletter to include Witchlands updates too—and beyond, of course! Since I have many more books to publish and stories to share.

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4. For the Daydreamers: How I Find the Right Story

If you’ve followed me for very long, then you know I often talk about the Right Story. Explaining what that is and how I can sense it has been an ongoing struggle for me. It’s just so intuitive, so instinctive.¹

Like, I sometimes imagine I’m a shark. (Lol, bear with me here.) Sharks have these receptors all over their body called ampullae of Lorenzini that can detect the tiniest of electrical changes in the water. This allows them to sense prey as well as the earth’s magnetic field (for migration purposes).

Not only is that super stinking cool, but you have to consider the neural pathways in a shark’s brain that have formed to gather all the sensory feedback coming from the ampullae and interpret it for action.

Sense electrical charge in water —> Change course to follow —> Ah, food

There’s no conscious thought involved, of course. Honestly, it’s a bit like how we all grab for our phones as soon as we wake up in the morning. How many of you even think about it? You just do it, right? That’s your brain seeking dopamine and driving your muscles to act accordingly.²

For me, when I’m drafting or revising, I have this same “extra sense” that tells me instantly when something is wrong.

Sense story is headed in a direction I won’t like later on —> Step away from manuscript —> Ah, stuckery

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What do I mean by “a direction I won’t like later on?” I mean that I will run out of story steam. The momentum driving my character will hit a figurative or even literal wall.

When I was a newbie writer, I didn’t have these receptors yet. Or rather—I suspect I did have them, built from years and years and years of consuming story. But I didn’t have the neural pathways to respond to their signals yet. I might sense the story was headed in a direction that I wouldn’t ultimately like, but the outline said “Eleanor goes to the lab and talks to Joseph!” so by golly, that is what I would write.

In fact, the first version of Screechers was 50,000 words of me just forcing words out in this manner. This is what the outline says. The outline is logical. Write it, even if you’re miserable and not connecting at all.

And, as you all know, I threw out every one of those 50,000 words in the end. And many, many, many more words in future books where I tried to do the same thing.

To be fair, I have also written and tossed many words simply trying to find the Right Story. My process—as I now know it and have come to accept—actually requires me to write a lot of crap until I find the good stuff. ³

But how do I know when I have found the “good stuff?”

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Feel vs. Tell

So, confession: I talk to myself. Kind of a lot. It’s a habit I got into when I started writing full time and spending most of my days alone. I like to speak aloud what I’m thinking—especially if I’m working through a sticky story problems. (I also like to record what I say.)

So I was in my kitchen making coffee, talking to myself about why I couldn’t get through this one spot in the last Witchlands book…and I said, “Yargh! It feels like I’m telling the story instead of feeling it.”

And the lightbulb went off, my friends. Holy guacamole, that was the problem. That was always the problem and always the point at which I stop writing because my receptors are saying, Mayday, don’t write in that direction!

I know I’ve lost the Right Story when I no longer feel the story as I’m writing it, and I am simply telling it instead.

Now, I don’t mean “telling” in the sense of “show vs. tell” — although there is a little bit of that here. I do tend to have a harder time finding my character’s inner thoughts. But it’s bigger than that. It’s almost as if my character’s voice just stops.

They are a tap that is flowing…until suddenly they are not. And no matter how much I try to write what is clearly the logical next step in the story, I won’t connect to it. I will feel as if I am outside of my character telling you their story like a narrator, instead of inside of the character feeling and living the story.

When I’m on the inside, words come easily. It’s beautiful. I can easily write 4,000/day within the very limited hours of my work day. But as soon as the tap stops flowing…

It’s agony. I can’t see them, I can’t hear them, I can’t feel them.

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Now, I’ll be totally honest: I suspect that most readers wouldn’t be able to recognize a difference between what I’ve written that was “told” compared to what I’ve written that was “felt.” I know my craft well enough to “fake it.” I can follow the 2:1 rule and make a reader follow along with the story.

BUT, if I keep forcing things, then soon the PLOT will all go off the rails. Because I can’t feel the character, they will make decisions for the sake of an outline instead of according to what they actually want or need. They will end up behaving “out of character” until I’m so far removed from them, I just hate everything about the story.

Yes, this has happened to me. Many times.

Now though, I have the neural pathways to not only recognize when my receptors are saying, Mayday, mayday! But more importantly, I have the self awareness (and frankly, self confidence) to know that it’s okay to stop writing. To say, “Oof, Aeduan has vanished. Time to step away until I start feeling and hearing his voice again.”

He will come back. All of my characters always do.

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Now, lest you think that I stop working when my characters disappear, I want you to know there are some tools I rely on to “force them back.” Admittedly, sometimes I can’t force them, and the only solution is time (and working on something else for a while). But I always first start with these basic tools:

1. I look backwards.

Is there somewhere in the recent past of the story where a character behaved out of character? Where they did something that, if I really assess it closely, doesn’t totally jibe with who they are? More often than not, this is the source of my stuckery. A character made a choice they probably wouldn’t have made (often for the sake of the outline) and now things have veered off course.

Check in with those emotional dominoes!

2. I imagine different scenarios and change my outline.

Contrary to what you might think, I do outline—a ton, but I view my outline as fluid. It is the the liquid inside the container of my characters, and as they make new choices and the plot veers in unexpected (but true-to-their-character) directions, then the fluid outline changes with them.

Just today, as I was drafting scenes for the last Witchlands book, I finished a scene and thought, Oh! Safi is not going to do next what I thought she would do next. She just ended this last fight in a totally different physical and mental state. Welp, time for new plans!

And you know what? The fact that I could sense that really excited me. Not merely because now I won’t waste time writing according to an outline that doesn’t work…

But because now the story is new! I have no idea what she’s about to do, and I can’ wait to dive in tomorrow and feel my way through her next choices.

3. I look at what my other characters are doing, especially my “bad guys.”

What are the villains up to? It’s really easy to forget about them when I get so focused on the character I’m “feeling.” So sometimes all I need to do is figure out what they antagonists is up to, and bam! Story unlocked.

In fact, this is what ultimately helped me find Iseult’s story in Witchshadow! What was Corlant up to? Once I really figured out his movements, then oh! Oh. Now I cold see what Iseult ought to do.

4. I talk it out with a friend.

I’m not actually great at doing this yet, but you may recall it was one of my resolutions last year! So I’m trying to remember this is an option. Reach out to a friend and brainstorm (or reach out to my fabulous editor). I might not get an answer by talking to them, but I will at least have new ideas and data to work from.

5. Step away.

As I said above, this is my last step and I resist it as long as I can. But sometimes, there really is no solution for me but to step away and focus on something else for a bit. My subconscious needs space, and I can’t provide that if I’m squeezing the story too tightly.

As I mentioned here, stepping away has actually been something I am trying to do sooner now. Not because I don’t want the first four tools to work—I do! But because I’m trying to trust my sensors and neural pathways more!

I tend to focus on those first four steps for way too long before I finally accept the story just isn’t ready yet.

Now, I’m really working on honing my instincts. Have I been stuck for a few days? Am I starting to hate the story a bit? Am I starting to feel stressed instead of slightly frustrated? Then okay. Step away. Work on a different book.

As I also mentioned in this post, this new method has been extremely effective for me so far. I realize many of you would shudder at the thought of jumping stories so often, but I’m loving it. Since that post alone, I’ve worked on three different books—and made progress in each of them because I’ve been able to feel my characters instead of tell about them.

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I don’t know if any of the above will resonate with any of you (though I suspect it will, based on past posts and comments), but it was such a big epiphany for me. Such a satisfying aha! to find words that described what my receptors were sensing. And I’m genuinely hopeful that having these words will help my neural pathways react even faster. Am I telling this instead of feeling it? Well, time to stop writing then!

Even better, maybe my epiphany will help some of you.

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5. Upcoming Events

• Teen Book Con

  • Houston, TX

  • March 25, 2023

• Alexandra Bracken’s Book Tour for Silver in the Bone

  • Naperville, IL

  • April 8, 2023

• UK Tour Dates

  • Tuesday 23 May 18:30 - Ps & Gs with Toppings Edinburgh - with Olivie Blake

  • Wednesday 24 May 18:30 - Toppings Bath - with Olivie Blake

  • Thursday 25 May 16:30 - Fantasy in the Court Festival, Goldsboro Books

  • Thursday 25 May 19:30 - Waterstones Trafalgar Square - In conversation with Daphne Tonge

  • Friday 26 May 18:30 - Waterstones Liverpool - with Olivie Blake

  • Saturday 27 May - MCM Comic Con, ExCel London - The Rise of Dark Academia panel and Forbidden Planet signing

  • Monday 29 May 18:30 - Waterstones Canterbury - with Olivie Blake

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Thank you for reading, friends! I’ll be back with more writing insights and thoughts soon!

💚 - Sooz

1. This feels like a good time to point you to Dear Write, Are You Intuitive? by Becca Syme. I love this book!

2. Depressing to think about, I know. An actual addiction.

3. I know many of you will be horrified and think, “Sooz, you’re just doing it wrong if you have to cut so much.” And that’s what I also thought for many, many years. It made me miserable, and only last year did I realize many people do what I do…and we all end up with finished books at the end that people enjoy. So maybe I’m not doing anything wrong at all. Remember, writing a certain way is not virtuous.