How to stay excited while you write
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How to stay excited while you write
Or, A Refresher on my Magical Cookies Method
Hi, I’m Susan Dennard, a New York Times bestseller and the long-time (over?)sharer of radically transparent writing and publishing advice. If you want access to all 94 posts I’ve written for the Misfits & Daydreamers Substack, you can start a free 7-day trial right here!
I recently saw a group of authors discuss “magical cookies” on a Discord server, then proceed to misdefine the phrase and (because it was misdefined) dismiss the entire concept as unhelpful—and even say it was harmful to quality writing. 😩
How very freaking cool is it that the phrase I coined a decade ago has spread into the collective writer lexicon?! No one may know it came from me, but that’s still super cool to see!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, but I can’t have people out there misdefining it! So I wanted to make sure I’ve got a recent post out there for writers everywhere.
What are magical cookies?
I first coined this term in 2013. You can even read that original post here—on my very old, now-defunct blog.
Or you can just read on below to learn more instead!
Magical cookies: the pieces of a story that most excite you to write it. A character, a kiss scene, a general vibe—anything that gets you amped to add words onto a page.
For me, one of the biggest cookies in the Witchlands was a moment during which I saw Iseult using magic to crack ice on a frozen lake and save someone (I won’t share any spoilers here!). As I wrote the series, I was just building and building toward that EPIC cookie. When I finally got to write it in Bloodwitch, I vividly remember every moment about where I was and how I felt.
Not every scene can be a cookie scene though. Not every scene is a moment you have been waiting to reach since the inception of the idea.
But…can it be?
That is the entire idea behind a magical cookie: finding something about a scene that excites you. For me personally, being bored by a scene usually means I’m writing it wrong. This isn’t to say that every word I write pours forth in a high intensity flow state—oh boy, farrrrrrr from it. Many of my scenes take writing, rewriting, rearranging, and general laboring in frustration until the words are exactly how I want them to be.
But one thing that always helps me—be it as I am drafting, trying to rewrite a scene in pursuit of the Right Story, or editing for my editor—is to find something about the scene that I love.
Maybe it’s the romantic tension between two characters, or maybe it’s the banter between two best friends. Maybe it’s just a chase scene, and I always enjoy writing chase scenes. Or maybe it’s some super emo angst that helps me personally connect more deeply to the POV character.
Whatever it is that excites me, I use that to help work me through the scene.
I essentially find a cookie to keep me going when I’m struggling to connect or care about my work.
The other thing I primarily use cookies for is to find my way during those inevitable moments of stuckery.
I have learned to accept that stuckery is a key part of my process, but I also know that brainstorming can help me work through said stuckery faster than simply waiting for an answer to fall into my lap.
Don’t get me wrong: the solutions do often fall into my lap when I’m driving or showering or walking the dogs. But all that focused brainstorming helps feed my subconscious so it can work smarter for later eurekas.
And when I brainstorm, I am always looking at my cookies. I’ll even write them on the top corner of my white board so I remember them!
What I write is: What is it about this story made me want to tell it? Have I actually drafted all of those big cookies yet? And if not, how do I get to them from where I currently am?
In the Witchlands, there is still one VERY BIG COOKIE to come, and Witchshadow was a very carefully assembled tapestry of plot threads to help me ultimately get there. Because I know where I need to aim, them that always helps me find my way forward.
One more point on magical cookies. I often hear writers say, Ugh, I need to get my characters from Point A to Point B, and all that between stuff is so boring!
And my response is two-fold:
Does it have to be boring? Can you introduce cookies into each scene so that it feels exciting to you as you write?
Do you actually need all the between stuff? We often think the reader needs to see all the rungs on a ladder. That they have to know how characters got from the ground onto the roof…but do they? Is it possible to simply summarize the ascent and then launch the reader right onto roof? In other words, can you summarize the key moments that happen after Exciting Point A, then jump right into Exciting Point B. Sometimes you can’t! But it’s always worth examining your story to see if maybe this time you can.
Ant that, friends, is a refresher course on my magical cookies method. Please enjoy their deliciousness and revel in the excitement of writing them.
For more deep dives on the subject, head here:
💚 - Sooz
P.S. Don’t forget to preorder The Hunting Moon and submit your receipt for an enamel pin!
I even got so worked up at one point, I had to get up and pace for a few minutes, lol. It’s a very high emotion event in the story!
How to stay excited while you write
This refresher comes at exactly the right time for meeeee, thank you Sooz! Honestly, your advice has shaped me SO MUCH as a writer, I can’t even begin to explain, and there are two post of yours that I feel rocked me forever—one is this! The first one on magical cookies. The other one is the old post you made on FRAB, it really re-arranged the way I approached fear in writing wow. So thank you 💜 🍪
This is so great. Definitely something I need to remind myself of often! And I like your point about not always needing the info between points A and B. When I’m drafting I tend to forget that and the in between bits can get tedious.