Writing even when it sucks

And, writing what sells or what you love?

1. Latest News from the Desk of Sooz

2. Write What Sells Or What You Love?

3. Writing Even When It Sucks

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1. Latest New from the Desk of Sooz

GUYS. I TURNED IN LUMINARIES 2.

It has an ending now that is messy but not actually bad, and the first 90% is now fully edited according to my editor’s notes.

I cannot tell you how hard it was to get through this deadline. A definite sprint to the finish line where nothing in my life was going right. Full on Mercury Retrograde, y’all. Sick kid! No childcare! Then sick Sooz! Then husband out of town for a whole week! Then phone died!

Yes, it could all have been so much worse. And honestly, as new things kept cropping up that kept me from The Work, all I could do was laugh. 🤷‍♀️ I knew my editor was out of time, and I knew if I missed this deadline then Bad Things would happen…

But sometimes you just have to roll with it. (Curse you, Mercury!)

Anyway, I’m just really proud. I turned it in at 11:30PM last night, and it is DONE.

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Also, don’t forget: The Lady of Charlotte will start hitting inboxes in a few days! Make sure you’re a paid subscriber by then if you want to read!

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Me, back when I had long hair and fantasy was “SO HOT RIGHT NOW”

2. Write What Sells Or What You Love?

From @TheElvenTrove:

How do you prioritize the next idea? Marketability? Characters that won’t stop chattering in your head? An idea you have the most for? (I’m currently querying one and trying to figure out what to do next is hard atm)

What a great question, and honestly, every author is going to approach this differently.

People with enough success under their belt won’t have to worry so much about marketability. Their names will sell a project. (Oh, to be such an author! 🙏)

But for the rest of us mere mortals, we can never completely ignore marketability.

On the one hand, I always, always urge writers to write what they want to write because even if the project never sells, at least they will have enjoyed the act of creation.

And I never, ever, EVER advise that someone chase a trend—not unless it’s a trend they also happen to love. Otherwise, you’ll write a book you’re miserable writing, and trust me: if it’s a slog to write, it’ll be a slog to read.

Plus, in all likelihood, by the time you finish, the trend will have passed. (Note: indie publishing moves very differently and writing to trends is more common there. But you need to be a fast writer to manage that! And again, I still think if you don’t enjoy what you’re writing, the reader will know right away.)

So wouldn’t it be best if you could write something marketable and you could ALSO love writing it?

Yes. The answer is most definitely yes.

But Sooz! I can hear you saying. What makes something marketable?

Unfortunately, I can’t give you an unequivocal answer on that. If we could predict what would sell, then we’d all be making a lot more money! That said, there are some universal elements that people do seem to love.

Jennifer Lyne Barnes calls it “writing for your Id,” and she has an incredible seminar on just that subject that you can buy for super cheap here.

I highly recommend giving that seminar a listen because even if the idea you’re most passionate about right now isn’t obviously commercial, you can always add these Id moments that will help amp up your story’s appeal.

At the end of the day though, I do still believe writing something you love simply because you love it will always be the best place to focus your efforts. Not merely because you’ll enjoy the process even if the book doesn’t sell—and not merely because your love for the story will come across on each page.

But because we often write faster when we love what we’re writing, and having more content, more books under your belt will ALWAYS be the best strategy you can choose as an author—whether you’re aspiring or published. If you think of it as a roll of the dice, the more dice you roll, the better your chances are of one of your many projects being the one that sells or the one that breaks out.

Then, one day when YOU’RE that cushy author who can publish based solely on name, you’ll have soooooo many titles all ready to go! (I’m looking at you, Brandon Sanderson!)

And just as a little anecdote: remember that I tried to sell a proposal The Luminaries back in 2013 without any success. Paranormal was over at that point. Meanwhile this other book I was working on (and enjoying the heck out of) called Truthtwitch was in a genre that was on the rise: high fantasy! Now here we are, 9 years later, and paranormal looks to be making a comeback while fantasy is oversaturated…

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3. Writing Even When It Sucks

From @jude:

how do you get through the rly hard writing days? as in, how do you work through writing just really not working for you on a day where you need to write?

Ah, this is tough one because everyone is going to feel differently about this. All I can say is what works for me.

Having spent the first two years of Cricket’s life without childcare or family to help me—and a partner working in an office full time—the time I had to write was really, really limited. And when I didn’t produce during those hours, I was absolutely brutal to myself.

How could you waste that hour doing laundry? How could you sleep in until 6?! How could you sit on Instagram for fifteen minutes INSTEAD OF WRITING?! YOU ARE SUCH A PIECE OF ****, SUSAN DENNARD.

I still do this, lol, but not nearly to the degree I used to.

Mostly because it doesn’t help. I don’t work faster. I don’t produce more. Instead, I’m just even more frustrated that I spent an hour writing a scene I will eventually end up cutting.

Because for me, when the words really are not flowing, it means the words are not ready.

Now, it’s really important for me to note here that every brain is wired differently. I keep shouting out Becca Some because her books and Patreon resources really helped me understand what works for me is not what works for everyone.

Some people thrive having only fifteen minutes here and fifteen minutes there for drafting.

Some people choke.

I am in between. When I know what the story is and the words are flowing, I can 100% work in mini chunks throughout the day. But when I’m stuck and the story needs more simmering…

Nope. I don’t care if I even have an entire week to sit and write, everything I write will be wrong.

But—biggggg BUT—that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t also try. Sometimes, it’s not story problems that are holding me back but simply inertia. Once I work through the initial resistance, I’ll find my stride and things will mooooove.

But if the resistance doesn’t go away…if I just write and write and each word is agony (yes, it really does feel like agony to me), then I have learned to say, “Enough.” I step away. I brainstorm. I chat with a friend. I daydream. Or I binge a video game and let my subconscious do its thing.

So to answer you, @jude, for those days when it’s all just sheer suckage but you REALLY NEED TO WRITE, then remember that “writing” can look like so many things. It is not just words on the page. It is not just hands on the keyboard. And sometimes the most productive thing you can do is to embrace all the other parts of that writing puzzle—whatever they might look like for you.

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Thank you for reading, and thanks for supporting me! I’ll see some of you again soon!

💚 -

Sooz

1. Now ‘tis time to binge the crap out of the new Deathloop update. 😌