Episode 30: Harness Your Emotion
When we recorded this episode, Melanie and I were in the throes of Back to School. Writing and mom'ing and just keeping up with life! How do you juggle all. the. things?
IN THIS EPISODE
I send my youngest off to Kindergarten!
Mel’s daughter has trouble with a Lego bully.
Mel and I both had writing we wanted to do, but then LIFE and feelings and brother-in-laws get in the way… AND WE HAVE DEADLINES! How to deal?
Mel talks about taking old words from her revision and incorporating it into her new draft.
Jennie asks, “What’s different about writing something that in the moment feels clunky and a something somethings that immediately feels resonant & you really like?”
And what you can do to identify when something you’re writing isn’t working and what you can do to fix it. In other words, how to move towards confident writing.
Jennie says that sometimes clunky writing is very plot-heavy, like “this has to happen now so let me make it happen.” Which makes writing feel more out of the head than out of the heart or the soul.
Dude, trust your instinct when you feel something’s not working.
Jade Eby from Author Accelerator keeps an emotional diary for writing. Jennie suggests taking it further—identify whatever emotion you are feeling that day and harness it to write something in your book that needs that specific emotion.
Having a killer outline and knowing your story allows you to skip around and do that. You don’t have to write linearly. Instead, you can choose to write a scene that needs whatever emotion you are leaning into that day.
You can also do this ^ with energy.
Doing this ^ will help to leave the reader space to feel emotion.
Mel, who swore she’d NEVER outline a story, talks about the amazing 14-page outline she made to map out her story using Jennie’s process.
Jennie talks about the emotional tie-in between plot and the "Big Why," and why it’s important to bake that into the outline.
Jennie walks Mel through another story breakthrough. (SO GOOD!) And if this doesn’t point out the importance of a book coach, I don’t know what will!
Mel and Jennie touch a little bit on writing series.
Be gentle with yourself and don’t let writing become a chore. You want your writing to be a place of sanctuary.
