Isn’t it great when you feel excited to write?

Yes, I have developed a writing routine that I faithfully stick to, and I believe in sitting down to write even when I don’t feel like it. I think the path to success as a writer is best built with good writing habits, but I also feel that the power of excitement for your writing time, for your story itself, shouldn’t be underestimated. As Sage Cohen says, “There is no energy source like delight to keep the writing coming.”

I recently had a front row seat to how enthusiasm can create astounding results. My best friend, author Roseanna M. White, had a staggering amount of books due this year–six. SIX. While many writers might say this is a great problem to have, akin to trying to figure out how to spend all your lottery winnings, it also takes a lot of time and energy to write, edit, and turn in six books. Roseanna had 2 due in March and 1 in May. She pushed herself across the finish line (which was really more of a “halfway mark” for her since there were still 3 more to write!) and then eagerly left town for a week-long beach vacation. She was ecstatic that she could take a break from writing, because she didn’t have anything due until September, and she was understandably exhausted.

But on vacation, Roseanna had a story idea. The idea wouldn’t leave her alone, so instead of taking the break she’d been longing for, she wrote 12 pages of notes about her new idea just because she wanted to. After vacation, she immediately left to teach at a writer’s conference, and while there she wrote 15,000 words of the new book, even though she was only working on it in the mornings before breakfast. Her delight with the story idea propelled her forward.

My guess is that you, like Roseanna, are working on a passion project. Most writers in our community are relatively early in their writing days and aren’t yet working with deadlines. But even when we’re working on something that we don’t have to write (by which I mean, there’s no publisher expecting a finished book by a specific date) we don’t always feel excited to write, do we?

I work almost exclusively on passion projects, but still there are days when I’m excited about writing and days when I’m not. While it’s unreasonable to expect that I’ll feel delighted every time I open up my Word doc, I decided to make a list of times that I feel most excited to write.

I limited myself to listing things that made me feel enthusiastic in the moment, rather than things that motivate me to write. For example, I’m often motivated by knowing that I’ll be able to check “Write 1k of manuscript” off my list for the day, but that’s not the same thing has being enthusiastic about the writing itself.

I feel most excited about writing when . . .

I’m working on a scene I really love.

If I’m working on a scene I love, good luck prying me away from my computer. Even if it’s time to go get my kids from school, you’ll find me trying to type as I put on my shoes.

This isn’t a unique observation. Rachel Aaron says the same thing in her book 2k to 10k, “The days when I broke 10k were the days when I was writing scenes I’d been dying to write since I planned the book. They were the candy bar scenes, the ones I wrote all that other stuff to get to. By contrast, my slow days . . . corresponded to the scenes I wasn’t that crazy about.” Later she says, “I decided then and there that, no matter how useful a scene might be for my plot, boring scenes had no place in my novels.”

This is what I strive for too. If a scene feels boring to write, instead of slogging my way through it, I’m asking why? Typically the scene feels boring to me for one of two of reasons:

1. The POV character goes into the scene expecting something, and that’s exactly what happens. There’s no surprises, no twists, no shifting of the plot.
2. The POV character makes no decisions in the scene. The story is happening to the character, not the character to the story.

I know I’m close to an important moment.

This could be that I’m close to an important moment in the story, like the main character discovering she was adopted, or it can be more of a timeline type thing, like I’m close to the big middle scene or I’m close to reaching the end.

Those are always days when it feels easy to get to work because I know fun stuff will be happening or I’m about to hit a writing milestone.

When my body is comfortable and rested.

We sometimes treat our writing life like only our brains and typing fingers matter.

Yes, I can write when I’m sick or tired, but it isn’t very enjoyable. Doing what I can to make my body comfortable–exercising, sleeping well, eating well, hydrating, etc,–goes a long way toward me feeling excited about writing.

The same is true for comfort while I’m writing. I try to keep the computer screen at an angle where I don’t have to look too far down. I wear wrist guards because otherwise my wrists get tingly and uncomfortable. I wear glasses to help me avoid eye strain. I added a pillow to my chair to support my lower back. When any of these elements are missing, I have a hard time feeling excited about writing because my body isn’t comfy for very long.

When others are working alongside me.

When I’m on a writing retreat, I often feel extra excited to get to work because the other writers I’m with are doing the same thing.

Being an author tends to be a very solitary profession. I don’t mind that, generally, but it’s also fun to feed off the energy of others.

This feels especially true when I get to brainstorm with writer friends on retreats. I’ll say something like, “I need my character to feel guilty about this murder. Why would he feel guilty?” and my writer friends offer suggestions. That makes working on that scene feel so fun.

Maybe a writing retreat isn’t an option for you right now, but you could incorporate some of the same elements into a regular day. You could set up a Zoom meeting to brainstorm with a friend, do writing sprints, or even just communicate throughout the day with a fellow writer by texting your word counts. (We do this kind of stuff on the Go Teen Writers Patreon group, and it’s so fun!)

When what I’m writing seems good.

Is there anything more fun than writing a joke into your story while you giggle about it? Or getting swept away with emotions as a beloved character dies? It’s delightful when what you’re writing feels good.

I was on a retreat with Jill Williamson back in 2014 while she was working on a Mission League book, and she kept laughing as she wrote because Spencer is such an enjoyable character for her to spend time with.

When I feel like I just wrote something clever, or witty, or poignant, I feel delighted to be writing.

Do you have to feel inspired to write? Of course not. I frequently don’t feel like writing until after I’ve started. That’s typically when my enthusiasm arrives, and that can work too. But if you want to feel more excited about writing before you start, consider making your own list of times that you feel most enthusiastic about writing.

What’s on your list? When do you feel excited to write?

Stephanie Morrill writes books about girls who are on an adventure to discover their unique place in the world. She is the author of several contemporary young adult series, as well as two historical young adult novels, The Lost Girl of Astor Street and Within These Lines. Within These Lines was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, as well as a YALSA 2020 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick. Since 2010, Stephanie has been encouraging the next generation of writers at her website, GoTeenWriters.com, which has been on the Writer’s Digest Best Websites for Writers list since 2017. She lives in the Kansas City area, where she loves plotting big and small adventures to enjoy with her husband and three children. You can connect with Stephanie and learn more about her books at StephanieMorrill.com, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.