Mojo Hide and Seek

I spent a good deal of last year editing and revising and NOT DRAFTING. Editing so intensely that I couldn't even read a book without scrutinizing every sentence. Analyzing every choice. Evaluating every bit of thought and dialogue. It was early September; I had just gotten ready to query TTBB, and I was about to start writing my next novel. But as far as taking a plot in my head and figuring out how to start and what to reveal in the opening and how to order a scene or multiple scenes and how to develop a character, I was at a loss.

I didn't remember how I got the knowledge to do those things in the other books I wrote, but wherever it came from... it was lost. I couldn't remember how to combine all those elements into a story.

I texted my sister, "I forgot how to write!"

She texted back, "It's just like riding a bike, right?"

I replied, "I may remember how to pedal the bike, but I can’t remember how to steer. I keep crashing into bushes and my legs are all scratched up. So is my bike. And the bushes. And if I’m being honest, the sidewalk. And that poor kid walking on it."

I find it oddly comforting to know that everyone crashes now and again.

But just because your mojo goes into hiding, doesn't mean it can't be found. Even if it's hiding REALLY WELL.

Peggy's Guide to Getting Your Mojo Back

Write total crap. 

Somehow convince yourself that you aren't trying to get this first draft as shiny as that manuscript you've taken through a million revisions. All that matters is that you continue.

No matter how much those words stink, power through it. Keep writing even if every single bit of it comes out crap. Keep writing even though it gets really really hard and all you want to do is stop, throw the laptop out the window, walk away, decide you are done, quit. Because do you know what that means? That you're about to the crest of that incredibly high mountain! You're almost there! And, well, yeah... It will get harder before it gets easier. And you'll have to push a little harder even when you think there is absolutely no strength left in you to give. But you'll crest that mountain.

And then from there... Oh my gosh, from THERE, you hit the downhill part. The part where you start going so fast, you don't think you can ever stop. Possibly not even to sleep. (And then as long as you mind the occasional rock, tree, ditch, river, or crevice, you've got it made. :))

Have you ever lost your mojo? (I'm not the only one who had to play hide-and-seek with my mojo, right?) How did you get it back?