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Topic : Re: I wrote a scene that the majority of my readers loved. How do I get back to that place while writing my new book? I wrote a scene that I put my heart and soul into. It was received well - selfpublishingguru.com

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First of all, not every scene in every work will have your heart and soul in it. Different aspects of the story will require different things from you. Let the story decide when you need to pour yourself into the scene and reach that euphoria again.

But from a writer's perspective, maybe you're not hitting flow state as deeply as you did that day? Is that a possibility? Maybe you, the author, aren't as immersed in the story at other parts of it, or aren't as invested in this story as the one your readers raved over?

The sad fact is, no one can teach you how to get to that point again. Some really good answers already provided; what I would recommend is a fusion of them.

Write. Write anything. If you feel you're not immersed in writing enough, the creative part of you isn't engaged fully, do some "warm up" writing beforehand. Loosen things up for yourself. Like jumping on an elliptical machine before lifting weights, it gets the "creative juices" flowing and moving, gets your creative mind started.
Don't neglect daydreaming. Allow your mind to wander, and drift, while you stare out a window or sit with your eyes closed. Heck, if it helps, go 'head and take a nap. Let your subconscious mind chew on the story, the scene, whatever it is you want to get down. Think so much about your story you're part of it, a character in it. Then write.
Put yourself as deeply into the mind of a character as you can. Whatever the viewpoint character is, whether it's the central character or protagonist, or the antagonist, or one of the ancillary characters, jump into their mind and see the whole thing through their eyes. Filter the scene through their mind and heart. Express their opinions and desires, or their emotions and thoughts, so the reader experiences them too.
Make sure to engage the five senses. We only take in a portion of our world through our eyes. But we use all five of our senses to interact with our world. The sense of smell is one of the most powerful memory triggers humans have - don't leave it out of your writing. The characters will see, hear, touch, smell, and taste things in your created world. Let the reader do the same through them.
Use things like subtext and innuendo to deepen the writing, and let the reader fill in the gaps. That will be one of the more powerful ways you can deepen engagement for the reader - let them and their imaginations do the heavy lifting for you. Add enough description to get the point across, and to make the environments real, but also leave out enough so the reader will be finishing your word paintings for you. Their imaginations are way better than ours in a lot of cases. :)

But...before any of that begins, make sure you're fully in the story. Make sure you can see, smell, taste, touch, and hear everything you're writing about. Make sure you're seeing the world in your mind's eye with vivid color, and can lose yourself in it.

That's the best way to get your readers into the fictive dream: being in it with them when you write.


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