Are you prepared?

If the kids begin to bicker, the television everyone else has decided upon is (in my opinion) inane, and my wife turns to me to say that it has been a bad day, out comes my laptop, and my corner of the living room has just become the villa/mountain cabin/secluded retreat I so sorely deserve. So yes!

I also have a hard time concentrating with a lot of distractions. This is mainly why the two times I can write are in the morning or late at night - when everyone is at work or asleep.

First thing I'll do is clean off my desk. There's usually a coffee mug or two from the previous day, possibly a snack wrapper, and always books. All of these get moved to where I can't see them. (It doesn't matter where but ideally trash/dishwasher/bookshelf. )

Second thing I do is get rid of any noise. TV, music, anything like that. I cannot write if there is some sort of noise in the background. I can for outlining, but not for the actual writing.

After that it's little tweaks to set the mood. I'll change my computer wallpaper to art that sets the current or next scene in my story. I'll pull up any applicable Wiki articles for easy access. Turn lights on or off or set up my glitter lamp, maybe light a candle.

I don't do those things all the time, but it's nice to have the atmosphere. For me the most important step out of all those is the noise, so as long as I can keep the quiet that's all I need to start writing.

~DragonHeart~

Is the OP asking if we have to have quiet time BEFORE we write to sort of decompress and relax? Because I just sit at the computer and start writing. There is no prep time, no relaxation techniques, no visualizations. Nothing. I just send the family off to bed, crack open a beer, and put butt in chair and type.

I just make sure the kitchen is clean and I take a trip to the bathroom. That's all I need. Usually I will read over the last piece I've written and then carry on.

No prep for me, just Do It. I'll procrastinate and find other things to do sometimes, but when it's time to write, I just sit down, open up the file and start typing.

I was having trouble dealing with distractions and keeping a consistent writing schedule, so I recently shifted my writing time to first thing in the morning. I wake up an hour earlier, do a half hour of web surfing (checking email, news, etc) to wake my brain up, and then I write for an hour. Since it is so early in the morning, nothing has really happened yet in the day to distract me or wear me out. If I feel like it in the evenings, I can write some more, but that depends more on all the mental crap I drag home from work and life in general.

Of course, this only works because I am one of those weird people who can function in the mornings with no coffee or anything...



-Michelle

I just write. That's good enough for me. If I'm busy or mentally full-up, I tend to write better than if I have nothing rattling around in m head

I used to write well with distractions, but any more I don't seem to. Well, maybe distractions is not the right word. I find I can no longer write if I have a to-do list a mile long of urgent items that are not writing related. If some home repair is needed, if some personal financial papers need to be files, if the check book needs balancing, if the bills need paying, if I need to do something for the home business that my wife can't do, etc., then I can't concentrate on writing, because of the guilt I feel.

I can concentrate on writing through distractions such as television, music, ambient noise over the noon hour at the office. At home, I have problems concentrating if my wife is talking on the phone. But otherwise, distractions are no problem. One of my favorite writing times, for short poems, is when I have to attend a Planning Commission meeting or City Council meeting for the small city I provide city engineering services for. While waiting on my items to come up, I write these poems, or sometimes write journal-type entries of writing ideas--relatively lite stuff. Occasionally I look around the room and write a human behavior paragraph: how the speaker handles him/herself; how people conduct themselves on the audience or on the commission/council.

As far as pre-writing ritual at home, about all I do is try to clean the area around the computer a bit, as this makes me feel better about stealing time to write. At work, on the noon hour or before/after normal work hours, I just write, no pre-ritual required.

NDG

drachin8 said:

Of course, this only works because I am one of those weird people who can function in the mornings with no coffee or anything...



-Michelle

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I'm jealous. Mornings are just...well, they're just mornings. My brain doesn't wake up until about 11 with or without caffeine.

I don't have any rituals, but when I write I like for it to be fairly quiet though I don't mind music. I have to have some sort of white noise, be it music, a fan, something that won't distract me. I can't write when I'm at home with my husband because he insists the TV be on something ridiculous; and the weekends we have his kids, they're always saying, "Mom, watch this," and I have to do it because we don't have them but every other weekend and t heir bio mother isn't very attentive (I'm the cool stepmom so I have a rep to uphold). I'd like to go to our bedroom and write quietly during those times, but my husband wants me with him and doesn't want me to leave him alone with the kids. Hence, I now get most of my writing done at work over lunch. Sad but true.

K1P1 said:

I find that I can't create ir write anything until I have some mental space. I need to have some empty time to get rid of all the distractions and demands of family, day job, bills, home repairs, scheduling, you name it. And until I have had a chunk of time to empty out my brain, I just can't write, even if I know exactly what I want to say. And it doesn't just apply to writing. When I want to design a piece of knitting, the same thing happens. My creativity needs an empty, quiet space to flourish. Unfortunately, this looks a whole lot like procrastination.

So... How do you prepare to write? Do you have some little ritual you follow? A warm-up of some sort? Or can you just sit down and words immediately start to flow ( I hate you )?

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I have to start at a time when I know distractions are minimal. I usually write at work, so once phones die down and co-slaves are nestled in their cubes quietly for the afternoon, I can start writing. And once I get in the zone, no matter the distractions, I remain in the zone until I absolutely have to stop writing.

If I waited for peace and quiet, I would never write.


But I do know that I need some quiet space to write a very emotional scene. It's hard to tap into that inner well with kids and dogs rolling around under feet/

I wish I could say I'm a disciplined writer who could write anywhere, anytime. The truth is, I am not. I have short attention spans. I get distracted or bored easily. And while I can multitask mundane stuff (such as folding laundry while organizing my CD collection), I have to devote my time and mental energy exclusively to my creative endeavors. If I have multiple things going on (errands, somebody to call, book signings to schedule, etc.) I find it very difficult to focus on writing.

Like the OP, I need some mental space BEFORE I start to write. Once the idea and basic organization come, I can write through distractions. The best way I have found to create mental space is to have a media-free day - no tv, radio, newspapers, computer. I am always surprised at how much of my mind is filled with time-consuming media noise and how hard it is to avoid all the media input. Once I get rid of the mental pollution, my mind is free to think and once I start think, creative new thoughts can appear. Some of them are not very good ideas, but eventually I can winnow out a few good ones, and then it is time to write. I also recommend a media-free day as a way to break down writers' block or to help solve almost any difficult writing (or even life) problem.

I'm another who needs the decompression time. I can handle distractions once I'm in the zone, but I need to decompress first and that's been getting harder and harder to do lately. I've got a big move coming up and lots of chaos in the meantime so I can't clear the space in my head to start writing.



Hopefully I can clear it all up soon.

I usually read a bit before I actually open up my piece and start reading it to catch up on where my mind was when I left off. But the house has to be ABSOLUTELY spotless and the dishes done before I can even begin. Its a shame I spend two hours cleaning before I can sit down to write even for 15 minutes. But once Im 'in the zone' I can usually just flow nicely and everything comes out fine. Then I go back and reread what Ive written during the session then close it out for the day.

K1P1 said:

I find that I can't create ir write anything until I have some mental space. I need to have some empty time to get rid of all the distractions and demands of family, day job, bills, home repairs, scheduling, you name it. And until I have had a chunk of time to empty out my brain, I just can't write, even if I know exactly what I want to say. And it doesn't just apply to writing. When I want to design a piece of knitting, the same thing happens. My creativity needs an empty, quiet space to flourish. Unfortunately, this looks a whole lot like procrastination.

So... How do you prepare to write? Do you have some little ritual you follow? A warm-up of some sort? Or can you just sit down and words immediately start to flow ( I hate you )?

Click to expand...

I prepare to write every morning by having my morning cup of coffee or tea (whatever it takes to get caffeine in my system ) and then I listen to music for a while, because I have to be fully awake before I do any writing.

I have to have distractions, the TV at least. If it's just me and the computer I get bored within 5 minutes. I always have a browser window open.

Viva la difference.

To expound on earlier, I can write anywhere and anytime. And I do. I write at the soccer fields (practice only, never during a game), I write at work (naughty), I write at church (very naughty).

I recently experienced some of the decompression time you refer to. It was lovely! But by the time I was fully "decompressed," there was no time left to write.

If I am being paid, I can write. The free stuff is very, very hard to do. But I seem to have almost no problem with posting on AW. Funny, huh?

ltd.