11:48 AM

Habits

Today's post is on habits. Now I'm not talking biting your nails or how you have to drink your morning OJ before brushing your teeth (the other way around is quite gross I assure you). I'm talking, of course, of your writing habits. I'm always interested to see how other writers work.

Do you need to have complete silence to write or do you work with a soundtrack?

Is morning the best time for your creative juices to flow or does the darkness of night inspire you?

Do you lock yourself away from the world in order to get into your story or do you take to the public areas for your background?

What about outlining before writing or do you just dive right in?

How about rituals? Sacrificing small animals to the God of Words or merely pleading with your muse to be more helpful for a change?

Maybe I need to adopt some more habits myself. I prefer to write in public but can also do so at home. Music is most welcome unless I'm having a particularly hard time with a scene. As for the time of day? It's more about when the ideas/inspiration hit me. I don't advocate the sacrificing of small animals, but my muse could stand to kick it up a notch.

What say you, fellow writers? How do you get through it? What are the habits, rituals and fail safes that keep you going? The world of aspiring authors want to know!

2 comments:

Kate Avery Ellison said...

I'm a little like you ... it depends. I generally like to write to music, and I don't care about the time of day. Sometimes morning works well, b/c I've just woken up and sometimes my brain fixes creative problems in the night for me. I like to muse on something a while, think about it for a few days if I'm stuck, and sort of build up creative pressure, and then write like mad. However, I don't like writing in public. Too paranoid ppl will try to read what I'm doing. I'm very big on nobody reading a WiP.

MBee said...

I agree with you that I don't like people to read a WiP...BUT I find writing in public pushes me to actually write more. When I think people might be watching me, I want to be sure to look like I'm accomplishing something! It's very similar to high school when you aren't really paying attention, but when a teacher is going to walk by you make it look like you're doing something important! Heh