My muse comes to me in various forms. I often use music to inspire me. I also like a nice hot cup of tea to sip and get me relaxed and ready to type away.
It depends. Sometimes it is a struggle, sometimes I have such a wonderful idea in my head that I have to put it down.
I do a lot of processing verbally, so I often get inspired to write after talking with people close to me. I can get very passionate about some important connection, revelation, or idea, and I know it will slip away if I don't record it. Sometimes I can't sleep until I get up and write down the thoughts. Other times I just start writing with a vague idea of what I'd like to express and more comes in the process.
Inspiration is my creative process. Something happens in my life, good or bad, and perhaps a title pops into my mind. From there I imagine how music would best fit with the title.
I might be at a restaurant when the title comes to mind and then lyrics. So, I write what I can down on a paper napkin then work on it when I get home.
I listen to the Spirit. I am not a morning person but there are times I am iterally jolted out of sleep hearing words in my head and heart. I have no choice but to get up and write. If I wait too long to act upon the prompting, the thoughts will go away. When I write it's as though I am the hands with the words coming from someone else. I never know what I'm going to write until the piece is completely written. I watch as the topic unfolds and can't believe what I've written when I'm finished. Things are revealed to me as I write, that stem from somethingthat was revealed to me earlier in the article. One thing leads to another and I see how the Spirit has written the entire article. It's amazing to be a part of this process.
I have an enormous amount of storylines and ideas for stories stocked up in my mind waiting to be written. I am certain this amount of stories will occupy me for years to come. I record all ideas or scenes for stories in a little pocket book so that I can list them and remember them. When I finally get around to writing the story there are so many steps that come first. Two giant dry erase boards are mounted in my room for brainstorming sessions.
Outline
Outline
Outline
Because I especially hate when you come to a part in the story and you need a name for a planet or ship or land and you can't think of it. I try and come up with all the logistics before I start writing.
I just wake up one day with something in my head that I want to write down. Or I have walked around with a story in my head for years that I just need to get out of my head.
i think.
i have thought of hundreds of ideas.
I write to sort things out. If anything is unsettling to me, I write to try and work through it.
For me, writing is like carpentry. I start with an outline, very much like a plan for building a chair. Then I gather the materials, jotting down brief notes as they come to me during the day, or waking up in the night. If I get an insight into a fiction story, I might jot down a character trait, a metaphor, or idea. If I'm working on a non-fiction or educational piece, I might be jotting down a better way to instruct the reader. When enough materials have been gathered to begin construction, I set a deadline for completion of the project and budget the writing time to get there.
The writing I produce while inspired is overly romantic and poorly constructed. Inspiration comes at the strangest moments and can't be controlled. If I'm feeling really emotional and inspired when it's time to write, I jot down the emotional clutter first, then begin to work with the notes that have grown cold. That gives me the distance I need in order to build well constructed material.
I have to do it this way because creativity, inspiration, and ideas are all about me. But the writing itself has to be about the reader -- making the reader feel a certain way, understand a specific concept, or learn a particular technique. This requires some detachment on my part.
Afer all, a chair doesn't just have to be pretty. It has to hold a person's weight, and must be well built enough to someday become a respectable old antique.   | | |
I don't usually think to myself "I'm going to sit down and WRITE!!" I usually just sit down and then get the sudden urge to write, and once I do...there's no stopping me for hours.
Well, when I sit down with my laptop, I've usually been thinking over some unfinished chapters. I'll go over them, thinking "This is what happened last, and this is what NEEDS to happen in order for the chapter to finish". When I do that, there's usually a flow of ideas and complete sentences, so I'll quickly open a writing program and finish the chapter.
Brainstorming, for me, can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of weeks. I find the more specific details have to come to me on their own.
After recording and compiling all my ideas, I sort them out and figure out a plot. What comes after I cannot exactly say because it is always different. I bounce between characters, morals, settings, conflicts, etc...in a spontaneous manner.
Giving myself freely to the nature of chaos allows for my ideas to fall in line as they are meant to be. I know it sounds absurd, but it works perfectly. Whenever I get stuck with writers block, I forget about it and let the work come back to me on its own accord.
Before I sit down to write I have to let whatever ideas in my mind bake for a while, until I am satisfied with the quantity and complexity.
It usually stems from something I'm obsessed with at the moment. Currently I'm in a British 1800's phase. It comes out sort of in a stream sort of way after I have the plot down, then all of the humor comes from being in the moment with the situation of the story.
I usually get ideas while walking somewhere...I don't drive, so when I walk I pick up the internal rhythm's in my head. I'm also alert to odd things happening about me.
I have an idea of where I'd like my characters to go. I have a beginning plot idea. Then I get to work.
From that point on I find myself reporting as best I can what these people are doing, what problems they get themselves into, what they're thinking, how they're feeling. They take on a life of their own--and I follow along.
It's amazing and wonderful fun, not work at all. |
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