That's a good question. Writing is part of creativity. Its about thinking and visualizing. But it is different from dreaming. Once you remember something helpful you can leave your lunch table to put it down in wrting so that you don't forget it. You will construct all later during script formation
Honestly? I sit; I write. There is no process aside from letting some ideas ferment a bit. If they don't ripen, I just sit and write until I work out what's going on. Dreaming could be part of my process, I suppose. I get a lot of my ideas from dreams. I do research ideas when I need to verify history or I'm not sure I have my science right, but beyond that, there is no process.
To be honest I don't really have any kind of ritual or process. I find some free time, let my brain stew for a bit, swimming around in various ideas, and then brain dump it all onto the page, fixing as I go to make it all make sense. I do very little prep work before writing and tend to write in bursts, sitting down and writing a thousand words or go in a sitting, then coming back later and tacking on another thousand or so depending on my mood and inspiration on the day.
I'd like to say I was organised but it would be a laughably untrue statement. I just let the mood take me and sit down and write until I'm spent, rinse and repeat.
It may sound strange, but writing factual books can be just as creative as writing fiction. Just as in great fiction, great factual books have a story to tell and involving the reader is as important - if not more so - than when writing fiction.
My books tend to cover quite technical subjects - such as solar power, or electric cars - so getting readers involved, interested and excited about the subject is very important. You want readers to be inspired by what they read and excited enough to go further in the subject.
That means writing in a clearly understandable way. It means breaking down the information so that it easily digestible. It means making the book fun.
Factual books should never be dry or difficult to read. Writers of all books are taking their readers on an exciting journey of discovery. They forget that at their peril.
So before I get down to write, I get some light exercise, or spend time playing with my children, or do something that is either physically or mentally stimulating. Something entirely unconnected to what I am going to write about, but that will put me in the right frame of mind.   | | |
Before I sit down to write I have usually spent a week to 10 days berating myself for not having the motivation to sit down and start writing earlier.
I guess it's spontaneous. I'll think of sentences or ideas while I'm out and about, although most things come to me when I'm in the shower or cleaning. Before sitting down to write, I usually put music on that reflects whatever mood I'm in at the time. Then I'll open Pages, select a blank page and just write. Occasionally I'll write on paper, but that's usually just part of doodles during lectures!
My creative process is great. I am constantly coming up with new ideas and have a very large bank of references that I can pull from. In that way I am lucky, I can never imagine the moment I go blank. Sadly my downfall is procrastination, in fact I am doing it right now by answering these questions. I'll do anything to avoid sitting down and writing. The irony is I when I do sit down to write I love it. Go figure.
So in answer to the question, before I sit down to write I'll: swim, read, play games, go outside with the cats, hoover, shower, sort, polish, browse, sleep, tweet, walk, drive, work...you get the idea...
Usually I like to ponder the story internally working out roughly the plot, main characters and where it starts and ends in my head before I commit anything to paper. Once I have the idea I like to visit locations so I have a picture of the relevant places in my head when I am writing about them. Then I sit down, usually about 9.00 in the morning and write for 3 hours or so - take a couple hours eye break and then write again for 2-3 hours. I do very little editing as I go along - I like to get the whole story out and then go back and re-write looking for anomolies, mistakes and inconsistencies and improving the writing. I find the characters develop naturally if I do not try to be too rigid at the beginning and let the narrative and reactions emerge based on how I believe the characters would naturally react to any given circumstances. Often, I will stop to do some research if the narrative drifts into areas I am not comfortable I have a reasonable understanding of.
I spend a long time letting ideas stew and come together. I keep a journal and jot down images, scraps of conversation, anything that strikes me. A story line usually comes from a single image or character and then other things get added in over time till the story comes together. I no longer panic if I don't know the ending when I start writing. I may spend time writing character sketches or short scenes that may or may not be finally included. It is very hard to actually physically put pen to paper. Like many authors I can always find a million things to do before I actually get down to it. Even then I spend a long time thinking over the action in my head like a film scene and at first each sentence is really difficult then suddenly something takes over and before I know it I've written a thousand or two thousand words. That's a good feeling. I write long hand and then type up and edit on to the computer. I try not to fiddle with it too much till the whoe draft is finished, then I put it away for a bit and get someone else to go through it before I start re-writing. | | |
It's quite chaotic and disorganised and rarely the same for any two projects. With some I've been able to sit down and just start writing, making it all up as I go along, as it were, while other projects have been born of meticulous planning and plotting. Each way has its merits, and in each case you have to go back over everything and finely polish it all anyway, but whichever road I take the creative journey is always an adventure. I love not knowing exactly where things are headed and even with something that's been carefully plotted, I love it when a character insists on acting in some surprising way that takes the story in a different direction to the one I'd first envisaged.
Inspiration... I don't write under a command... or imposition... I don't force writing.
I grab a cup of tea.
I don't think I really have much of a creative process. A lot of what I write just comes out without really thinking about it. I'll just put my fingers on my keyboard and let everything just flow out. Sometimes I'll lay in bed playing out scenes in my head, but I won't force myself to get up again just to write down ideas.
I'm usually thinking much of the time. I revisit, rethink, and so by the time I sit down to write I know what I want to write - it's a matter of getting the vision down.
I have in my writing room things on the wall on my displayed on my desk that give me inspiration. I have photos I've taken, images I've found in magazines, on websites that I find to be full of depth, mystery and song. On my desk I have items that I find particularly beautiful in some way, like a candle, a miniature statue, things I've made, been given. I like to be surrounded by these things before I begin to put my fingers to the keys. |
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