What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write?
Creative Process: Music
What Happens before sitting down to write? I need to meditate.
My novels are rooted in history, so I usually do a lot of reading about the locations I plan to include in a story. When I sit down to write I dream up a character, put that character in trouble and keep him or her in trouble until the end of the story.
My creative process is an ongoing/natural path as my mind processess information which will be useful to a thought or experience in life.
Allsorts of emotions go through me and the need to concentrate on what i am doing before the correct ones and relevant issues which lead up to the first sentence.
Before i sit down to write i know there are many aspects of of life which lead to inspiration and i sometimes look to some notes to remind me of what i wished to write about earlier on.
My creative process is also like hard work but it is enjoyable work. I know that as a keen an talented writer i will come up with a thought which will be interesting and brand new to me as well as others.
My process is a never ending one of thought, word and deed.
My process of a compilation of from time and memorial and there is always something to write about.
The thoughts and emotions are my basis before sitting down to write and i love every moment of it.
I usually spend days -- or even years -- thinking through a piece before I actually begin writing it. In the case of some of my longer works, I jot down notes on scraps of paper and, weeks later, compile them into some sort of logical outline. It's only after ruminating on a story that I actually get a feel for the tone and how it should flow. By the time I finally begin to write, I usually already know how the first line will read -- and that I'll most likely axe the first paragraph or two so that I can jump right into the story. I follow a pretty similar process with my writing partners.
I already have the characters in my head before I write a word, but I rarely think about the plot - it just happens. If you know your characters well enough, they tell you the story. I 'interview' each character in my head over a period of time and ask them to tell me about themselves.
Weird, I know.
Coffee. I'm hopeless without my coffee.
Sometimes I come up with ideas for stories and I keep those in a little notebook.
When it comes to actual writing, I just sit down and work on whatever's in my head at that moment. At any one time, I'll have 5-6 projects that I'm working on.
One of the first things I do before I sit down to write a project is select music to write to and sensory aids if I have some that are relevant to the story I'm working on. For instance, when writing a screenplay based in WWII Germany, I listened to various forties music and had photographs of people of the period on my desk.
After that, I will write the logline -- the one sentence summary of the project. I may do some "soft sequencing" of the first act.
I always light a specifically-scented candle when I write. This reminds my brain to be creative and not so analytical. Because I also edit and produce, I believe it's important to give my brain the proper signals so it knows what I'm expecting it to produce.
It depends; sometimes I will see/hear/experience the story in a form of day dream, sometimes it's a matter of just consciously trying to write an interesting scene or chapter. Most of the time I have a general idea of what the story is going to be about.
In my opinion the real creative process starts with the characters. If I don't know the characters I can't write the story. The characters, in essence, write the story by acting them out in my head. I just write down what they do.
Most of the time that creative bug just has to hit you! You can't make it happen but rather you wait or just get a wild spurt of emotions that you must right down! For me a lot of my writing is not spontaneous and during moments of depression.
My creative process is a three step process. I need to have an idea, a concrete one, about the story I want to write. Then, I sit down and hash out the "big events". Once I have a timeline, a big event for each chapter or so, then I sit down and fill in the details and dialogue that go with each of those evens. Lastly, I bridge the gaps between events.
I do a lot of research on my stories before I sit down to write. Whatever universe I'm working in has to be perfect. If I have a story set in Ireland, I research what the area is like, what types of shops are there, what the roads look like... etc. I like to have a working knowledge of my universe. In fact, some of my stories are set in real places. Places I've known well or places I want to know well and am visiting vicariously through my research.
You know, sitting down to write has been and off and on thing for me. I get inspired out of the blue to work on a story or begin a story. Then I simply start to write until I am done. Only once has a real event put me in a situation to sit down and write about it, and make the feelings of the characters real and whole. Creatively, I have to feel the situation or the story. I have to see the story play out in my head and then detail it to paper. My process takes much longer than most I am sure.
I get very vivid images in my mind. My characters literally do come to me and demand that I write their advertures down. They don't leave me alone until I do. I suppose that's my subconsious' method of getting me to dredge something up from my past in a "safe" way. I think finctionalizing puts a buffer between me and negative events that impacted my life and enhances the positive ones.
Once I sit down to write, there's a WHOLE lotta changes and evolution that goes on. I get something down, knowing that I will probably be rewriting and rewriting until the whole story sounds "true".
It's perfectly okay to do as much editing as necessary. I want my readers to the journey right alongside my characters. If the story doesn't take them along, there's no point in writing it. I give my first drafts to several people and let them test it out for me. They give suggestions, tell me what's missing, and I take them totally seriously.
The process is non-process; no gimicks or helpers to inspire other than strong coffee, a window and quiet. I might leave the room and attend to mundane chores for hours until I am bursting. Then I sit down and write. Other times, I sit down and words pour like a fountain.
The creative process is such an amazing gift to me. Before I sit down to write, I have some coffee then I usually read something by someone I like very much. I'll read something by the poet Larry Kramer (BRILLIANT WINDOWS) or Lawrence Raab (THE PROBABLY WORLD) or anything by Robert Frost or Dorothy Barresi.
Then I begin. I still do first drafts in a notebook, sitting on my deck. When I'm ready to see it printed, I go to the computer.
I write almost every day from very early morning to early afternoon. |
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