Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
Do you prefer to write in the mornings? Evenings? Whenever?
Do you need to feel inspired to write, or are you more disciplined, writing so much every day (or week or whatever).
Do you prefer to work in solitude, or around other people (e.g. in a coffee shop)?
Do you like music playing, or total silence?
Do you have any particular writing rituals that help to get you in the right mood/mindset?
Do you have a specific place you like to write in.
Do you prefer to write by pen and paper, word processor, typewriter, chisel and stone tablet?
You get the idea. Tell us about your writing practice.
Don't believe everything that you read.
I do most of my writings at night Usually alone with a pen or pencil. Inspired mostly by thought and how I see things, at that moment. I prefer silence, perhaps with a shadow looking over my shoulder. I find that my mind functions better with a cup of hot coffee, to moisten my lips as I talk to myself.
Wouldn't you rather have a nice cup of tea?
I'm trying to be more disciplined in my writing. I try to write in the mornings when I can. That seems to be the most productive time. I don't have a particular number of words or hours I put into my writing each day, but I write until I feel like I'm writing bullshit and then I stop, and get on with the other things I need to do in the day. This could range from an hour to several hours.
I usually spend more time thinking about what I want to write than actually writing it. I don't often just sit down and write without an idea of what I'm writing just to see where my mind will go. Story ideas often come from fantasies and daydreams. I can mull a story idea over for days in my head before I put down the first words. Even so, I still stay open to unexpected detours in a story or moments of inspiration when some relatively minor detail can redirect the entire plot.
I often edit as I write, going back over sentences or paragraphs a couple of times as new phrasings come to mind or returning to an earlier part of a story to incorporate a detail that will become relevant later. Consequently, I tend to publish "first drafts" which I read for typos a few times before submitting (though I always still seem to find more).
I hate to write around other people, so I usually do it at home alone in a bedroom/office space sitting in an old comfy chair. I do like to listen to music as long as it isn't too distracting - jazz is good, some electronic, really familiar classic rock. Eventually, when I get into the flow of writing, I won't notice that the music has ended until hours later. Usually I'll have a cup of coffee next to me, though I'll hardly touch it until its gone cold (and then I throw it out).
I used to prefer writing by hand because of the feel, but it makes editing a lot harder, so now I write on my computer mostly. However when I journal, I still do it by hand to capture the immediacy of my thoughts.
Don't believe everything that you read.
Nearly always on my laptop at my desk, after work and before dinner, no music, but often lots of distractions from kids/cats/my Dad (I am used to writing with a lot going on around me). Sometimes I write after dinner too. But always later in the day, always the laptop at my desk.
I will, however, edit/rewrite anytime, anywhere, on multiple devices (embarrassed confession: I actually love to edit on the iPad while taking a bath). I edit/rewrite constantly. More than I write, actually.
I have absolutely no writing discipline whatsoever. Story ideas usually come to me while I'm out of the house, shopping, or wherever, most often when I'm inconveniently with friends. Sometimes a sentence will pop into my head that seems like a great opening for a story, and I quickly type it out on my phone and email it to myself so I don't forget it. I'm usually most productive late at night when the guys' friends have left and the house is relatively quiet, or I hole myself away in the bedroom where I can get some semblance of solitude. I write on my Macbook Pro laptop, in textedit or right in the Lush submission box. I can write anywhere as long as it's quiet. I usually start stories and go for months without coming back to them. I have several unfinished stories in the works right now, and no motivation to finish them.
I think about story ideas when I'm not using my brain for other tasks (and sometimes when I should be). Writing I sneak in wherever time allows. Since I write casually and somewhat on the sly (due to the subject matter), committing to specific times, places, etc. is not an option. I use a word processor and have for years. I'm always at a computer anyway, my handwriting is terrible and I'm very slow at it and I tend to edit on the fly so a typewriter doesn't cut it.
It's like cooking supper, bung it in the oven and forget it for a while.
My first draft is often on paper. Yep, I still do that. Subsequent drafts are done in Word then a final edit in the Lush Submission box.
I tend to write best in the evenings, quite late, but I'm better at editing in the mornings - if I can free one up.
I get my writing in whenever I'm able (always in MS Word) but would love to be able to have more of a routine. I prefer to write in the evenings, away from any distraction, with a glass of red wine or a neat bourbon. The biggest hurdles in my first drafts are to stick with advancing whatever story I'm writing and not get bogged down in descriptions or dialogue. I would benefit from a more structured plotting exercise before writing, but I'm usually too excited to start when I get an idea in my head. The cool thing about that is my stories sometimes take off in their own direction and occasionally provide surprises even to me. The downside, though, is that my stories sometimes take off in their own direction and can be tough to corral back into a plausible conclusion ;).
Check out my latest - a humorous collaboration with trinket and a Recommended Read
I am undisciplined and a bit manic. I will get inspired and write feverishly to get the bones of the story down. That can take a few to many hours. Another story will often spring from it. It can last for a couple days. I write mostly in Word on my Desktop though I have been known to write on my iPad while traveling.
The story then sits and waits for me to augment the bones or edit down the initial draft. I sometimes struggle to pick up the feeling of the initial draft. It usually means that it should go in the dustbin. Sometimes I am just undisciplined (odd because in most other things, I am extremely self disciplined.
Songs lyrics are often written by hand on whatever scrap of paper I can find. I record a scratch track of guitar and vocals into my computer. The lyric might be nonsense in parts when I want to get the concept down. For plays, we storyboarded on kraft paper on the wall. Then we would start an initial draft. At a certain point we would get others for first a read though and then a block and read. Serious editing is done here.
I do study and listen closely to how people really talk. Unfortunately, seldom is it in complete sentences.
Out of curiousity, how do the mods view dialogue that is not in complete sentences?
I usually come up with an idea, then write an opening paragraph or two. At this point, sometimes, I have to decide on where I am going with the story. I have started more stories than I ever finished, because I like to be different in my writings. Typical C & C stories does nothing for me.
Well I am always brewing on some story - I can't seem to find the "off" button! I can be at the store, watching TV, or just driving down the street when an idea hits me and I have to keep running it through my head till I get someplace to jot it down quick! The same with my writing - unless I have something else going on, you can find me at the computer pounding away at my latest project. I keep very strange hours - usually until the wee hours of the morning working on a story. Seems I just get into a rhythm and going good and I have to go to bed!
I usually have about three stories going at a time, a habit that I also employ in my non-erotic work. Generally, at some point one of them demands to be finished first, while some fall to the wayside completely if a more interesting idea barges into my head. With several projects, even if no fresh inspiration comes your way, you fall back on the craft and forge ahead. Often, doing this will lead you to fresh inspiration. M. Night Shyamalan said that he didn't realize that the Bruce Willis character in 'The Sixth Sense' needed to be (*SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!*) dead until the TENTH DRAFT.
I try to write something every day, usually in the morning before work or after dinner in the evening, no matter how busy I am with life.
I often come home from work with post-a-notes of clever phrases or story turns that come to me during the day, maybe an idea for a new story.
I like silence or the TV on in the background, not music. I write in solitude. I would never work on a script at a Starbucks (prevalent here in L.A.).
My only ritual would be to make sure I write something, even if I delete it later.
For a script, I use Final Draft and I constantly print it out and write extensively on the paper, rewriting as I go, but for sex stories, it's all keyboard and screen (and post-a-notes).
This is a great thread, because everyone is different, and just reading other people's habits can affect your own. It's like when you have sex with someone who uses techniques that are new to you: you try them out and see if you can make them work for you.
When I get an idea, I grab a composition notebook, and write a basic summary of what the story will entail. Then I read over it, and if I still like it, I give my characters names, descriptions, etc. It helps me stay on track with my story, and it's a good reference to work with. I find that winging a story tends to work against me. When it's time to write it, I grab a cup of coffee, take a gingko pill, open up Google Docs, and start up my erotic lounge playlist. At that point, the words just flow out of me.
I will get an idea, maybe when walking to the shops, or cleaning the room, and I play with the idea in my head until it starts taking on a shape, then I start writing, usually straight on the computer. As I write, side-bands start forming, twists, surprises, I never know until the words appear. Rarely have any idea where the story is going to take me. The last one I wrote started as a lead-in to a sexy encounter but became a story in itself, because new ideas intruded, and I had almost 3000 words before I realised it would need to be a story in itself.
I tend to write in the evenings, only because the rest of the day is taken up with day things. But I tend to write better stuff earlier when I'm fresher, if I ever get the chance. And only when inspired. If I'm not in the mood, I won't force it. That's one reason I churn out a piece every six months and could probably never write for a living.
Mostly I work in silence on a word processor. Sometimes the cats join in. The other reason for my sporadic output is because of this crappy habit of writing stuff one day, then instead of continuing where I left off the next day, I'll go back and reread what I wrote and end up changing a boatload of stuff. By the time I've done that, I'll get to where I was the day before, write two sentences and that'll be it. Then repeat the next day: reread, edit, add little or no more content. Repeat for a week or so. Then suddenly have a flash of inspiration and knock out the remainder of the story in one evening. Then edit the entire piece for a month or two, hack out the cruft, embellish the embellishable, tighten dialogue and descriptions, over and over until I'm sick of it. Then, either publish and hope, or ditch the piece and start over with something else.
Yeah, I need a new workflow.
I do find that mundane tasks help my mind freewheel. That's one blessing with not have a dishwasher: some of my best story arcs have become clear in my head while washing the dishes.
Please browse my digital bookshelf. In this collection, you can find 123 full stories, 10 micro-stories, and 3 poems with the following features:
* 30 Editor's Picks, 79 Recommended Reads.
* 16 competition podium places, 11 other times in the top ten.
* 23 collaborations.
* A whole heap of often filthy, tense, hot sex.
Unfortunately, I need complete isolation and deprivation of the senses to write. The stuff I am most happy with happens when It's my only outlet.
Usually write at night, or possibly during the day, or whenever, really, since it has to be when I'm not at work and generally when the boys are at school, asleep or otherwise securely occupied. I don't need to feel "inspired", and "disciplined" is definitely not my style--it'd be nice to be able to set aside X amount of time per day or week or month to write, but that is not a possibility in my life.
I work in solitude, in the sense (see above) that I don't have short people milling around. I like to have music on, period, when I'm online, whether writing or editing or reading the Google News pages. Doesn't matter. I have no writing rituals, unless you count "obsessively checking manually for spelling and/or grammatical and/or form errors" as a ritual, which is something that I definitely do. I do not use either a spell check or grammar check programme. Never have, and never will. I do use the APA guide on occasion.
Pretty much stuck with writing on my desktop in the dining/kitchen area of my house. Chisel and stone tablet would be cool, but there's the mess, and then of course the whole lack of a copy and paste function.
To be perfectly honest, at least a solid 8 of my 13 posted stories have been written and edited in the space of time it takes for the lasagna to bake, or the rice to cook. "Dinner", "Second Dinner", and "Thirdsies" are a real thing in my house. Thus the short word count on most of my stories.
Want to spend some time wallowing in a Recommended Read? Pick one! Or two! Or seven!
For me, having writing habits in the past (certain times, certain places, a certain setting - even the routine of drinking something while writing) turned out badly for me. It became a crutch and, without it, even if I wanted to write, I couldn't do it . . . which hampered my success.
So I actually killed all my habits and push myself to write in new places with new 'things' around me. No routines. I avoid them. To me, they're all bad.
So for me it's anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I have a mini tablet and a bluetooth keyboard and I keep them charged and with me anytime I think I might have a few moments to write. (I do admit that my tablet reliance might be a crutch - but that's because they aren't fully accessible to the net, therefor, they're just dedicated word processors that let me listen to music)
