How do you write?

[AlexM]

As the title says, how do you write? What techniques do you use that helps you?

A few of mine would be:

Listening to music, closing my eyes and picturing a scene that could happen around the song, perhaps an angry song for an angry scene or a sad song for a sad moment? - Tend to do it listening to my Ipod

A quiet place, does help having no noise distracting you. - Helps me

A scenic place, perhaps you like to write in a scenic part of your book which might reflect where you are, I have not done this myself but I have had ideas when walking through parks and other places.

Now what about you?

Cheers,

Alex

[daisybee]

I like music but tend to get distracted easily-so have to be fairly strict to get anything done!

I cannot get on with typing on my laptop either-I prefer my pc keyboard and so do a lot of writing at my desk as opposed to wherever I can. I always have a notebook in my bag though-and scribble ideas and scenes wherever I am-and type them up later.

As sitting at my desk feels very much like work however, I end up with lots of notes/scenes/chunks of dialogue to refine and type up-once I get going though I can be lost to the world for days on end-which seems to bug my family for some reason.

I see ideas everywhere to be honest-but only jot down those that stay with me a while.

[dustinzgirl]

I don't really know at the moment. I haven't written anything I wanted to write since November. I would like to write. I used to write all the time. Hell, this board is FULL of me writing. My work writing (nothing spectacular) usually takes place at night when its quiet because I don't like distractions, I like immersion. I like background noise, like the tv or music, but at a low volume so its just that, background noise. I don't like being talked to when I am writing. That annoys me. So of course hubby does it on purpose. Or not on purpose, he just does it.

[Yeoman]

I put my Xbox into exile to avoid distractions for one.

Erm, sometimes I listen to music, I try to aim for something calming (depsite being a fan of electro-industrial), or with an oldish feeling to it that might fit if I'm writing fantasy.
I find Neo-clasical music is pleasant to write to, and ethereal music like Lycia, but you can sometimes get distracted (going off to download more music, then off to get a cup of tea, and then you've completely forgotten about writing).

But, I think jotting down notes/ideas when you have the would be good, but generally finding the motivation to just sit down and write(like when you have a big essay to tackle).

[Malloriel]

Well, I do have notebooks in every room of the house, which shift around as I need certain bits of information, for one. I'm making notes all the time, not just on story bits, but world building details as well.

When it comes to actual writing, though, I have to use the PC because I don't have my own lap top yet, but I imagine I'd love it, since I like the idea of being able to simply write wherever I am, and prefer the speed and convenience of a word processor to scribbles and scratching out passages to re-write them (not to mention spell check). But I really need silence to feel any sort of satisfaction with what I write, and to concentrate.

Frequently I'll type blind. Close my eyes and imagine the scene as the character who's view we're using (which is also why the silence), and once I'm there, as the character, it's really rather like living through a little fantasy, you know? Like those moments before true sleep when the mind begins to dream, but you're not yet unconscious? Yeah, a little something like that. Guided. I do it a lot as I go to sleep too. Then, of course, I get a stroke of brilliance and can't go to sleep because I need to write it out.

I can work with distractions and background noise when I don't feel I'm writing something solid or "canon" within my world and stories, but otherwise I just can't concentrate because I'm suddenly so much more easily distracted.

[RcGrant]

Silence is ideal, of course, but I've learned to adapt. I snatch minutes here and there, between jobs, on breaks, waiting for the oven timer to beep. Getting a stretch of three or more hours, in silence, with no distractions, is a luxury.

If you really want to write, above all else, you find a way.

[littlemissattitude]

There is always something going on around me when I write. That's unavoidable these days. But I'm pretty good at blocking out things like the TV or radio, stuff going on outside...although squwaking car alarms drive me straight up the wall. I can't block them out at all.

I'm usually either at my desk or in bed when I write (I love my laptop), although I carry a notebook with me everywhere and am especially fond of sitting in restaurants and writing, although I haven't gotten to the point of carrying my laptop with me to write there.

I like the feel of writing longhand, but I often can't do that for long because my ideas outrace my writing speed.

For my work writing, I have a set routine that I follow except in unusual circumstances, complete with a check-off list for each day so that I can make sure I finish everything I need to do.

[chopper]

as i look around there's pieces of paper everywhere......
i've always written longhand before, but i'm starting to use the pc more for first drafts as well, these days.. one night last year, while mrs chopper went to see Brian Wilson in concert, i raced around birmingham city centre trying to find an open newsagents or bookshop so i could buy a notepad...then i sat in a pub for 3 hours and wrote like mad.
if i'm at home, Radio Five is always on in the background.

[Commonmind]

Outside, on the porch, looking out at the water. A fresh cup of tea at my side and my dingy old Gateway on my lap. I tend to have a few candles lit, mostly for light, since the porch light is too bright and distracting. (Yes, more so than noise, bright light tends to take me out of my world.)

I haven't written to music in quite some time, but I used to enjoy it. I just bought a new 80gb iPod to listen to on my morning walks, so maybe I'll give it a shot again.

[chrispenycate]

Just like reading – anwhere, any time. My muse bites, I'd better have a notebook (even if I generally prepare a page in advance in my head, precise dialogue, descriptions, etc. In fact it should be "I'd better be less than an hour away from a notebook")
I just spent an entire forty-five minute tram ride writing continuously (and didn't miss my stop, hurrah) At restaurant tables. During the arguments in a boring session. (I can't yet do it walking along the road as I can reading.
After that, it's just the slow, mechanical drudgery of transferring it onto a computer.

[HoopyFrood]

There are certain things that remind me of being fourteen/fifteen and writing my first (cliched and generic) attempt at a novel, and if they all coincide, why, it's like travelling back in time! I always used to sit at my computer, in front of my open window that would have a light summer breeze wafting in, an incense stick burning and Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication CD playing in the background.

Now, though, I find myself less inclined to have music playing while writing. But I think that that's because nowadays, my writing usually more involves essays and similar things, which demand a lot of concentration (I'm not saying that a novel doesn't involve that, either, just with that I found I could slip right into the story and type away, and the music was a nice background noise washing over me. With essays, I have to really concentrate and the music just ends up being a distraction).

I almost always write by hand too, now. All essays are written by hand for the first draft and then copied up, and I have transferred my novel (currently on hold indefinitely) to a folder to carry on writing with good old pen and paper. I find the words flow much more easily this way, for some reason. I tend to write in blocks on the computer, sentence, sentence, another sentence, edit that bit, change that word, sentence, whereas by hand I get into a groove and just write.

[Talysia]

When I write, it has to be quiet, preferably in a comfortable chair, and with no distractions (traffic, telephone etc.) I'm another one who always writes longhand, so keeping a notebook or my actual writing book around with me helps a lot, and like Hoopy I get more inspiration and flow when I write with pen and paper.

[Zubi-Ondo]

I'm a lot like Talysia, in that I need quiet to write, but actually a lot of the writing goes on in my head throughout the day. When I sit down to write it's more like transcribing the scene that I've worked out in my head. So that can be done directly into the word processor. I write with a pen and paper quite often as well, but sometimes, what I'm writing is a lot of background stuff - details about a character, how they look, their history, or details about a place, the description of a transluminal interstellar ship, etc. and then I'll work those details into the story as I go along.

- Z.

[tehuti88]

I don't really seem to need any atmosphere or anything...unlike with reading, where I need silence or else I have trouble focusing, I can write with noise and activity around me...I kind of have to, since I write at a shared computer in a public area of the house.

I have trouble starting though at times if I don't have somewhere to pick up from (since I write series stories), so I learned to limit how much I write a day and not just sit and write until I run out of steam. If I run out of steam, then I have nowhere to pick up the next day. If I cut off in the middle of the action, then it's much easier to start again later on. So that's one thing I tend to do.

I like listening to music, but when I write, I tune that all out, so it doesn't really help. I love the thought of writing in a park or out in nature but in truth I'd be too distracted wanting to take pictures of pretty things! Plus I hate writing by hand, my thoughts go too fast to keep up and I have to type it out later anyway.

[Tobytwo]

Thinking about writing is really the default setting for my brain. If I'm not asleep (I've never dreamed about my book) or doing something else, then I'm pondering what to write next. I can work fine with or without music most of the time. Drawing also helps: I'm no artist, but I find that putting down a picture of something, or even making a model of it, really helps the ideas to coalesce.

Although sometimes it just comes down to looking at the screen and thinking, over and over again, "I need something funny about lemmings. Something funny about lemmings..." until I either have an idea or resolve to go back later.