...Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.-Meg Chittenden apparently we're all nutcases
It's good to know I'm in good company then. I wouldn't want to be...uhm...weird. I hear voices too, but I'm pretty sure my roomate is really hovering. Hell, sometimes he talks to the voices in my head.
next time he does so, turn to him with a very shocked, disturbed face and say "By george, you can hear them too?!". Then stare awkwardy until he backs off. That should take care of it.
Haha that's great! I love your suggestion crimson. I wonder if that would work on *everyone* though? Might be interesting if the roommate just says, "Yeah, so?" ~Lynn
I listen to music... that is what gets me going. I have two kids so i close the door make my room dark light a candle, set the music... Hit the laptop on and....BANG Mom, Sarah hit me, I want Alexis to leave me alone... Can my friends come over... At night I can hear my 3 year cry... she is afraid of monsters... So I will be lucky enough to get my printer work edited, I have to deal with the distractions and hope that I will be able to get work done. I gave up for awhile. I found the best for me is dark, candle, bath,(we have a weird set up in the Master Bathroom) music, and hope. Sorry about details.
Lol details are fine. That actually reminds me of my best friend. She has two children and can get pretty much nothing done when she's at home by herself (with her kids). She'll sit down to post something on a forum and...look at that, her two year old has taken off his diaper. Yeah, fun times. I understand where you're coming from there. ~Lynn
I want to smack them out of the room and tell them to leave me alone (which I never smacked them but I told them to leave me alone in a less than nice voice and I felt so bad that I cried) My 7 year old dishes it out so yelling at her, no biggie. She gives me ideas for my demons and how they would act. Thats what I'm writing about, but I think demons, though bad act like little 7 year old girls who's hormons are going and they have all this balled up energy with nothing to realse it. Congrats on your book being published, how long did that take?
After it was written and I submitted it to the publisher? About six months for the entire process. And thanks And yeah... children are definitely little monsters. ~Lynn
I feel the most creative at night. I have to be by myself. I need a cup of water and a pack of gum. I need some sort of music... usually I just listen to my ipod. What I listen to depends on what simply seems to fit my creative mood. I also like some sort of a breeze... I'll normally either have a window open or if it's warm/hot a nearby fan. That's pretty much all of my writing preferences. I also only have a single word doc open at a time with no internet windows. If I have the internet open I get distracted and stray onto some site, like facebook. Once and a while I'll leave solitaire open and take breaks every page or so with a quick game, but that's all.
sounds like you're not a mom... i had 7 and while the task of having and raising them is a montrous one, to be sure, none of mine qualified for full monsterhood... have to admit a couple of 'em came perilously close now and then, in their teen years, though...
I usually have to be alone to write...people tend to be a distraction when writing. I don't have to be in a particular place or anything, I can write anywhere. Sometimes I like music when writing, and sometimes I don't - I guess it depends on my current mood, but I can write in any mood I'm in. Sometimes, I write because I suddenly get inspiration or an idea. Other times, it's because I've made up my mind to. I usually can't write if I've got schoolwork on my mind, but if anything else is on my mind, writing helps. I guess I don't have a particular "writing mode" so to speak...I just...write, because I love it. Does every writer usually have a specific writing mode?
I must be one of the only writers in the whole world who does this, but I can't write without my computer. I simply can't do well with a pen and pencil (probably because I have that terrible chicken scratch handwriting). I can't write without music either. I've tried. However, the music itself is also very specific. There are certain songs that help me write certain pieces; there's a playlist for everything I've written. For example, I can play alternative in one of my pieces, and the other one I find that it completely throws me off so I play some of my favorite jazz. I'm constantly preparing myself to write. I read a thesaurus all of the time. And no lie, it's my bedtime story. I'm always looking for good synonyms (did you know that "smorgasbord" is a synonym for "buffet?" LOL). Another thing, I can't have anyone in the room. I even kick my cat out. And that's about all. Sometimes I'll read some of my favorite books if I'm stuck, or go through some exercises to get back into the "zone", as you call it.
You aren;t the only one. I can barely read my handwritten grocery lists, so I don't handwrite anything I need to be able to read later. I do keep a small digital voice recorder handy now instead, and I do have software that can transcribe that as text. Therefore, I do all my writing on the computer. Saves a lot of eye and brain strain.
wow... i didn't realize so many writers listened to music while they wrote. i thought i was weird. i will write whenever the mood hits. don't need a particular setting, just a comfortable one. i listen to music through headphones. usually post-rock, or another heavily instrumental genre. if the music does have vocals, they have to be something i don't feel too deeply connected to.
Am I then only one here who has their own writing traditions? Or do other people put historical quotes and proverbs at the beginning of chapters? Do you name your chapters according to events or by number? What other things do you do that are your own traditions?
I don't know about traditions, as such, but having just read over my recent work, I've noticed I have a really terrible habit of failing to end my chapters, they more just stop. Every single chapter. I mean, good grief. I like to start my book off with a relevant quote from a good source. And of course, my greatest writing tradition- failing to finish anything I start writing.
I have a foster brother/best friend and there is always a character, no matter how minor, with his first name.
I'm really tempted to name my chapters Gulliver's Travels Style (Chapter one, in which the narrator visits the king and is asked to take a tour of the kingdom with his highness, following which there is an invasion by the enemy which is thwarted by the narrator.) but really it would serve no purpose other than to make me laugh and my publishers reject me.
I've noticed in all my novels have glowing things in them, whether glowing drinks, neon strips, or something. I guess I like things that glow.
Will it ever end? I too have the problem of not evr finishing my stories. That's definitely my most pronounced writing tradition. The other one being planning out a whole story based around character A, then starting to write and discovering that the whole thing is really about character B. That pesky character B!
Wondering what the average is here. How long does it take you to write, say, 50,000 words? It always seemed like a lot to me, but I guess everyone at NaNoWriMo does it every year. Personally, I usually can't get more then two or three pages in a day.
When I wake up, I write four pages in the morning. It can be about anything and everything. I acquired this nifty ritual from a nondescript writing manual. I usually lose the sense of time while writing , so I really don't know.
I don't write much. Some days, I can spew out 4000 words, some days, I'll run out of steam at 500. For me, I have to have a rare combination of four things: Time: Oh, how I wish I had the time to do everything I wanted to) Inspiration: It's fleeting, but when I get it, it's powerful) Energy: writing after work never seems to work, but I have too many chores to do when NOT at work. Silence: I can't write when it's noisy. Sadly, if i'm off work, have the energy AND the time AND inspiration, my partner is no doubt home, on the desk next to me, playing music. I'm getting better at forcing myself to have all of these conditions, though. I've even managed to find some magazines who might be interested in the kind of stories I write.
It depends on the day, for me. If I have a busy day, I don't do much (if any) writing. Lately, since my job search is proving slightly fruitless, I've had a lot of time to write. Yesterday I wrote about 2500 words of a brand new short story, which I was quite proud of. I can write more than that, but it requires me to be in the right mood, and be absolutely focused on the writing. The 2500 word figure was over the course of the day, taking time out to watch TV, do some cooking, and play janitor to this place. I've never tried NaNo, and I don't really see the point. I'd rather write at a slower pace, and come out at the end with something usable.
