When I sit down to write, when I *really* need to, nothing comes. But when I sit down to complete important tasks, e.g. school work, all the writing ideas come flooding in, and I grasp the opportunity to write because I’m scared it won’t come again. How do you force ideas out when there’s no inspiration? And how do you ignore it when there is?
Writing is a skill. And skills are not fickle. If an astronaut decided he wasn't in the mood to pilot his ship, he'd be screwed lol. You might not be in the mood, but if you have the skill, you can do it anyway. I will grant you that there's more life, more drive to your writing when you're in the mood, but your writing when you're not necessarily in the mood shouldn't be far off in quality if you have the skills to write. We all edit for a reason, so even if your best writing isn't there when you're writing, it's of little consequence. Additionally, mood is created. How often have you not been in the mood for a party, almost pull out of going, and then once you're there, you enjoy it immensely? It's the same with writing. You might not be in the mood when you start, but once you get going, the mood comes, because your story - the scene you're writing currently - should inspire you. And if it doesn't, the problem might not be your mood. The problem is much more likely your scene.
I jot down those notes in all those inopportune times, so that when i actually have time, i can expand on those. I've actually sat in my car outside of work because i had an idea on my way to work. I jotted down what I could, went in to work, and on my lunch break, i typed it up.
Agreed. When you make time for writing regularly, you sit down and just do it. Inspiration doesn't matter. Waiting for your muse is a waste of time. Writing is, as you said, a skill and you just do it. You have a job to do, you do it whether you feel like it or not. Published authors don't sit around and wait for inspiration to strike. They sit down every single day and produce.
I find it's better when the ideas come away from the laptop. A lot of what I do during the day leaves my mind free, so I can develop my ideas in my head, and have something to write down when I sit down to write.
Yeah, that's more or less what I would have said myself. Scribble down ideas when they come to you. When I was in the middle of writing my novel, I used to get lots of ideas for scenes and character interactions AND backstory while walking to work—talk about inopportune! I had a notebook with me, and would stop in the middle of the sidewalk and scribble these ideas down. Then when I sat down to write early the next morning, I already had a lot to work with. The good thing about this sort of situation is that I had time to visualise my ideas in some detail WITHOUT sitting right down and writing them as they occurred to me. I think that worked really well for me. It also got me to make connections to other parts of my story that I might have missed, if I had just started writing as soon as an idea popped into my head. Gaining a little distance BEFORE you write can be helpful. I know others don't necessarily agree with me, but as far as I'm concerned putting words on screen/paper is the end product of a lot of thinking and visualising.
I agree with keep notes and jotting ideas down as they come in simple form. Then writing it in detail when you are in your next writing session. Writing takes practice. Thinking is also the same except you don't have to be sitting and have a pen/keyboard to do it. Thinking can happen 24/7, even in dreams. So the likelyhood of you coming up with an idea outside of writing time is actually higher just based on probability alone. Inspiration can't be forced, but I do think you can come up with better ideas with practice.
