How do you write

[The44]

Generally speaking, I write late at night with loud music turned on. How about the rest of you guys?

[hooktonfonnix]

that's exactly how I've been writing lately, except I use headphones because my wife is typically asleep next to me. I got on such a roll last night I didn't stop until 4am

[Quill]

Just about any time of day -- or night.

And no music -- or anything but ambient sounds -- please!

[Gypson]

I tend to be most productive in the morning or late at night. I love the stillness of these times, and the knowledge that I won't be needed for anything. On non-rainy days, I feel guilty staying inside during the afternoon when I could be going on a run. Writing during a rainy day or night is my favorite. (Writing at night is dangerous for me, though, because a good kick will keep me up all night and destroy me the next day.)

I need to be alone when I write (although I can easily write around my boyfriend, which is nice, because being around him and writing are two of my favorite things.) I almost always have headphones on with music to drown out background noise and get me in the zone. Although there are certain bands I can write to (Smashing Pumpkins being my fav), I tend to favor movie soundtracks and piano music, which are less distracting.

I write and concentrate best at a desk. Writing in my armchair is cozy, but my cat insists on taking up my entire lap, which leaves no room for anything else.

[jojocookie]

At 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. Then I go to work.

I'm a morning person.

[writersink]

I write in the evening. I go to bed at around ten-thirty-ish so I'll write from eight-ish until ten. (Notice the -ish. I have no exact timing because I find if I have a time when I have to write, I won't do it.) Some days I don't have the time in the evening. I'll maybe squeeze a half hour in some time in the morning (7.00 to 7.30-ish) and then I'll do more writing the next day to make up for it. I need some form of music on because I can't think without it.

[Claudie]

I write everywhere I can, whenever I can, with music if possible. I don't need to be alone (although if others are talking, I will put headphones on) and the noise level doesn't really affect me unless I'm able to decipher a conversation and it's interesting. In short, I'm very flexible about this. Lucky me.

[CharleeVale]

Well, when I'm not in school (Summer and on breaks) I usually go from 11 PM to 3 AM.

I don't usually have time to write during term. But that gives me a good amount of rest from my MS!

CV

[trixie]

I learned while in Las Vegas that I can't write when surrounded by casino noise. Surprise.

I prefer being locked away from any distractions (read: anything that might be fun) with my headphones on. I get the most done on the weekends. (Says the girl who's spending her Saturday afternoon online and not on her WIP.)

[JackieOsborne]

I write only when I have inspiration - it may take me twice as longer to write even a short story compared to as if I simply forced myself to write just because I have to, but my pieces are twice as sincere and full of vivid images and interesting metaphors that come to my mind when I am in the wave... it is all about quality rather than quantity, I'd say.

[Mark.W.Carson]

With tons of rewrites... Frustration doesn't even begin to describe it.

Mostly, I get ideas when I drive and listen to music. I then record those ideas on my phone and then make them into mock up scenes/outlines when I get home. Then I try to visualize that scene and write it.

Often times, I get these feelings that usually end up being translated into "This is just not right" and I end up going back over them and fixing parts, mixing things up a bit and trying to make sure that the characters are acting as they should be, that it flows, and that the reader can get an accurate picture in their head.

Unfortunately, that translates into the above mentioned rewrites, which slows me down considerably. I used to be able to do about 200-600 words per sitting, but now, I can usually knock out 2000-5000 at a go.

I swear, for every 1000 words I think are any good, I must have written about 10,000.

[dios4vida]

I learned in Vegas that I'm not good at writing when I'm out of my routine. This shouldn't have surprised me because in general I am a very routined person.

I write in my office (at home) from around 9 am to whenever I'm done, usually around 2-3ish. I don't do nights (might be one reason why I didn't get hardly any writing done in Vegas!). I can sometimes have music playing, but I usually write to movies in the background. I have my set two dozen or so that I've seen so many times I have them memorized but I still love them. They play quietly in the corner of my laptop and somehow, I don't understand how it works, they keep me focused. If I don't have something like that going I'll get distracted by everything and I'll never get anything done.

[Beethovenfan]

I usually write to movies in the background. I have my set two dozen or so that I've seen so many times I have them memorized but I still love them.

So, what are some of those favorite movies??
I never thought of that. I have a few that I have memorized too. Gunna have to try it! The Hunt for Red October, Avatar, and any of the Star Wars movies are a few I could try.

[Hillsy]

How do I wirte??....hmmm

I write by falling asleep under the desk. Then during the night my skin breaks open and a vast, writhing mass of eye-spotted appendages slough out of my split husk. They usually flail about a bit, disorientated from their birthing from another, chaotic, dimension before crawling up around my desk like some living, heaving ivy. It’s usually about now the pupils of the hundreds of eyes, having regained sight for a few moments and completed their task, burst open in a spray of orange puss. The ruptures are clearly mouths filled with tiny, jagged teeth the colour of old tea.

Then the singing starts.

Of course, it’s not singing as we know it. It’s a shrill, animal sound not dissimilar to the sound a fax machine would make if it was submerged in treacle. It’s not loud, but enough that the neighbours usually phone the police once a week reporting a possible wild animal in their garden. With the throbbing coils of tentacles now fully in our realm of existence, grey flesh already drying out in our nitrogen rich atmosphere so toxic to it, forty seven minor appendages appear from within my burst, lifeless body and rest on each of the keys. The song dips in intensity, becoming an off-key warble. Then it begins to type.

After a few hours the song has died to a whisper and the tendrils have become desiccated to the point of emaciation. Great flakes of flesh peel away from it and fall to the floor, vaporising in the process. A fine yellow dust covers the carpet of my study. Unable to hold its cohesion in this world any longer, the great mass begins its slow retraction. You can actually hear its scab-riddle skin crackling like dry paper. It crawls back into my corpse, pulling shut the torn folds of skin like my chest was just an curtain to be closed against prying eyes. Once my body has stopped fidgeting like it was merely a bag of crazed beetles, a soft red light grows, filling my skin and inflating my sunken chest. There a waft of, amazingly, lavender and a bubbling noise akin to overcooked soup. Then darkness.

I open my eyes and the lights pop on. I’m feeling faintly sick and hollow. There’s an acrid taste in my mouth like someone’s scrubbed my innards with lemon scented detergent. I crawl out from under my desk, and sure enough, in a Garamond font – regardless of which font I set before I crawled under my desk – are exactly two thousand seven hundred and thirty six words on a crisp new file. It’s been saved to my desktop under then name “qwertuyiop.doc”, which is the top row of keys from left to right with the ‘u’ and ‘y’ reversed. It’s a different pair of letters swapped every time. I cut and paste the text into my ongoing manuscript, vacuum up the heavy dust covering every surface, remnants of my writing process, and head to the kitchen to bake some shortbread biscuits.


I’ve tried listening to some light music – but I never get as much done.

[dios4vida]

Hillsy - LOVE!! You totally made my morning with that. And I haven't even had my coffee yet!

I usually write to movies in the background. I have my set two dozen or so that I've seen so many times I have them memorized but I still love them.

So, what are some of those favorite movies??
I never thought of that. I have a few that I have memorized too. Gunna have to try it! The Hunt for Red October, Avatar, and any of the Star Wars movies are a few I could try.

Let's see...LOTR, Harry Potter (two-day marathons are great when I have something intense I need to work on for some reason), Star Wars (only the original trilogy), Stardust, The 10th Kingdom, Inkheart, Tron, pretty much any Disney/Pixar, then some contemporaries like The Italian Job, National Treasure, and Ocean's Eleven. Those are the top, with others sprinkled in every now and then. As long as they aren't too loud they work as background noise for me, but keep me focused. I haven't a clue how it works, but it does so I'm not complaining.