Blogger: Rachel Kent
There’s nothing like fall weather, a cup of tea, and a warm fire in the fireplace to put me in the mood to read, and that got me thinking, What might help you to get in the mood to write?
Are there certain conditions that are optimal for you as a writer that inspire the story to flow? Many of you currently are participating in NaNoWriMo, and you are probably experiencing writing under all sorts of circumstances. What works best for you?
One of my clients enjoys taking writing retreats where she gets away from everything and plunks out chapter after chapter over a long weekend.
Another client wakes up early and writes in the morning before his children wake up.
Another can write anywhere as long as she has coffee. (You know who you are. 😉 )
It’s rare that we get to work under optimal conditions. But it’s a good idea to know what helps you to be most productive so you can fall back on the “mood setting” conditions if you hit writers block or if your deadline is fast approaching and you still have a lot of writing to do.
I’d say my optimal working conditions are a house to myself (baby at Grandma’s, husband at work, and dogs at the groomer or something), coffee and a snack nearby, with a clean desk. For some reason, having a tidy desk really helps me to concentrate. I know a lot of you enjoy your pets’ company while writing, but my pets are pretty demanding. Tricks like giving them rawhide bones or bribing with treats helps some.
I can arrange it so I can work under my optimal “mood setting” conditions, but most of the time I don’t have things perfect.
What about you? What are your optimal writing conditions? How often do you get to write under those conditions?
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I can write pretty well anywhere. My doctoral dissertation was written in noisy campus hangouts, construction sites, and the cab of my truck when parked outside Walmart.
That pattern has continued to these days of writing novels (with, of course the assistance of my 26 canine co-authors).
Having to tune out distractions helps me to focus. Tuning them out ahead of time to create a quiet environment simply doesn’t work for me. I look for new distractions at a lower threshold of awareness, and strain to hear the drips from the faucet that is not leaking.
I do try to make a specific point of writing when I don’t ‘feel like it’. There are times when the last thing I want to do is write, and I’ll pick up any other task.
This, I have found, can be the harbinger of the most productive writing, and the fleshing out of the hardest ideas. Something of a birthing process, perhaps?
Yes, when I’m not in the mood to write, I will find distractions. When I’m in the zone, nothing will bother me.
Interesting that your best writing can happen when you don’t want to write. I wonder why that is? Very thought provoking. Is this true for many writers?
Coffee!!! A candle, a quiet house, or Mumford & Sons on my iPod. A window to stare out while I muse. Notecards nearby. Warmth–I cannot write if I’m not comfortable.
I can so picture, you Anne-Girl! 🙂
I love candles too!
My best time is early in the morning (before thoughts of other responsibilities start to fill my head). And yes, there must definitely be coffee! For me, having a routine time also helps. It is like my focus is on auto-pilot. I don’t have to decide if it is a good time, and I don’t have to try to get in the mood as much as I need to just follow the plan/routine of the day.
I wish I could force myself to function in the early morning. I work better late at night.
I need a tidy desk as well and I prefer the house to myself, but if I have my playlist for the story I’m working on and earbuds, I can write anywhere.
I love this, Jessica. How do you create a playlist for your books? I’ve been thinking about this.
Playlists for writing novels is a fun idea!
Working at home, M-F, sometimes Sat, just me and the dog, while my husband is at work. I treat it like any day job, though I probably take more breaks than most employers would allow. I wear ear plugs while I work. That last is what helps me the most to get lost in the writing. I find sound and movement around me extremely distracting. I can’t block it out.
I find that noise is bothering me more and more. I might need to try earplugs too!
Deep snow and quiet.
I don’t necessarily need quiet, but I need to be left alone. No questions asked. I’ve been working on a book, on Chapter 5 (yay!), and as long as I make myself sit down, I am in another world. I worked on my chapter 5 when I was sick the other day … was left alone in my room for the day, and spent it writing with a fever. Grin. And usually, I will wait to sit down till I know the path; once I have that next step, I am carried away (when I make myself sit down!).
I’m kind of like you, Shelli. As long as I have the direction or can picture my next scene, I’m good to go.
So when you’re in the groove the story flows. That’s great.
1 o’clock in the afternoon. I can’t get to work until the “real life” things are taken care of and I don’t have to worry about what’s for dinner when I’m done. 🙂
I agree with that, Michelle – the ‘must-do’ items have to be done first.
That’s why there’s Lepe’s.
I need to be adequately awake (so the early morning writing doesn’t always work so well) and I need QUIET!
And yes, rawhide bones are a lovely invention. 😉
Rawhide and bully sticks have saved my writing career.
lol!
Believe me, Sarah knows how to use rawhide and bully sticks. 🙂
I can write just about anywhere, but I’m most productive when I know the next few hours should be interruption free. This means the kids are done with their schoolwork so no one’s going to be asking me to explain something. And the husband is either at work or napping or into a big football game. Then I know my characters and I can visit uninterrupted!
Lol! I love that you look forward to the big football game so you can get writing done. So many women dread the big sports days.
Supper over, dishes done, husband and dog watching television while I sit at the dining room table and travel home. I actually find a low level of noise tends to drive me deeper inside my own head. When I isolate myself at my lovely desk on the far side of the house I just feel lonesome.
As for what gets me in the mood, reading really good writing almost always makes me want to put the book down and see if I can do that, too. Well, at the end of the chapter.
I love how different everyone is! You feel lonely when you isolate yourself while others can’t write without isolation.
I listen to the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack if I’m editing, because I like the background music but I know exactly what’s coming.
I need silence to create something new, and my dog is very good at holding down various beds throughout the house.
HOT Earl Grey tea, a bit of chocolate (HA! Define ‘a bit’)and at least one convo with my writing partners.
Why did you pick Last of the Mohicans? Do other soundtracks work too?
My writing habits have changed. In my younger years…college and young mom….the early morning hours were perfect. Now, I find the afternoons more suitable. And because during any given month we find ourselves in different cities, I’ve adapted to writing just about anywhere!
I need to be more adaptable!
I work best where it’s quiet. I don’t like taking more than three days off when I’m working on a first draft or I lose the flow. And coffee is a must. 🙂
I wondered if you were the reference, Jill. 😉
😀
I need to know the direction of the scene I want to write. I often have the big pieces in place before I write the first word of my book, but scene to scene can vary.
Once I know the scene, my ideal (but rarely achieved) is to be up well before the sun and the sons, and ready to go. A cup of coffee is oh, so helpful for waking up those creative juices in my brain. When I write later in the day, coffee, or flavored water are helpful, and sometimes a couple pieces of chocolate, or jelly beans. Depending on the scene I’m writing, I might play some music that fits the emotion of the scene.
I prefer the quiet of my home with no one around, but I can write in a coffee house or with others around, as long as they don’t interrupt me. 😉
I wonder if music could help me keep focused. I’ll have to give it a try!
I relate to your client. It’s a bit like Field of Dreams, “if you pour me coffee, words will come”. Other than that, I usually have a theme song for my hero and one for my heroine and/or a song that defines them as a couple. So I jam that really loud (assuming I’m in my office at work and only annoy my co-workers who know, “jaime’s on break and writing, there goes her music”). Lifestyle doesn’t give me the liberty of set times to write. So I do 15 increments here and there, or while I’m baking cookies. Speaking of which …. the timer dinged (danged, dunged?)
Yummy! 🙂
These are great suggestions Rachel! I can also relate to working well in a quiet house and a clean desk. 🙂
Definitely coffee! Lately I’ve been also been bribing myself with peanut M&Ms (one every hundred words). I like to turn on Pandora to screen out other extraneous sounds. I usually ask it for instrumental hymns or film scores so I’m not distracted by lyrics.
Speaking of writing… I’d better get to work!
I don’t have your self control. I’d be grabbing handfuls.
Ideal: Husband at work, kids at school, dog FAST asleep, coffee by my side.
Real: Husband at desk next to mine commenting on a news article, kids telling funny stories, dog running off with my slippers, just ran out of coffee.
Compromise: work as hard as I can in those gorgeous ideal hours, squeeze in bits elsewhere, and politely ask for some peace & quiet when necessary.
I’m trying to picture the famous Daisy sleeping. Does she have angelically-sleeping-at-the-author’s-feet moments?
She does sleep, thank goodness. But then she wakes up raring to go. Usually when I open the pantry door. Which is good for my diet, because I have to be REALLY hungry to want to open the pantry door!
This is what reality is like for me many times too. 🙂
I can’t sit still until I’ve burned off a certain amount of energy. So, I do a 2-mile walk or a workout video. Then, I’m ready to grab that cup of tea or coffee and settle down with my thoughts and plans. Along with stimulating circulation, I think exercise also helps my brain to fire.
I need complete silence to get into writing. No sirens, no dogs barking, no traffic noises, no felling trees, rock slides, avalanches, falling meteors, and the likes.
I admire all the authors who can write at Starbucks or Panera Bread or other cafes, or on train commutes and at lunch breaks. I would be distracted beyond repair (and eat entirely too much dessert) at such noisy places LOL.
Great blog today, Rachel. Inspiring.
I have a favorite table in the corner of my small-town coffee shop. A cup of chai tea (maybe with a shot of espresso), and next thing I know, 4 hours and thousands of words have flown by. The other best time for me is after everyone else has gone to bed, I’ve had a full day of living, and the house is quiet.
Great question and prompt!
I so wish I could work at a coffee shop. It sounds so “romantic” in the Anne Shirley sense of the word.
I can write nearly anywhere as long as I don’t “feel responsible” for another person’s wellbeing at that moment–minding children or needing to prepare meals, etc. But I’ve found recently that deliberately creating a “writing zone” is so helpful. Just before NaNoWriMo began I invested in a wonderfully comfy throw from Barnes & Nobel–rich red wine color and very soft and cozy. The minute I sit down and cover my knees with this throw and plunk my laptop on top I slip into my new novel world. I love it, love it, love it!
Oooo! I love your throw. You described it beautifully. 🙂
1. A clean desk and office.
2. A deadline.
Or maybe I should reverse the order of those.
Haha! Deadlines help to motivate me too!
Great question and interesting responses! A clean desk? Never.
If my desk were orderly, I’d want to start dusting it. And then I’d need to straighten my books.
I don’t mind stacks of papers. I do need quiet. I love to write early in the morning and go through early afternoon. My best writing days, I forget to brush my teeth.
Sometimes I light a really great-smelling candle to keep me going. And coffee, for sure. Food isn’t necessary for creativity. Breathing really isn’t either. 🙂
A clean desk is the “If you give a mouse a cookie…” story for you. 🙂
My husband is taking kids to the cinema tonight. So, I’ll be writing. 🙂
I love to play with words before I write.
Perfect ~ Any time day or night with a hot cuppa tea, in my office (the real one that my youngest grown son is presently bunking in) with the dogs asleep at my feet.
Reality ~ Back in the corner of my bedroom and half-closet temporary office, tepid tea, both dogs barking at anything moving outside the living room picture window, down the long hallway.
Past ~ For over a decade I wrote mostly in hospitals while my two youngest children were in and out of ICU, in those expanding chair beds where I spent the nights wide awake, no tea, (hospital tea = yuck) machines hummed endlessly as chatter filtered in from other rooms, I lived on any form of chocolate out of the cafeteria, gift shop, or what family or friends gave me, and the dog was at home.
I relish summer writing retreats at Lake Tahoe.
When I get writers block, I dance with the black lab Jake to 80’s music or go for a lap swim. Clarity hits and I can write again.
I homeschool my kids, so early morning before they wake up is the only time that really works for me. I am so not a morning person. I think when my kids grow up, I’ll sleep til 8, get up and procrastinate a little, and then write for a good few hours.
I really like writing for like 8 hours and getting into the story, but the only time I was able to do that was when I was recovering from surgery 🙂
I can write anything but fiction with noise all around me. But for my novel, it has to be quiet.
I simply need the time to write (ten minutes or ten hours), and no *threat* of being interrupted.
If there’s the threat that I’ll be interrupted, it distracts my attention and I can’t lose myself in my work.
I’ll write anywhere, anywhen I need to, but optimal conditions involve a comfy chair and quietude.