any tips on getting in the mood? I useally feel like writing late late night. does anyone else listen to soft music or smoke or drink before writing? lol just curious
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getting into writing mood
- Thread starter midwestedit
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Hey midwestedit,
I write best first thing in the morning, before my boyfriend and roommates get up. Before the dogs need fed. Before I make BF's lunch and breakfast. Quiet. Oh and Coffee.
I use to listen to music, without lyrics, every time I write. Now it varies. If I'm creating something new, I need no outer input at all. No music, curtain closed, just my desk lamp and a Himalayan salt candle votive. (cool, right?!
)
When I get to just editting and rearranging scenes etc. I try to listen to music, without lyrics, pertaining to something about the screenplay. The stripper script gets techno, the country comdery horror gets bluegrass. The tweenie baseball script will get the Disnesy channel on XM. Maybe some boy bands. Ugh.
But most of all, I plan for that writing time each day and I take it.
Margo
I write best first thing in the morning, before my boyfriend and roommates get up. Before the dogs need fed. Before I make BF's lunch and breakfast. Quiet. Oh and Coffee.
I use to listen to music, without lyrics, every time I write. Now it varies. If I'm creating something new, I need no outer input at all. No music, curtain closed, just my desk lamp and a Himalayan salt candle votive. (cool, right?!
) When I get to just editting and rearranging scenes etc. I try to listen to music, without lyrics, pertaining to something about the screenplay. The stripper script gets techno, the country comdery horror gets bluegrass. The tweenie baseball script will get the Disnesy channel on XM. Maybe some boy bands. Ugh.
But most of all, I plan for that writing time each day and I take it.
Margo
I write late into the night -- early morning. Sometimes for a particular scene, I'll listen to some music because that scene made me think of a particular song... And sometimes, just listening to that song a few times will help me bang that scene right out.
But ultimately, what I do to switch myself into writing mode is to go over my characters in my mind for at least 5 minutes apiece... I just visualize them and what they are about to do next in my script. I always read the last 5 pages I completed before writing...
That's pretty much all the prep I need to get motivated... You gotta find what works for you. I know a guy that has to wait for his family to go to bed and be asleep for a few hours while he watches Leno... Then he makes coffee and cleans his laptop screen with a damp paper towel.
Then he writes...
I know someone else who watches a movie before they write... Every time.
I know someone who has to clean up their writing area even if it's already clean... LOL.
Another person who works out for an hour before writing...
Everybody has their way of preparing... Find what works for you.
filmy
But ultimately, what I do to switch myself into writing mode is to go over my characters in my mind for at least 5 minutes apiece... I just visualize them and what they are about to do next in my script. I always read the last 5 pages I completed before writing...
That's pretty much all the prep I need to get motivated... You gotta find what works for you. I know a guy that has to wait for his family to go to bed and be asleep for a few hours while he watches Leno... Then he makes coffee and cleans his laptop screen with a damp paper towel.
Then he writes...
I know someone else who watches a movie before they write... Every time.
I know someone who has to clean up their writing area even if it's already clean... LOL.
Another person who works out for an hour before writing...
Everybody has their way of preparing... Find what works for you.
filmy
You have to have a story in your head before you sit down to write. Do you have your story? You can't just sit down and pound a story out. Once you know the story you will find yourself wanting to sit down to write every chance you get so you can get those scenes out of your head and onto paper.
When I am blocked, a nature walk really helps. On the beach, in the forest, in the mountains (when I had them nearby) - quieting the mind and ditching technology. Some of my best writing came about while I was writing with fountain pen by candles and oil lamp. It was much more right-brain oriented. Adding any technology to the mix becomes more left-brained, and if your right brain is partially focused on the music, that's less bandwidth available for the creative writing process. But perhaps that's just me. Being a typical "Martian" male, I don't multitask well. 
By the time it makes it from paper to digitization, it's already a second draft.
Other times, I prefer to type whatever comes to mind as fast as it comes. I can type a heck of a lot faster than I can write. I can almost type in real-time when taking notes during meetings at work. For creative writing of any kind, it's a great exercise to just throw words and abstract concepts around. My brainstorming when writing by hand often gets running faster than my hand will record. Not so with the keyboard.
No alcohol. That actually blocks my creative process and my motivation. Coffee or green tea is a must. I used to write between midnight and 2:00 AM, but that's no longer an option given my work schedule. Early mornings work best now.
By the time it makes it from paper to digitization, it's already a second draft.
Other times, I prefer to type whatever comes to mind as fast as it comes. I can type a heck of a lot faster than I can write. I can almost type in real-time when taking notes during meetings at work. For creative writing of any kind, it's a great exercise to just throw words and abstract concepts around. My brainstorming when writing by hand often gets running faster than my hand will record. Not so with the keyboard.
No alcohol. That actually blocks my creative process and my motivation. Coffee or green tea is a must. I used to write between midnight and 2:00 AM, but that's no longer an option given my work schedule. Early mornings work best now.
I'm definitely not eccentric, but have to admit I'm weird about getting into the mood.
I'll play music and just pace and think for a half hour, an hour, sometimes several hours and just think and think and think until I feel just like what the scene feels like. Until I understand it entirely. Then I sit down, all fired up, with LOTS of food and drink at the ready, and just start typing. I type out a page or half a page, and I know what I just typed sucks. So I go back and start typing it over, hitting the return key as needed so that my 2nd go and the original can be seen on screen at the same time. And I keep typing until it's better and better and better. When I feel good about it, I continue on.
Not the most normal way to do it, that's for sure. But it works for me. As far a schedule?...that's the first thing out the window when I write. Sometimes I stay up half the night or all night. Sometimes I go to bed early and wake up before dawn.
Whatever works.
I'll play music and just pace and think for a half hour, an hour, sometimes several hours and just think and think and think until I feel just like what the scene feels like. Until I understand it entirely. Then I sit down, all fired up, with LOTS of food and drink at the ready, and just start typing. I type out a page or half a page, and I know what I just typed sucks. So I go back and start typing it over, hitting the return key as needed so that my 2nd go and the original can be seen on screen at the same time. And I keep typing until it's better and better and better. When I feel good about it, I continue on.
Not the most normal way to do it, that's for sure. But it works for me. As far a schedule?...that's the first thing out the window when I write. Sometimes I stay up half the night or all night. Sometimes I go to bed early and wake up before dawn.
Whatever works.
Because of my day job and family obligations, I usually can't do any writing at all until midnight. But I'll know as soon as I wake up if it will be a writing night or not. If it is a writing night, I won't be able to stop brainstorming, daydreaming about my characters and mentally writing all day, then as soon as everything else is done and quiet, I'll put my headphones REALLY low so the only sound I can hear is very faint music (always instrumental, mostly likely jazz), pour a short bourbon and hammer away. No distractions, no television on, no children to ask me for snacks, no telephone. And then I usually can't stop no matter how long I've been working. I work best in fruitful, creative spurts that I wished happened more often.
Do as I say and not as I do , but here is wisdom I myself am fighting to learn how to fully put into action:
If you wait to be "in the mood to write" (quoting my OWN procrastination there, and not you) you have automatically reduced your writing time to anywhere from one-half to one-fifth the time you could and should be writing!"
It's terrible but true. We all love the rush of "inspiration" when it hits ... but an athlete cannot train by only practicing when they're in the mood to practice or win competitions. They win by practicing EVERY OPPORTUNITY. So should we write.
Again, not claiming I can do that fully yet ... but I'm learning how you cannot wait for the Muse to offer you her breast by special engraved invitation ... sometimes you have to do the work of chatting the Muse up and undoing some buttons yourself. ha!
So, setting aside the need for Mood (that is, let us write both while drunk upon the wine of Inspiration AND learn to scribble our whine down on paper or glowing screen while dutifully sober) what is conductive to me naturally is:
To write in the dead of night, when no one else and nothing in the house stirs and the neighbors dream. Dogs may bark,
wind blow, rain upon the roof
is wonderful
To write in dead silence (I use to think music created a mood, but think now that it should be our own words alone that create the mood)
To write sober. The first thing that I lose under any spirit or smoke is: the critical inner voice, and the will and discipline to write. Staring at a blank page is sharpening the blade, scribbling down the train-of-thoughts of the intoxicated only leaves me with dumbed-down deadwood it will depress me to cut tomorrow.
When I say "write sober" I of course mean "write so hotwired on Diet Coke that my heart is about to explode in my chest."
Here is something maybe others don't do (and it may be wise or foolish, but it greases the rails for me): I lay out or tape up images of landscapes, supermodels and actors, or major props and/or costumes. Even things I don't describe in detail, I have something there to visualize. i begin each new thing by preparing a sort of fetish-notebook of images (my first draft is in tiny spiderwebs of handwritten print, with arrows and highlights crisscrossing the page)
Sometimes I'll watch my netflix movie (or better, only HALF a movie) tp "prime the pump" -- because if it's good it's Artistic Inspiration to aspire to, and if it's bad (and often movies suck) I think: "this crap SOLD? I could do better than this crap."
I haven't, yet ... but it gets me writing.
, but here is wisdom I myself am fighting to learn how to fully put into action:If you wait to be "in the mood to write" (quoting my OWN procrastination there, and not you) you have automatically reduced your writing time to anywhere from one-half to one-fifth the time you could and should be writing!"
It's terrible but true. We all love the rush of "inspiration" when it hits ... but an athlete cannot train by only practicing when they're in the mood to practice or win competitions. They win by practicing EVERY OPPORTUNITY. So should we write.
Again, not claiming I can do that fully yet ... but I'm learning how you cannot wait for the Muse to offer you her breast by special engraved invitation ... sometimes you have to do the work of chatting the Muse up and undoing some buttons yourself. ha!
So, setting aside the need for Mood (that is, let us write both while drunk upon the wine of Inspiration AND learn to scribble our whine down on paper or glowing screen while dutifully sober) what is conductive to me naturally is:
To write in the dead of night, when no one else and nothing in the house stirs and the neighbors dream. Dogs may bark,
wind blow, rain upon the roof
is wonderful
To write in dead silence (I use to think music created a mood, but think now that it should be our own words alone that create the mood)
To write sober. The first thing that I lose under any spirit or smoke is: the critical inner voice, and the will and discipline to write. Staring at a blank page is sharpening the blade, scribbling down the train-of-thoughts of the intoxicated only leaves me with dumbed-down deadwood it will depress me to cut tomorrow.
When I say "write sober" I of course mean "write so hotwired on Diet Coke that my heart is about to explode in my chest."
Here is something maybe others don't do (and it may be wise or foolish, but it greases the rails for me): I lay out or tape up images of landscapes, supermodels and actors, or major props and/or costumes. Even things I don't describe in detail, I have something there to visualize. i begin each new thing by preparing a sort of fetish-notebook of images (my first draft is in tiny spiderwebs of handwritten print, with arrows and highlights crisscrossing the page)
Sometimes I'll watch my netflix movie (or better, only HALF a movie) tp "prime the pump" -- because if it's good it's Artistic Inspiration to aspire to, and if it's bad (and often movies suck) I think: "this crap SOLD? I could do better than this crap."
I haven't, yet ... but it gets me writing.
Hmmmmm
The mood to write. Procrastination is the enemy.
If you write all the time, then you could see how your moods effect your writing, instead of your writing being effected by your moods.
Write in the Morning, at night, Drink and smoke, listen to music, get a shit load of paper and write it all down.
70% may be trash, but hey, atleast your writing as oppose to not. and you may be left with 30% that you can use.
Any sense there?
The mood to write. Procrastination is the enemy.
If you write all the time, then you could see how your moods effect your writing, instead of your writing being effected by your moods.
Write in the Morning, at night, Drink and smoke, listen to music, get a shit load of paper and write it all down.
70% may be trash, but hey, atleast your writing as oppose to not. and you may be left with 30% that you can use.
Any sense there?
For me...I have to be around 'people' energy...like in a popular coffee shop or something similar...a great cup of hot coffee...and usually at night...I play ideas around in my head first...do a mental movie...then write down random thoughts if linear ideas don't come to me right away. Eventually the spark ignites...
For me it just has to be quiet. I like to go off into my imagination without having to battle outside sounds and distracting people. And I never drink alcohol or anything like that to get me writing. I do need water because I tend read aloud as I write. Also, I think it's a terrible misconception that most good writers are addicted to something or another.
I'm pretty boring when it comes to my "ritual."
I write anywhere from five to eight hours a day. I chainsmoke like crazy, listen to music while I work and go through several cups of either coffee, Earl Grey tea or a soda of some kind.
I write anywhere from five to eight hours a day. I chainsmoke like crazy, listen to music while I work and go through several cups of either coffee, Earl Grey tea or a soda of some kind.
Pen Vomit! Since I started using the technique it's been immortalized in film with "finding forrester" Just start writing, whatever your pen/ typewriter happens to generate, doesn't need to make sense at all... eventually, words will come out and you can go from there.
That's my process, when I don't write, no words get out.
That's my process, when I don't write, no words get out.
It took me forever to realize you have to just force yourself to do it, find your rhythm and motivation later. Crank out a serious amount of prep and research or 5 pages a day up to 15. Don't let yourself off the hook. You must write that much. become the focused and devoted writer, your friends and maybe even chicks (or guys for you ladies) will dig it.
In writing mood
You Gotta as Yourself, what made start writing in the first place.
I look at alot of movies every week, alot are from my teen Years in the 70's. from the "Creature of The Black Lagoon" to "Forbiden Planet". I recently Started looking at "Old Time Commercials", The Hamms Beer Commercial, The Dunkin Donuts Commercial - back when the donuts still tasted good.
I would write and mesmerize my 4th grade teacher back in the early 70's, and He'd say, where do you get this stuff? Although, I had no clue on how to make a screen play, He'd encourage me and "Buy" me books and things to keep writing.
I do get blocked, from time to time, but not as much since I'm getting older and no time, I change my routine a little.
You Gotta as Yourself, what made start writing in the first place.
I look at alot of movies every week, alot are from my teen Years in the 70's. from the "Creature of The Black Lagoon" to "Forbiden Planet". I recently Started looking at "Old Time Commercials", The Hamms Beer Commercial, The Dunkin Donuts Commercial - back when the donuts still tasted good.
I would write and mesmerize my 4th grade teacher back in the early 70's, and He'd say, where do you get this stuff? Although, I had no clue on how to make a screen play, He'd encourage me and "Buy" me books and things to keep writing.
I do get blocked, from time to time, but not as much since I'm getting older and no time, I change my routine a little.
Well getting into mood is the hardest thing for me. and i never write untill i have created some comedy situation (my first project is a comedy series thats why mentioning about comedy) and untill i am not satisfied myself that the comedy elements are in balanced proportion. and when few scens are finalised in my mind then i start writing and normally its the weekend.