Creative Rites

[Cmofield]

I wrote the rough draft of my current story between Team Death Matches of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. I found that playing the game would get my brain working creatively as I tried to actively figure out how to get the most kills I could or take out a particular player who was kicking my butt. Then again maybe it was just relaxing.

I filled one and half notebooks with ideas and scenes that way and now I'm sailing through the story loving every minute of it.

[LMGilbert]

Now that I'm in the swing of things and seem to have actually established a daily writing practise (pat myself on the back here, you can join me if you like), I notice that I do have a routine. It falls between procrastination and getting myself ready.

Once the kid is on the school bus, & the dog has been fed & let out & back in, I then have to nuke my coffee, sit down at the computer and review the headlines in the Globe & Mail. Then do the Globe Cryptic Crossword. This is a daily addiction, if I miss it, I'm all screwed up. Then I follow the only useful advice of Julia Cameron & write out three long-hand pages of whatever: dreams, what I see out my window, how I feel about old enemies, things my daughter said, whatever. Sometimes I do this before going on the computer, sometimes after. Then it's time for the computer, & I check emails, maybe go on facebook. I open up a story in progress & try to work on it for a bit. Lately I've been checking the Writer's Digest Forums almost every day as part of this ritual. If I'm going through a rough patch in terms of raising a kid with Asperger's Syndrome, I visit the Autism Support Network for awhile. This is while the room downstairs is warming up so I can do yoga later. I write a little more. Then do yoga & try to catch up on housework, and of course walk the dog. If I get a chance to write some more before the kid comes home from school, that's a bonus. If I'm really into writing something, the house stays dirty, & the dog gives me dirty looks.

For computer games, I prefer the mindless ones where you match colours of little balls or squares or whatever. Peggle is fun, it's like pinball and when you finish a level, Beethoven's Ode to Joy comes on. So that motivates you to keep playing.

[stephensdemise]

I have found there is only one way I can write: the BIC method (Butt In Chair). Seriously, I can putter around all day doing housework or what have you, but try as a might, ideas do not come to me that way. In my case the act of writing brings forth ideas, not the other way around. On the down side, my rough drafts are really really rough. I'm forcing myself to edit every day, because I usually don't get around to it. Procrastination seems to be the part I'm good at, so it's a constant battle with myself every day. But it's getting better.

I do have to have my coffee, writing or not. It's the little things, y'know.

[knob]

I write well when I have other things to do. Then I'm under pressure to get to those other things, and it gives me sort of a deadline. I do my best writing with a tight deadline.

[knob]

I write well when I have other things to do. Then I'm under pressure to get to those other things, and it gives me sort of a deadline. I do my best writing with a tight deadline.

[Maine Writer]

Usually my best ideas come to me when I'm doing something else - like my day job. In this case, all I can do is to jot down a few words (so far, I haven't been caught by my boss).

[Loretta Green]

speaking of story ideas: Help! I've just finished a story, did a light rewrite, and submitted it. Now I want to start another story but I can't think up any Idea right now!! this has never happened to me before. So does anyone have a storyline idea for a short mystery story(not ghost etc..) If you have, would you please share! AT least to get me rolling again!
thanks
Loretta

[mayzie71]

I don't know if it is a rite persay but I do my thinking in the bathtub or bed. For some reason, these two places are where all my best ideas from. I don't know if it is because I am more relaxed but, the ideas just start flowing and I can't stop it if I wanted to. Let me tell you, these are the worst two places to get ideas because by the time you get up to write them down you have already half forgotten what you are supposed to be writing down.

Also, I can't work with a physical outline. I have a mental "gameplan" but if I write it out, I find myself stifled and can't write. I have always felt that stories have a way of writing themselves and the more I try to plan it out the more I fail.

I also tend to kill a lot of trees when I write. I need pen and paper, typing doesn't do it for me. So, I will write it down by hand, then type it, print it out, edit it by hand, make the corrections to the typed version and then repeat as many times nessecary till I am satisfied.

[ReelBob]

Backyard. Working on my tan, with a cigarette in one hand and Iced Tea in the other!

[ReelBob]

Loretta,

...To his amazement, as the inspector brushed the cobwebs from the 100 year old painting, the smell of fresh paint filled the abandoned basement and his fingers stuck together with wet paint....

Any help?