My creative process

Since I'm finally back in the game, I thought I'd take a minute and share a bit of my creative process with you all. Every writer is different and each person creates differently. My fiance, for instance, works best when he can occupy himself with a mindless video game. This occupies his subconscious and gives him a way to let his mind actually wander and create. He also tends to have music or a television program going. As someone with ADHD, this works for him and helps him to focus because he works best when actually physically doing something and working on more than one thing at the same time.

For me, that's creative Hell. I usually need a much more tranquil work space. When I was younger I couldn't work unless it was dead quiet and I was alone and isolated in a very comfortable place with munchies and drink at hand. Since then, I've adapted and my circumstances have changed somewhat. Now, I work best on dreary, gray, rainy days with a cup of tea, a bit of appropriate music, and my knitting or crocheting close at hand. The music becomes the soundtrack for the book or character I'm working on and it helps to fuel the scenes I write. I use it to inspire myself and to help me clear my head while I edit. The knitting does the same thing. When I am editing or stuck on a plot idea, I knit and listen to some music. I review what I have and let my mind figure out where it needs to go next. The tea and sometimes a snack are mostly just to keep my physical and mental energy up. I work best when I am mentally running a mile a minute and physically content. I will also write a lot after my morning jog because the physical activity shakes loose problems sometimes and it allows me to create.

The hard part is convincing my muse to work on days when it isn't rainy and when conditions are less than ideal. The music helps me to tune out the conditions that are less than ideal and helps me work, even when it's not exactly how I want to work. When all else fails, I edit. I skim my pages for misspellings and other small errors. Sometimes just doing this and going over what I've done will help me unblock my muse so I can continue writing.

For me, the muse comes in the form of a movie in my head with subtitles. The movie starts and there is a little ticker tape that describes everything that's going on, while I hear, feel, and see the dialogue and action taking place. Once that tape and movie starts, I need to be at a computer and usually stay there for at least three hours. I am not a writer who gets up frequently. I tend to tune the world out and dive into what I am seeing in my mind's eye. On a good day, I will stretch when I am finished and realize that the world has gone dark and that I've not eaten in seven hours and am starving. Those are the days when I can look over what I've written the next day and feel very, very proud of what I've done. I'm trying to get myself up to more days like that so that, once November comes, I have a chance at actually completing or almost completing my book by the end of the month.

So that's my story. What's yours?