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Writer's Rituals

NicklausLouis

NicklausLouis

Hey all you writers out there, I'm looking for your writing rituals.

I'll start us off:

I like to be completely relaxed, so I listen to Beethoven.com. I also need the door closed strangely. And nothing beats a big glass of milk to help wash down my horribly bad ideas.

Poke
 
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The atmosphere is everything.

Long playlist of 80's music, starting with theme song from George Of The Jungle (cartoon, not the movie.) Not loud enough to be distracting.

Large mug of hot coffee. This is essential and needs to be refilled frequently.

Temperature control is important, too. Since my office is in the cellar, most of the year it's fine. In the dog-days of summer I have to blast the AC.

It used to be more convenient when I could smoke in the house, but walking outside from time to time makes for welcome breaks.
 
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I personally like to be relaxed as well. I find, however, that if I play classical music for too long I am likely to fall asleep!

Generally I like to work later at night - say after 10pm at the earliest. My thoughts just seem to flow better; not sure why. I also like to open my windows and let the cold air in. It's much easier to work in a cold place than a hot one.

My largest problem seems to be getting everything down at once. I tend to mull over an idea for a long time and then - when the right light switches on - I have trouble keeping track of the sudden large surge of branching ideas. Generally it helps me to type at this stage so I can get my ideas down faster.
 
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Music is very important. I generally have one song in mind for a particular sequence in a film. I might spend half a day going through my records, listening for that perfect track. When I write the sequence, I stick that track on repeat and play it over and over and over, until the sequence is written. I find that it helps me give the right feel and pace to the sequence.

I've also discovered that when I'm tight on a deadline and the script isn't moving, that by getting away from my desk and working on the lap-top, I seem to get more done. This seems to work for me even if I'm sitting in a room full of people all watching TV. The most extreme of these situations involved me writing the last thirty pages of No Place (My first feature) at my Grandmother's wake. (Obviously I had to do without music on that ocassion!)
 
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The library. I absolutly love music, so if I listen to it, I will end up lost in the music and I will stop writing right away. I need quiet, but I'm also ADD, so being in my house with all the distractions of shiney things and what not is no good. (Plus I am still at home, and my dad has a constant love affair with the television, something that annoys me to no end) So the library is great, I can stay there for hours without having to worry about anyone barking orders at me in between commercials, and if I even need to look something up, well I don't need to go far.
 
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I'm an extremely erratic and sloppy writer :(

Rituals... hmmm....

1) Lots of coffee
2) Lots of cigs
3) Live365.com provides any genre of music that I feel like
4) Warm up by playing 10 mins or so of dull, mindless game. (Currently FIFA Soccer '04)
5) Blurt out a novelesque text of the story.
6) Crack open a beer

I hate writing. Well, maybe not hate the actual writing, but trying to format it to look like anything someone would recognise as a script or screenplay, or whatever.... forget it.

That's where a friend comes in... makes sense of my mess. Pretty good "translator", though ;)
 
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I tend to have ADHD when it comes to writing. Sometimes I am on a roll and can't move the pen fast enough while others times I have to force myself to jot down a sentence or two. I don't fight it. I only get worried if I go a few weeks without any type of creative impulse.

When I get "in the zone" I go with it. I do tend to want to listen to classical music. While I have a good collection I never heard of Beethoven.com. I currently have it going and am loving it.

That is the great thing about sharing I guess, learning new things!
 
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when i am writing i like to have a couple 40's of old english or colt 45 some good music playing ,the music is probly the most important thing when i am writing.i would say my music selection is always against me leftover crack some al green temptations.
 
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