How do you become the monster?

[shereads]

"One day you just don't appear at the El Adobe bar anymore: You shut the door, paint the windows black, rent an electric typewriter and become the monster you always were — the writer."

~ HST

When do know you have to write?

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate?

How do you deal with distractions?
Is that legal?

I'm considering Doctor Thompson's method: painting the windows black is one means of procrastination that I haven't tried yet.

And finally: Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you?




Gotta go; need paint.
Later, pornsters.

~ S

 

[Colleen Thomas]

"One day you just don't appear at the El Adobe bar anymore: You shut the door, paint the windows black, rent an electric typewriter and become the monster you always were — the writer."

~ HST

When do know you have to write?

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate?

How do you deal with distractions?
Is that legal?

I'm considering Doctor Thompson's method: painting the windows black is one means of procrastination that I haven't tried yet.

And finally: Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you?




Gotta go; need paint.
Later, pornsters.

~ S

When I write it's all consuming. I am, without doubt, in my own world, the world of the story I am telling.

There isn't much that can distract me when I am in the zone, that said, writing on deadline seems to quash the joy from writing and thus kills the mood.

 

[Guest]

Gotta go; need paint.
Later, pornsters.

~ S

OK.

Later.

 

[Boota]

When I write I am in my own world. Time has no meaning in Boota World, either. I might think I've been writing for twenty or thirty minutes and find out that hours have passed. I do the same thing in the recording studio when I'm alone and working on an album.

I know I have to write when something is nagging at me. Even when I'm busy beyond belief and can't find time to write, sometimes a story or an idea will just keep poking at me and screaming, "Fucking write me down already!"

I like the idea of painting the windows black and writing. I have black towels over the windows in my room where I write, and I need silence. Stephen King says he likes to write with really loud heavy metal or punk rock playing, so I tried that and I just can't do it. (Even though my band plays really loud heavy metal. Maybe that's why it's so distracting?) I have found that when I have silence my ideas are clearer and my writing takes center stage.

How I generally deal with distactions is to welcome them. If I'm in the zone, it takes an emergency to distract. If I CAN be distracted I figure it's okay to take a break. My girlfriend distracts me quite often and I don't mind one bit. She's a writer, too, so she understands if I say I need to work.

When I'm writing I'm just me. But I'm more me than usual, if that makes any sense. Most people wouldn't recognize me if they got into my head because most people don't know me. My best friends don't even know me that well.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

When I sit down to write . . .

"Burley, you've gotta fill in for Suzie, you're on in five minutes!"

. . . I let absolutely nothing . . .

"I'll ralph if I have to eat Harvey's chicken wings again, would you run down to Pizza Hut?"

. . . interfer with the . . .

"My ex-boyfriend Willie is on his way up. I'll hide in the lavatory, while you tell him that I died, and they shipped my body back to Moose Jaw."

. . . anything!

"We're all going out to heckle the guys at Chippendales, you should come too! You spend far too much time playing video games on that computer of yours."

 

[Guest]

Good questions, Sher. Thanks.

The first time I had to write I was 15 or so and depressed (clinically, but at the time my mother merely thought I was lazy). I tried short stories and poetry, real crap, but it helped. I read enough so that I knew it was about working with language, not just whingeing about life or my adolescent angst. I liked that part—the working—better than what I had to say, haha. Then I turned to art (drawing, painting, printmaking) until my second year in college. I had a great lit. teacher who taught me to read as if for the first time, and an English comp. teacher who encouraged me to write. These two women gave me all the help and praise I needed at the time (after first divorce).

Until I came to Literotica I always wrote out of need but kept the ‘language crafting’ the priority; I still love that part the best. Working to write for a special audience (wankers) was interesting cos I discovered I still enjoyed the ‘working’ part.

I do not like writing for deadlines (e.g., the contests I entered here; won one). I don’t procrastinate, just get very stuck sometimes. I’ve always been patient with myself but now nearing 60 I get a bit worried I won’t finish important things (like my second novel).

Distractions were never an issue. I’ve written when I had babies, when I was crying, when I was severely depressed, on holiday, at work, etc. I believe writing my first novel saved my life. It was during the worst depression of my life and I wrote from the moment I got home from work til early in the morning Mon-Fri, and all day Sat and Sun for about three months straight. Then I spent a couple months working with an editor on revisions. When I was finished I fell back into the depression but got help cos I didn’t have more to write at the time.

Who am I when I’m writing? More myself than at any other time. That’s why I love it. And no, no one’s ever known that woman, not even my readers. If friends could see inside my head when I write I think they might recognize bits of me and find much unfamiliar, but mostly they’d be extremely bored.

Perdita

 

[Liar]

I am the monster. It's a gauge on an analouge scale from procrastination to madness, and I can on occation spike the needle into the red zone by sheer
stubbornness. To keep it there for any period of time is what is difficult. So far I haven't found anything in terms of setting or stimuli that works.

 

[scheherazade_79]

"One day you just don't appear at the El Adobe bar anymore: You shut the door, paint the windows black, rent an electric typewriter and become the monster you always were — the writer."

~ HST

When do know you have to write?

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate?

How do you deal with distractions?
Is that legal?

I'm considering Doctor Thompson's method: painting the windows black is one means of procrastination that I haven't tried yet.

And finally: Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you?




~ S

Excellent question, Sher.

I have blackout blinds in my room, and I tend to pull them down when I'm writing. I also like dim candlelight or the glow of my plasma ball.

I know I have to write when I start getting antsy and really impatient, and when I finally sit down to write it's like taking a holiday from everything that stresses me out. I think writing always has been an escape for me. I first started when I was being bullied in school and got a kick out of writing stories where the girl in question got her come uppance.

I don't like deadlines - they remind me too much of school. When the inspiration comes, it comes. If it doesn't come, then I rarely force.

I deal very badly with distractions. My pet hate is the telephone, and if it rings too many times I have a habit of disconnecting it - much to the annoyance of everyone else I live with.

Who am I when I'm writing? Well, I'm not a monster! I just get super-focused, pace a lot and feel 100% confident in what I'm doing. Would people recognise me if they got into my head while I'm writing? Hell no! I have a repuatation for being supremely laid-back and rather vague. When I write, I'm a solitary live-wire

 

[Halo_n_horns]

I wish my mind could be in it's own world when I write. Truth be told, it's all over the damn place, and many places at that. My mind focuses on the story, but wanders from the here and now to the there and then to the when and where while still really never leaving the present world and all it's distractions, while also filtering all of that and using what it needs to in the story.

From time to time I've even been known to carry on a conversation of one kind while simultaneously writing about a totally different subject than what I'm discussing. That goes for my artwork as well.

Ever since I was a wee lad I could have other things going on around me while I was working on a project and always be acutely aware of what was going on. My art table use to be in a room where my parents watched TV. They would see me working diligently on some piece of work while watching their shows. But at the end of each show I was able to tell them all about what they had just watched.

Deadlines suck!

I don't procrastinate so much as I just wait for the right inspiration to slap me in the face, and then I go to work.

 

[NoJo]

"One day you just don't appear at the El Adobe bar anymore: You shut the door, paint the windows black, rent an electric typewriter and become the monster you always were — the writer."

~ HST

When do know you have to write?

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate?

How do you deal with distractions?
Is that legal?

I'm considering Doctor Thompson's method: painting the windows black is one means of procrastination that I haven't tried yet.

And finally: Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you?




Gotta go; need paint.
Later, pornsters.

~ S

Everything I do is simply putting off the other stuff I should be doing. I work much better to deadlines. Like frinstance, I gave myself thirty seconds to type this post, but just sat blankly for twenty-five, but i typed like a demon in the last five andjustgotitfinished.

 

[Guest]

when i write... the ghosts of linda lovelace and margaret mitchell battle each other inside my head. i must have distraction or they would drive me over the edge.
fondly
v~
hovering.

 

[NoJo]

when i write... the ghosts of linda lovelace and margaret mitchell battle each other inside my head. i must have distraction or they would drive me over the edge.
fondly
v~
hovering.

Ditto, except with me it's you and lucky. Or Nina and Asuka from Tekken 5.

 

[cloudy]

When do know you have to write?
When I feel like if I have to go one more second with the mind movie unfolding for me alone, I'll start screaming.

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate?
Procrastinator extraordinnaire, here. I don't know why...maybe I have separation anxiety, or something. Just mentioned it in another thread - I'll write like I'm on speed until it's almost finished, and then I don't want to finish it.

How do you deal with distractions?
Most of the time I can tune stuff out. Other times it makes me irritable as hell. "Mom is writing" has become a clue that they need to fix their own chocolate milk, damn it.

Is that legal?
Chocolate milk deprivation? I think it's on the list of approved torture methods.

Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you?
The "writer" in my head is someone that I think sometimes I don't even know. I recognize the words and thoughts as mine, but how they actually made it into any concrete form is beyond me.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm always me, even when I write.

Not good with distractions. I agree with sche about the phone. And it's always 'would you like another credit card?"

Once I get going though, it's hard to stop.

Can't stand deadlines. They're always too soon.

 

[carsonshepherd]

When do know you have to write?

I pretty much always have to be writing something. I itch all over when the need is there and the opportunity isn't.

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate?

I can do either, but when I'm the Zone I don't need motivations.

How do you deal with distractions?
Is that legal?

I indulge them.

I'm considering Doctor Thompson's method: painting the windows black is one means of procrastination that I haven't tried yet.

And finally: Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you?

I have a split personality. People who know me personally are surprised at my words - people who know me through my writing would be surprised at the real me. The part of me that writes is my dark side - if I didn't write, I would be locked up alone with the windows painted black, surrounded by lots of ammuition. Writing allows me to live pretty much normally because my dark side is channeled out of my everyday life. I look back at myself before I learned to use that outlet and I was much less content and much harder to live with.

 

[yui]

I have a split personality. People who know me personally are surprised at my words - people who know me through my writing would be surprised at the real me. The part of me that writes is my dark side - if I didn't write, I would be locked up alone with the windows painted black, surrounded by lots of ammuition. Writing allows me to live pretty much normally because my dark side is channeled out of my everyday life. I look back at myself before I learned to use that outlet and I was much less content and much harder to live with.

"If I wasn't such a bad woman on the page, I couldn't be such a good woman in life." Madeleine in "Quills"

 

[carsonshepherd]

Madeleine in "Quills"

Chick flick

 

[yui]

Chick flick

Sorry, I got all hot watching that Phoenix guy with the crazy eyes...what did you say?

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

When do know you have to write? For sprints, my mind just tells me. It'll get worked up on an idea or something and I'll open up the Word Processor or find a scrap of paper and i'll be rolling along until either I hit a block or I finish. It has a bad habit of turning up at inconveinent times to. Good ideas when driving, desires to write on the night before a midterm, and whatnot. I am writing's slave.

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate? My mood varies on deadlines. On the one hand they can be hindering when you're just not feeling it. On the other, it can motivate you to get off your ass and add a good stretch on your longer pieces. My epic play was aided to completion by a deadline.

How do you deal with distractions? Oooh, shiny penny. Wait, what did you say?
Is that legal? So long as the police don't catch me, it is.

I'm considering Doctor Thompson's method: painting the windows black is one means of procrastination that I haven't tried yet.

And finally: Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you? I am one of my or a combination of my personalities when I write. If you sift through you could probably dissect which personalities those are by the competing tones. On the plus side, this makes blending melodrama and humour a much easier task. And since I'm similar in real life, I'd assume many would be able to recognize me if they traveled into my writing mode head.

So, yeah.

 

[elsol]

When do know you have to write?

When the story in my head is clean... and by clean I mean structurally sound enough for me to fill in the spaces.

Then writing it is the only way to get it out of my head.

Do you work better on deadline, or does your writing suffer when you procrastinate?

Procrastination is a cancer in my writing... because I can't tell when I'm procrastinating and when my subconcious is fixing things in the story.

Deadlines are okay... but since this is free completely meaningless.

How do you deal with distractions?

I write better with disctractions... it relieves 'pressure'... I will usually get up once per page and walk around to 'talk' myself through a section anyway so distractions take that role.

And finally: Who are you when you're writing? If the people who know you could get inside your head then, would they recognize you?

Because I write in the first person mostly, I become the 'purer' version of myself that I'm writing through.

Yes... people would recognize me and sometimes they get scared if I'm working with Jason... if it's Miguel, the girlfriend likes to be the distraction.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[minsue]

How do you deal with distractions? Oooh, shiny penny. Wait, what did you say?

Giggling waaaay too much over that.

 

[shereads]

when i write... the ghosts of linda lovelace and margaret mitchell battle each other inside my head. i must have distraction or they would drive me over the edge.
fondly
v~
hovering.

Margaret Mitchell?! I haven't thought of her since...HOLYCRAPOLOLA! It was her! Margaret Mitchell was Deep Throat! Everybody thought it was a man, but it has to have been her. It all fits now. The late-night meetings in the garage, the sense of betrayal, the --

No, wait. Margaret Mitchell was the author of "Gone With the Wind." She wasn't even alive during Watergate.

Vella, where do you come up with these irrational theories?




What appeared to be a self-threadjack was really an example of what happens when I'm writing on deadline. I take patented Mini-Procrastination Breaks, or MiniProbs®, lasting anywhere from fifteen minutes to six hours, depending on how busy the AH is, or whether there's any lavendar-orange-grapefruit bubblebath left. But that's because I'm writing for work, typically a brochure or website selling filled wetlands ("private gated golf course communities.") Most of my paid word-mongering gets done in the last two hours out of the 5 eight-hour days I will allege to have spent on the assignment...It is not like stealing! The hours I spend here benefit my clients by keeping my typing fingers limber, and keeping me in touch with what all of you golf nuts are thinking.

That conversation I overheard earlier about woodies, that was golf-talk, right?

 

[Guest]

Margaret Mitchell?! I haven't thought of her since...HOLYCRAPOLOLA! It was her! Margaret Mitchell was Deep Throat! Everybody thought it was a man, but it has to have been her. It all fits now. The late-night meetings in the garage, the sense of betrayal, the --

No, wait. Margaret Mitchell was the author of "Gone With the Wind." She wasn't even alive during Watergate.

Vella, where do you come up with these irrational theories?




What appeared to be a self-threadjack was really an example of what happens when I'm writing on deadline. I take patented Mini-Procrastination Breaks, or MiniProbs®, lasting anywhere from fifteen minutes to six hours, depending on how busy the AH is, or whether there's any lavendar-orange-grapefruit bubblebath left. But that's because I'm writing for work, typically a brochure or website selling filled wetlands ("private gated golf course communities.") Most of my paid word-mongering gets done in the last two hours out of the 5 eight-hour days I will allege to have spent on the assignment...It is not like stealing! The hours I spend here benefit my clients by keeping my typing fingers limber, and keeping me in touch with what all of you golf nuts are thinking.

That conversation I overheard earlier about woodies, that was golf-talk, right?

excuse me, but am i the only one who noticed that you didn't edit this post? something is amuk!

leave me alone about my irrational thought process... the most famous people are derelicts and insano's... why with the right concoction of alcohol and insanity, i might just become the next american idol.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

excuse me, but am i the only one who noticed that you didn't edit this post? something is amuk!

leave me alone about my irrational thought process... the most famous people are derelicts and insano's... why with the right concoction of alcohol and insanity, i might just become the next american idol.

Um....considering what you're writing now I don't think you should answer this thread without implicating yourself.

 

[Guest]

Um....considering what you're writing now I don't think you should answer this thread without implicating yourself.

sssshhhhhhh
im huntin wabbit