What do you need to write?

[KillerMuffin]

I need to be left alone. For some reason when other people are in the house and they're walking around, I can't write. That's why I've been posting so much and writing so much less. I think it's frustrating. I have this irrational fear that they are going to hover over my shoulder and I'm going to feel like I'm doing something filthy wrong.

The worst part of it is that the StudMuffin has no trouble bursting through the door- the computer is in the bedroom- and saying something. This murders my concentration and makes me tense. I have to relax again before I can start to write.

I need to have my winamp on as well, whatever I'm writing dictates what I listen to, musically.

I also need to have something to drink within reach, otherwise I'll have to get up and go get it, which breaks my concentration again.

I need to have an aquarium with live fish and plants where I can see it easily as well. I feel kind of dumb for having to be able to see fish to write. *sigh*

My "need" to have things in a certain way when I write, whether it's for pleasure, literotica, an assignment, has gotten pretty rigid as the years passed.

Anyone else have this problem? Or am I alone here?

 

[CreamyLady]

A large block of uninterrupted time. Relative silence, though I listen to music. Usually quiet classical or new age. I can't handle anything jarring.

Well, unless I'm really angry. Then I listen to Exile in Guyville.

However, I generally have a lot of family running about, and phone calls, and tasks. I'm not very good at screaming about my need for time, so I just get through the days and resent the interruptions.

I, too, have been spending time posting instead of writing. The only writing I'm doing isn't erotic, either. Damn it.

 

[circe!]

Lakme's Delibes

I have to listen to a loop playing only Lakme's Delibes. I need a plant on my desk. I need privacy. I need a candle burning. I need ice water. I have seven dogs, but only one of them, my black Chow Chow, needs to be sleeping at my feet. Only then do I believe that I can write. (Pretty strict conditions!)

 

[WriterDom]

couple of candles, some Celtic or classical music, and lots of coffee

 

[His Whimsicality]

After some time at the screen, I tend to drift away into the world I create, at which point my WRITING-FRENZY usually starts, and once it´s gotten hold of me, there´s very little that can stop me. (No, really).

 

[masterhypnotist]

writing environment

So far I am secretive when I write. I too am afraid someone (spouse) will see what I am writing and react (how?). Writing from experience makes it even harder. I have enjoyed the BB discussions. They have motivated me to write more and edit more carefully.

 

[mrwizard67]

writing needs

I am probably to new at this for my opinion to count, but I find that ambient noise does not bother me. I don't worry about my family. My kids only pay attention to what I do on the computer when I am working with images, and my wife hates to read.

I am usually working on two projects at once. One is alway a text story, and the other is either my web page, or erotic images. When I am having trouble with today's primary one, I switch to the other. After a short time I feel refreshed, and ready to return to the first job.

 

[bluntforcemama]

I totally understand the "needs" for creativity in your writing. My other half (Myster), has his computer in the same room as mine, and he always plays these obnoxious games with bizzare sounds that repeat themselves over and over again, and yes, he DOES get snoopy. He looks over my shoulder and reads what I'm writing as if I invited him to take a look! It makes me batty, and then he tries to talk to me, just a little sentence here or there, just as soon as I get my groove back! AAAHHHHH!!!! Makes me insane, that man does. I usually have a cup of coffee nearby, although my desk gets crowded, and listen to those emotionally charged songs that I love so much. Did anyone ever check out "Delerium?" It's a band/group that I always listen to when I'm searching for emotion and inspiration. Sometimes I just plug my headphones into the computer and listen to the music on there, and then it drowns out Myster's mindless babbling. He'd never get it anyway.

 

[LittleP]

writing needs

I find that all of the stuff I've written so far (but have yet to post, as I have just joined!) did not have any particular need involved in it, with the exception perhaps of a good title. I am lucky in the fact that I can walk away from anything I write, come back and read it, and pick it up along the same thought without missing a beat. Although, once in a while, I'll butcher whatever I'm writing, and it will look like two different people wrote it. Yikes!

I've never actually thought about my needs before when it comes to writing. I've found that my stories seem to write themselves, whether it be because I've been thinking about them instead of paying attention in class, or because they flow from one logical extention to the next. But, I'm probably just babbling.

Now that I think about it, whenever I write, I always listen to music that doesn't have words, be it classical or otherwise. Back when I was younger, I found to my horror that a short story I had written was, in fact, a rip-off of a song that I had been listening to while I wrote it. Instrumental music for me after that...

 

[skywriterxxx]

Privacy and silence. Whatever I write, I get deeply into the story and emerge hours later, wondering where the time went....

When I have something to write, the physical conditions (other than privacy and silence) really have no bearing.

 

[SteamyChik]

My house is active and loud, so I tune it all out. If I really need to concentrate, I write late at night when everyone is in bed.

[Edited by SteamyChik on 02-28-2001 at 09:20 AM]

 

[nitengale]

writing needs

lots of quiet....I write late at night, when my brain is clear of all the mother or nurse things that crammed in there during the day....music, I have to have music, nothing in particular, depends on where I am in the story or the overall theme....coffee, I have to have that....and on occasion, when I feel the need, my oreos....always twisted and opened before I begin to write....licking the creamy centers somehow motivate me....and lastly one or two thoughts on where the story is headed....sometimes the thoughts flow right out, and other times, I sit here staring at this damn monitor screen, like someone will hand out a sentence or two....

 

[Ask For More]

KM u really need a lot of stuff to write don't u! ;op

All I need is privacy and music. And maybe a cigarette sometimes....

 

[SpectreT]

Needy people

Writing's not quite a ritual for me, but I *do* need time, reasonable privacy (I have the misforune of being nearly thirty and living in my parent's home) and *some* kind of music. While writing "Tuesday", I've been listening to Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast". Partly because an old nickname of mine is The Beast, and partly because I can't get "Hallowed be Thy Name" out of my head. Usually, though, I'll listen to the CD, "One Second" by Paradise Lost.

 

[cymbidia]

Quiet. No music, no tv, as little ambient noise as possible. This translates to late night writing, mostly.

Privacy. No people interrupting me in the middle of a torrent flowing from me or, as likely, when i'm fighting for just that perfect word. Again, late night writing, after my household is settled.

Something to drink (coke or water, usually) and some kinda snacky thing to eat (popcorn, often). It needs to be at hand, on my desk, but far enough from my fingers and elbows and arms so i won't accidentally knock into it. Nothing quite puts a damper on my creativity like having to be domestic and clean up my spill as it drips into my keyboard and soaks all the papers on my desk.

The painting hanging on the wall over my computer serves as a focal point and provides me with inspiration. Without it, i don't know where i'd look when i'm stumped or need to rest my eyes or i just want a long moment to think.

 

[Persephone]

Hi Cymbidia...

now I'm curious. What painting is it that is your focal point?

 

[SensitiveSuccubus]

I simply need to get home from work and put pen to paper. I turn off the poison-box and start writing, unleashing the ideas i'd been kicking around all day. The hardest part for me is not writing, but in getting to the writing. That and getting feedback. Some people...they use you and then just throw you away. *sigh*

 

[cymbidia]

Re: Hi Cymbidia...

now I'm curious. What painting is it that is your focal point?

Hi, Persophene. It's an impressionistic painting, an original oil, of a naked woman surrounded by a weighty velvet-deep darkness that presses in on her from all sides. Curled into a fetal postion, her hands are clasped loosely over her face and her knees are drawn up to her chest. Her long dark hair spills over her hands and down off the edge of the bed, if it's a bed. (Could be a chair or a sofa or the floor, for that matter.) She's lying against a pink/mauve/orchid colored background, the only light colors in the whole painting besides her flesh-toned body. Her ear is painted very clearly, as is the hair that sweeps past it. The rest of the painting softens and lines become less distinct as the eye moves out and away from her ear. She seems, almost, to be wearing one blue shoe on the one foot we can see.

I imagine it's a bed, she's either weeping or lying in a stupor of satisfaction (~grin~ .. so much depends on my mood), and that someone unseen is talking (shouting, singing, whispering, crying) to her from outside the frame of the scene.

It's a wonderful painting. Very evocative and moody. It's just what i need at times to help me focus my thoughts.
cym

 

[p_p_man]

After some time at the screen, I tend to drift away into the world I create, at which point my WRITING-FRENZY usually starts, and once it´s gotten hold of me, there´s very little that can stop me. (No, really).

Me too - or should I say 'myself as well' - as I've ventured onto this board for the first time...

 

[Sateema Lunasi]

what I need

First of all, my desk has to be really clean, not cluttered.
I have to have some music on, though what kind depends on the mood of the story I want.

I have to be comfortable. I usually wear my workout clothes when I write, and when I hit slow points where I cannot think of anything, I work out a little, do some yoga and then I think up something from there.

I need to (most of the time) be left alone.

My fiancee is a violinist so he practices in the house, but often that makes for a good "mood enhancer." Other times it is annoying.

I don't have a problem with shyness. I ask my fiancee for opinions on my writing. What about this idea? What about this one? He is supportive and likes that I write erotica.

I need to have a little paper notebook beside my laptop, that I jot down notes on. Strangely enough, this has to be by hand, on paper, not in a word processor.

I get up and pace the room a lot.

I turn the phone off.

I sometimes put make up on so I don't feel icky.

 

[Bob Peale]

At least one free hand <eg>

 

[Ulyssa]

"Tell me that was just a hot flash!" Joan of Arc

A prospective employer interviewing me about a writing job said she didn't want a writer who wouldn't let the door slam on his ass when the day was over and the project as not done.

I told her that anybody who couldn't get one of her piddly assignments done in less than eight hours wasn't really a writer. Naturally I didn't get the job because the boss couldn't finish any of her pieces in less than nine hours.

Just do it. There is no muse there's just you and your keyboard. There will always be things which must be written now which you'd rather not write. Believe me most fiction writers make more money flipping burgers than writing, so workaday writing isn't such a bad compromise--and it keeps the tools sharpened.