|
|
Post by TeddyBower on Feb 10, 2016 20:07:13 GMT -5
For those of you who are authors here or elsewhere, what kind of things are important to you to inspire your creativity? Is there a time of day that is best for you? Do you like music playing? What other sorts of things inspire your creative juices and help you write really great stuff?
My creativity is best in the early AM, say from around 4 in the morning through around 8 or 9 AM. That is a problem for me on work days because guess what? I get up at 4:15 every morning to go to work. It's a damn shame, really, but we sorta need to eat around here.
As far as other things that help, I do like to have some low level background music playing that isn't particularly rowdy and it seems that instrumental is most often better than vocal in most cases though that, too, can vary some depending on what's going on in the story at the time I'm attempting to create my art.
Then, of course, there are the times when the muse is either pissed off, hiding, or sleeping and refuses to come out and play at all...
|
|
|
|
Post by Cynus on Feb 10, 2016 21:05:50 GMT -5
What an awesome post!
I've been waiting for a good chance to reply to some of the things happening on the boards, but this just got moved to first place. I love talking about this subject!
For me, it's all about what I'm trying to write, specifically. I have to cater to the emotional needs of each character as I'm writing them, and it sometimes doesn't work. On my YouTube, I often create private playlists with songs that fit specific characters. Right now I have a Seth and Foster playlist, for instance, and that's what I go to every time I need a little extra juice for them. Sometimes I can create a playlist which matches the entire story, rather than characters, but that normally happens later in the story rather than earlier, simply because it isn't always a cohesive whole at the beginning.
I know this sounds torturous, but sometimes I find a song which fits a scene in a story so well that I'll listen to it on repeat until I finish the scene. There was a particular song which fit Dante in "From The Cup of The Worthless" perfectly, and every time I had to write one of his scenes, I put that song on and listened to it over and over again.
As for time of day, I've found that I can write at nearly any time with equal success, though night time does tend to work slightly better.
For my environment, I know I'm a bit unusual. I like my atmosphere with a bit of chaos. I think this stems from where I first started writing in the dining hall of the restaurant where I worked. It was a family restaurant, with lots of little conversations going on everywhere. Somehow this works for me. Maybe it's the fact that I have people around to use as models for my characters? Of course, I can't go out all the time to such places, so normally I have to simulate that chaotic environment, which is why music is a must.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dabeagle on Feb 10, 2016 21:38:39 GMT -5
I find silence is necessary for me. Dogs, kids, music, TV - it all distracts me. I have a narrow window, usually, from 9-11 in the evening, just after the kids are in bed. I have to be up for 6, so I try not to push past 11.
Unfortunately, I'm not a morning person and a great many of my ideas come to me as I lay, waiting to fall asleep.
Inspiration is something else entirely. I find that images are very powerful to me. When I found the image I used for Things We Lost, I focused on it intently. The mystery of it, the hidden face, the beach and ocean merging behind him, the unusual hair color contrasting with the hoodie spoke to me. Combined with the fact I had wanted to write my Ehren story, and that I had two potential paths for it...but what is posting now is what came to me and what I was able to plan out.
My process is most successful when I can 1) inhabit the character and 2)When I get to speak in a creative way. Cynus has been chatting with me lately, and it helps to keep my gears spinning - as well as talking to readers and having posts like this and the You Tube thingy. I need input and that gives me characters and conversations and scenes and then a finished product. My process is actually dependent on my surroundings and interactions for inspiration, but then silence in order for me to produce.
|
|
|
|
Post by jamessavik on Feb 11, 2016 16:16:46 GMT -5
I used to think pot made me creative.
Then it was booze.
Then I figured out that I wasn't getting anything done with either one.
Once you sober up, that really profound idea you had while stoned sounds pretty silly.
My best writing happens stone cold sober after 9pm once the homework is done (gradual student) and it gets quiet. I can last until 2:00am and then, like Cinderella's carriage, I turn into a pumpkin.
THen I wake up at 0630 and start all over again.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lugnutz on Feb 12, 2016 8:39:29 GMT -5
I usually write when I'm inspired or have an idea that takes hold. No wonder it takes forever to put a story out. I have one serial. Music doesn't matter to me. It's background noise.
|
|
