What is your writing process?

1. I read a thesaurus, dictionary, or my most recent book in my possesion. I begin to bounce different ideas around while smoking a cigarrette and sometimes a few shots of 'Ol Jack Daniels. I then sit down and try to write or bleed out what comes to mind if anything. 2. Hm, last time I wrote I was really pissed off and highly agitated from family issues. It was rather alleviating and productive afterwards. 3. Procrastination, wording/punctuation, and bouts of depression and blind rage. Fits the bill perfectly. 4. What the hell is feedback? I love criticism and "moderate" praise but feedback is one picky little bitch. The best feedback is the playback of your own thoughts and feelings at the time; the rest follows suit. 5. Three things: Alchohol, some music, and a dartboard with the pictures of my worst critics stapled on it. Good times! - Chinobus -

If I have a pen and paper, a computer, or a bathroom stall you will probobly see my handiwork scribbled all over it. A majority of my work is paper though since its easier to "dispose" of. Hence last time I had a computer I threw it out of my apartment window. Hence its more safe that way. :) - Chinobus -

If I have a pen and paper, a computer, or a bathroom stall you will probobly see my handiwork scribbled all over it. A majority of my work is paper though since its easier to "dispose" of. Hence last time I had a computer I threw it out of my apartment window. Hence its more safe that way. :) - Chinobus -

I am a disorganized person. I don't take notes. I write lying down. I write constantly. I think about writing constantly. I would rather be writing than doing anything else. Mostly, I write using a pen and paper but occasionally, if I can see a whole poem from beginning to end in my head, I will write on the computer. Usually, I write through the night or in the early hours of the morning. 1. I have two different approaches to ideas. Sometimes A works and sometimes B works. a)The active approach - Brainstorm, put different ideas together and look for some chemistry;do research; go outside; surf the net. b)The inactive approach - Do nothing. Dream. Sit and watch tv, talk to people and just relax and wait for some inspiration. I am a strong believer in the subconcious. I think that freudian symbols of birth, sex, motherhood, fatherhood, death etcetera make very iconic and memorable images that are universally understood. Once I've got an idea, I either a) Just do it - As soon as I get the idea just launch into writing it and see how far I get. or b) Put it away and come back to it - Usually I think about an idea for months before I begin writing it. For me, plot always comes first. I must know how a story is going to end before I write it. Sometimes I start at the end and work backwards. While I'm writing a story, I always have a movie of the story in my head and will usually walk around my house watching the movie and listening to the characters talk to each other. Similarly, when I'm writing a poem I will hear it being read out in my mind by an actor. I use packs of black/blue bic rollerball pens and an A4 pad. I write all over the page and draw arrows to indicate changes and additions. I have a bad habit of scrunching up paper into balls and throwing them on the floor. I also have a bad habit of tearing pads and notebooks apart. Writers block makes me very depressed but thankfully it usually lasts for no longer than a week at most. I hate disturbances and distractions when I'm writing. Writing is a private thing. I show it to no one until it is finished and even then I will not let family or friends read my work. Time is a problem and disturbances. Feedback is nice. Usually people only see whats on the surface though and miss all the subtext but it's always encouraging if people like what you write because I have little confidence in my writing ability. Feedback can also put pressure on you if you get hooked on positive feedback and start writing to please people. I can't think of what else to say.

i was gonna comment on this but looking at well wisher's post...wow....that is exactly how i go about it as well...it was blowing my mind....just what i would have typed

Hi pauper, It depends whether I am writing poetry or prose. The process for me is very different depending on which activity I am engaged with. Usually when dealing with poetry I have done all the hard work before I actually start to put pen to paper. I will have the germ of the idea for ages and know what it is that I want to say and for the most part how I want to say it. You will see that I said 'pen to paper' and for poetry I do literally mean that. Invariably I write long hand for poetry before hitting the keys. Oddly I never ever write prose in long hand first. I think that the reason for this is that (in my opinion) poetry takes a particular moment in time or event and then expands it, where as prose condenses events and ideas and deals with them in details usually chronologically or at least with a recognisable chronology. I hope that this helps. Good luck by the way.

A nice exercise pauper. 1. I don't have a fixed process, certainly not step by step. Mostly my short stories come fully formed, i have an original idea and try and come up with an ending for the scenario, and fill in the gaps 2. Written on the back of a set of raffle tickets. Most of my stories are written in a notebook and then transferred to computer 3. Lack of time to write up. I can have up to a dozen ideas scribbled together in my notebook, and by the time I have to write them up I've lost the 'feel' of the story 4. I don't really get feedback, other than abc tales 5. Nothing, I love it

I don't know if these rambles will be of any help. I only write in verse. Sometimes something someone says, or a suggested idea like an IP surfaces in my mind together with a useful short phrase about it. I jot it down if possible asap (otherwise it can disappear!) and push it in my pocket if I'm busy, and fish it out to scribble other associated ideas as they come to mind. If it gets to being a lot of jumbled thoughts, I write them all on an A4 page, or a computer page, and look through them for important bits, or bits that trigger ideas for alliterative or rhyming patterns that might help the readability, flow, 'music'. I'll transfer such to a new page. When I make little changes, I may leave the original tabbed to the right for a while, or somewhere else, to be able to compare both again later. If it's not really getting anywhere, I'll leave it awhile to come back to fresh, maybe quite a long time later to see if the ideas now seem worth pursuing and thinking further about. My husband is very good at proof-reading and finding typos, but he has always disliked commenting, particularly if he's not happy with anything. I have found though that he can, if encouraged, tell me where he gets a bit stuck either through unclearness, or through bumpy rhythm. He may even suggest a change but just to try to show what is bothering him a bit. He knows I probably won't accept his idea, but it's been enough to just focus me on a part of the composition I've been trying to avoid thinking about, and in being forced back to think about it, it usually benefits. I think that illustrates the difficulty of anyone being specific in feedback on poetry, embarrassed they can't explain, give a reason, but they could be encouraged just to say where you are losing their concentraion, understanding. PS I rememberd you asked to say who we are who comment, - I'm a grandmother, who started writing for her children, long ago! I also should add that I do pray when stuck, not for quick answers to my frustration, but help at some stage if I should continue with the effort.

1. I generally (though I'm trying to break the habit) get a plan of what I'm going to be writing. I pick out certain "points" I want to hit (a scene that's been in my head, a line of dialogue, a story line) and start with one and work from there. I rarely pick an end point though. What I'm trying to work on now though is letting things just flow, without having a master plan. For my workspace, I'm incredibly flexible. Though my preference is a green (yes, the color matters) spiral-bound notebook, a pen, and a comfy chair, I am perfectly fine with whipping out my iPhone and writing anywhere at any time or sitting down with my laptop at night and working on some stuff. 2. Our assignment was to think of a person in our life, and six emotions we associate with them. The you number the emotions, and roll a die. The three numbers you get are the emotions you must convey, but you can't explicitly state what the emotion is. We didn't have time to finish, but I got a good start on it. I pretty much zoned out and went back into my memories about the person and just wrote. It was hard to get there, though. I kept wanting to think about it, but I let the words just flow in the end. 3. What types of problems do you encounter when writing? Getting started. This isn't as big of a problem as it used to be, but sometimes i still get intimidated by that big blank page. Losing interest in the piece. Sometimes it just gets boring and I have to put it aside. Over planning it. If I have some grand story line I want to tell, with a bunch of intricate details, sometimes it's just beyond my ability to pull it together. 4. Aside from here, I occasionally post poetry on a (somewhat ridiculous) site for feedback. A lot of it is stupid ("Don't write in first person. People can't connect with it, so it's pointless to read and thus pointless to write"), but sometimes they give out some helpful stuff. Another thing I do is go on random chat sites and ask if people will give me feedback. Usually the answer is no, or "tl;dr" but sometimes people actually read my stuff. Then of course I get trolls (who I have actually managed to get so mad at their failure that they rage-quit), but there are some people who really enjoy reading my stuff and can give helpful feed back. 5. A perfect world where I had nothing else to worry about doing. Demographic: male student

Hello .. I used to write wee poems and send them to my friends, who then asked me to write something about something else! When a colleague and pal from my theatre died suddenly, l composed a few lines and sent it to the boys family. They put it on the back of the order of service thing. It's in print, and it was read by a lot of people. Amazing. So mostly, my stuff is about feeling l have about feeling some emotion! I whip out my smartphone any time l have time, and if l am upset about something, compose a wee poem in the abctales site. My friend sent my work there, as l wouldn't have dreamt of anyone actually reading any of my thoughts. Sometimes when l am on a bus, or waiting in a queue in waitrose, l challenge myself and start a line of poetry with a word, say, lipgloss, and write before my turn comes! I love doing that. My stories on abctales are all always autobiographical, and l admire anyone who writes fiction. I must try that. I don't have distractions, and the problems would be just the typing with my thumb on my phone. Sometimes l press the wrong letter. When you write or read other folks writing, you live in your own mind, not in the present. I don't like that. I love getting comments on abctales. l admire the men and women who know all the technical terms, and l sometimes feel a bit stupid as l love reading their work, but can't put it into words. That's not what you asked, but it is all wrapped up in how l feel about my own writing! I don't show many folk my stuff, occasionally l will. I am just amazed at how easy l find it, although it's not everyone who would like what l write, l guess. Hope this makes sense. I am female, in the customer service and sales industry and 57 years old. Good luck to you. Sounds fascinating. Denise xx

Hi Pauper, I am an unemployed fifty year old male, and I've spent most of my adult life working in heavy industry. I started off hoping to be an artist and I did a degree in Fine Art, but I couldn't even nearly make a living out of it. I've been writing since I was a teenager, but it's only for the last few years that I've began to take my efforts seriously. 1) My writing process consists of coming up with random ideas (some of them very vague), sitting down and getting on with the process of making something of them. I invariably write on the computer, though if I'm working on something that's particularly enthralling I carry a notebook with me. I never work to a plan or a formula, apart from vague, changeable plans in my head - sorry but I can't do it, it bores the tits off me and when I've tried it in the past the end results have been very disappointing. I let the story run riot, sometimes changing details but generally just riding the most promising looking waves and seeing where they take me. A couple of years back I read Steven King's On Writing, and it's the only book about writing technique that I've found even remotely helpful. King talks about the story being the boss, he likens it to a found object or a fossil waiting for the writer to chip it out of the bedrock. When I read that I thought 'yup, Stevie baby, that's exactly how I work.' I do edit quite drastically, though, several times on some pieces. 2) The last time I wrote was a few days back when I composed a story called The Terracotta Taipan for my Hippo Tails series. The phrase 'terracotta taipan' came to me out of the blue along with a flimsy, half-formed alphabetical list of weird creatures, and I couldn't settle until I sat down and wrote the piece. I had no idea what would happen as I started typing, I just went with the flow. I completed that story and most of the editing in a single sitting (about five hours, maybe) and I did a little extra polishing the following morning. 3) My main problem is interruptions. From the kids, usually, sometimes from my missus when she reminds me what she thinks I should be doing rather than writing. The biggest disruption of all is from the internet, the writer's best friend and worst enemy rolled into one..... Depression also puts the dampers on my efforts sometimes, but once I start I'm fine and I've completed some of my best pieces when I've been rather down in the dumps. 4) My only feedback is from Abc, and generally I find it very helpful. Sometimes, though, you get conflicting advice, which only causes confusion. You have to make your own mind up in such cases, and doing so is very empowering. 5) I feel I would be happier if I could make a little money from writing and achieve a sense of financial security.