Weird Things You Do Before You Write

I usually have to have a lot of distractions when I write. TV has to be on aswell as the internet. Sometimes there has to be music playing. The distractions help me write they way I want to. When everything's too quiet, my mind goes blank.
I also listen to the songs that gave me a lot of inspiration in the past. The She, Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime, Quelqu'un M'a Dit, and Michelle

I can't map out the entire plot to my story. I just can't write down every single event that I want to happen in the story down on paper. If I do that, then I feel like I'm forcing myself to stick to that specific plan, which makes me feel pressured and them my story turns out to be really bad and boring and just torturous to write.

So instead, I write down brief summaries of what my story is about or what I want it to be about. And if I don't like one summary that I come up with, I scratch it out and keep writing short summaries until I have one that I feel sums up my story idea perfectly.

Then I go from there. Usually, after I have the summary down and I have a rough idea of what I want the plot of my story to be, then I start to shape the characters - how I want their personalities to be, how I want them to act, how I want them to speak, and how I want them to react to certain situations.

Danny Hampstead:

I can't map out the entire plot to my story. If I do that, then I feel like I'm forcing myself to stick to that specific plan, which makes me feel pressured and them my story turns out to be really bad and boring and just torturous to write.

This.

It's why a lot of my older stories were really crappy and why Nothing Simple completely died after the second chapter. I had it based strictly off of a dream and now that I'm re-writing it i'm going to make it about something completely different. There characters will be the same though with slightly tweaked personalities from the originals.

For some reason, I tend to crack my knuckles and say "Arright, let's do this," and proceeding to list when I want to have what finished. That's usually only if I'm having a hard time with what I'm writing, though.

I like taking a shower before I write.

I have to clean. My head cant think straight if theres a mess in the way

I love to get stoned before I write.

I like singing before I start writing. And while I'm writing, actually. It just calms me down a bit, gets the blood pumping, makes me feel more like a creative spirit.

I have to be in my bed room and listening to Journey.
Don't ask me why, but I just have too
Or else the words don't flow

I have to be in the mood to write. Like.... my brain just has to focused on writing and writing alone, or else I can't focus enough to actually sit down and write for more than a few minutes at a time.

And if I get stuck on certain story, I have to let the next chapter/scene/event just come to me. I can't force myself to write the next chapter because it turns out to be total shit and ends up not flowing with the rest of my story.

With writer's block, I kind of just have to let it run its course. I can't write through it or else it makes it worse.

Lately I've been recording myself either dictating the story or having conversations as the characters, and playing it back when I write it down. It's relatively embarrassing, but it's really helped.

I usually get quite stoned before I write.
Then I'll go over ideas I've scribbled down and expand, so on and so forth.
I also love a cup of Earl Grey when I'm writing, too (:

cannibal glow.:

Lately I've been recording myself either dictating the story or having conversations as the characters, and playing it back when I write it down. It's relatively embarrassing, but it's really helped.

This sounds like a really, really good idea. And really helpful. But I have nothing that records...

Writing habits:
In winter: I write in my PJs, with a cup of hot coffee and biscuits, usually curled up under several layers of blankets on my fabulously comfortable bed.

In summer: I write in the corner of the basement of the library, where the janitor doesn't even bother to clean up because it only averages around 5 visitors/month.

Before I write I MUST watch a clip of Kang Dong Won. The man's eyebrows are so inspirational. If I don't get distracted clicking away at his videos on YT, then I start writing. Heh.

I don't usually write with music on because I start dancing to it and it gets rather unproductive.

Being stoned or tired helps a lot

Clean. I can't write if there's clutter everywhere.

I have to have music playing, and I have to have a full stomach, other wise I'll end up getting up to get food and I'll concentrate more on food then updating.

I also tend to write better (or quicker, or more often) when I'm chewing gum.

Sometimes I'll just do a certain action, which is usually quite normal, but it's like out of nowhere, I briefly become one of my characters. And I know why they did that, what they were thinking as they did it, etc.
Like, I'll flop onto my bed, and my immediate thoughts are "_____ just did that because they're ______ and now they're gonna _______."

I always have to listen to music whenever I'm writing. It just helps me formulate ideas. Other than that, just having an idea to work with is all I really need.

I like to be high when I write.

Like smoke the pot and sit outside and while I'm high write.

So many good ideas