Where do you perform your best "writing thinking"?

Valtharius

Valtharius

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I don't know if someone has asked a question like this before but here it is: Where do you like to think about what you're writing? I'm not asking where you do the writing itself. I'm wondering where is the place that you like to zone out and let your mind build something before putting it on paper? For me it's when I'm outside walking my dogs. Some of my best narrative ideas have come to me while out with them amidst the loveliness of the world. I've found the best environment for imagining battle scenes is walking my dogs at night underneath the warm glow of the street lamps.
What locations work for you?
 
Laying in bed at night before sleep with nature sounds playing beside me and the electric fireplace warming me. I build the scenes there and return to them each night. Unless it's lyrical or another highly structured form which I do in the morning, sitting up in bed, in silence.
 
Usually get my best ideas anywhere I’m unable to record them—like driving or sleeping, and when I finally do get a chance to write them down most of the time I’ve lost them.

At least that’s my excuse for the crap I’ve written to date...
 
JS Wiig said:
Usually get my best ideas anywhere I’m unable to record them—like driving or sleeping, and when I finally do get a chance to write them down most of the time I’ve lost them.

At least that’s my excuse for the crap I’ve written to date...
Click to expand...
I have a list on my phone where I write down interesting stuff whenever the idea comes to me, anything that might be useful for writing later.
What have you written so far?
 
The thinking occurs as I am writing, usually late at night in the quiet . It is an immersive process. I don't think about the novels outside writing.
I do, however, come up with a zillion short story ideas after waking in the morning and try to write them down so I can launch them on to paper at the writing desk and let them bloom on the page.
 
Astro Pen said:
The thinking occurs as I am writing, usually late at night in the quiet . It is an immersive process. I don't think about the novels outside writing.
I do, however, come up with a zillion short story ideas after waking in the morning and try to write them down so I can launch them on to paper at the writing desk and let them bloom on the page.
Click to expand...
Do you ever literally "dream up" ideas?
 
Hypnic/hypnagogic state is best for me, esp problem-solving. I recommend day-napping to access it.

Also my mind wanders beneficially when listening to podcasts so I use them to distract my conscious mind.

Finally, I find listening to Kate Bush usually throws up ideas (for weird fiction or horror).
 
Valtharius said:
I have a list on my phone where I write down interesting stuff whenever the idea comes to me, anything that might be useful for writing later.
What have you written so far?
Click to expand...
The only stuff I’ve yet released into the wild is what you’ll find posted in the challenges here.
 
I tend to think better when I'm being active. Walking to the shops and doing mundane tasks around the house. Only problem is I'm in my own little world and will soon discover I've placed my mobile phone in the fridge and the cheese in my pocket (true story!)
 
I think best on paper. I have long conversations with myself about plot and character, and I find I don't get very far just daydreaming. My mind wanders too much and the odds of remembering anything much are low. Every once in a while I've had a flash of something that actually turned into something. Far more often I've had a flash of something that turned into nothing.

But once I have pen in hand, I get creative (paper for writing, keyboards for editing). I make notes, write dialog, doodle, draw lines, cross stuff out, write meta-comments ... it's all there and will still be there tomorrow. Both creative and reliable!
 
My writing sessions start with a long period of procrastination and I flick around the internet, read emails and do everything I can to avoid writing until I become bored and start to type. I think about my writing a lot when I'm away from the keyboard, but as my writing sessions often flow beautifully I suspect my best writing thinking occurs during that procrastination period when I am not aware of it.

But when I hit a sticky plot point or something crucial in the novel is out of reach, nine times out of ten the solution occurs to me during a long hot shower.
 
My brain is going at it all the time.
My problem is that I'm not that often prepared with some way of recording and keeping track and sometimes I can't make sense of what I did put down on paper.

For instance this piece sitting next to me.

The Earth rose,
The Sun Expelled its wrath,
The axe fell.

What was I thinking?
 
Oh I daydream constantly, but my best thinking spots?
My grandma's garden in South Africa (sunny all year round)
When it rains
Right before I go to bed
During exams when I doodle on the spare paper we get for answers and stuff (best ideas come from this, honest)

I get random ideas everywhere though. There was this one time I went to a restaurant with my family and my sister and I ordered some Sprites. I watched the bubbles just fizz to the top, and somewhere in my head I thought, "Hmmm, what if this was a transport system?"
So I made it a transport system to move between the ground realms and sky realms of this world I created.
 
Taking a walk, doing simple housework, or reading something I'm not particularly interested (it's like my brain substitutes what it doesn't like with something else). Walking in particular seems to get the creative juices flowing.
 
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