I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes this can be difficult.
There have been times in my life when I could work out a whole character biography in a relatively short time yet get stuck when I had to use the character in a roleplay thread. There have also been times when the fear of someone reading my stories terrified me so much that the creativity would just disappear momentarily, and I couldn’t write or finish a story I had been writing for weeks. I can still remember one story like this about a girl called Amanda. I let one of my aunt’s read it after this and she didn’t have bad things to say but not even this could get me to finish what I had started.
Being creative is both a wonderful and scary place to be.
Think of it like this. Is it the location, the music, time of day, your frame of mind, something you read or watched, coffee or something else that start you off? This is something you have to answer for yourself but from personal experience, it can be any of these at any time, and sometimes more than once. As we grow, we change, and a lot of the process can change.
Tip 1: Time of Day
As a teenager and throughout most of my early twenties, I preferred to write in the evenings and late at night and simply couldn’t get myself to write anything in the morning or early time of day. In the last few years though, this has changed to mornings. Most of the drafts of Just One have been written, edited and planned in the mornings. Most of my college work was written in the early mornings as well and sometimes finding that small window of time after class and before my previous job was a large struggle and resulted in very little getting written.
What is your favourite time of day to write?
Tip 2: Music
I’m not going spend too much time talking about music here as our next topic will revolve around this subject in more detail, but music is an important part of my writing process. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Here’s the kicker: most of my stories have their own playlists. I have never been the type of person who could put on her favourite songs and proceed to write. Just One, for example, has it’s own playlist. The sequel Just One: Edge of Never has its own, and same with the third book. Katrine, on the other hand, has two playlists. The first one corelated more to her early years while the second playlist was created for a more mature character. This second playlist is the one I used when writing the short story The Wolf’s Heir: Katrine’s Awakening.
Do you have a playlist of songs you like to use or multiple playlists?
Tip 3: Location
The location is often the easiest of all. While I write all my stories on my laptop, I’m always fixed to my desk where I have a good setup, including a cooling fan stand beneath the laptop. I spent half of my life using computers, even in my early college years (I actually had a laptop then, but my old computer remained my sanctuary as it took me a long time to get used to the keyboard).
What’s your favourite location to write at?
Tip 4: Frame of Mind / Tip 5: Coffee
My frame of mine obviously was relevant detail but, in truth, sometimes you can change you frame of mind. You begin to write, the first few lines might not great, and you know. But put some music on and keep going. You end up engrossed in the story without realising when the transition occurred and somehow you have drunk two coffees, written several pages and forgot what was bothering you in the first place as the morning time of day passes and your creative juices end. While on the subject, I like coffee. In the last couple of years, I changed from your normal instant black coffee to making vanilla lattes with plant-based milk. They’re Venti cups too so one of them can last me a while I’m in this process.
Does frame of mind matter to you?
What sort of beverage do you keep beside you when you write?
Tip 6: Inspiration
Inspiration is rather low on list but is, realistically, very important. Throughout my lifer I have come up with stories for various reasons. Even before I wrote them down, I would come up with these scenarios in my mind. Say, I was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, in my head, had this idea how an episode could have ended differently. I have come up with characters for Star Wars and Terminator after having watched them so many times. Eventually I would write these stories down. Often, they would remain incomplete but much of this original character development and storytelling covered in the security blanket of an existing universe helped me develop as a writer. In turn, this was a good starting point for my later time in different roleplay universes where I focused on development of original characters within different organisations, with elaborate backstories and even more importantly, wrote with others to get out of that paralysing fear of someone else reading my work.
What inspires you the most to write?
Where do you find that inspiration? Books, TV, movies, music, nature…. ?
Tip 7: Write for yourself
A crucial piece of advice I have discovered over the years is that you should write for you first and foremost. Rather than being stuck with the fear that someone will read my work, I now write the stories I want to read. The first draft especially is exactly that. It’s a story I’m telling myself. I will rewrite that original draft a dozen times and that’s okay, but focusing on this idea drives me forward more than any other thought I have had about my writing.
Why do you write and how do you help yourself get into the writing mood?
Tip 8: Brave New World
You have all heard the stories about traditional publishing, about this impossible process that leads to rejection after rejection. J.K. Rowling got rejected by 12 publishers before one chose to take a risk on Harry Potter. Realistically, those 12 publishers spent the rest of their careers kicking themselves for rejecting the global phenomena and that one that said yes is still repealing the benefits of the stories. Don’t think about those rejections though. This is easier said than done, I recognise as I thought of it myself often when I was younger.
When the concept of self-publishing became a thing, I studied it rigorously. It’s not an easy job but as a child of a man who did all the hard work we now have to do in self-publishing before the age of social media and at a time when regular mail was your best friend, I remember that the hard work does pay off. The hard work doesn’t stop but keeps going. You talk to people, you push your book, you mail your books and send out letters to get others to accept them. The work doesn’t end but, I guess, it does get easier along the way.
Are you thinking of going for traditional or self-publishing?
If you have already published, which route did you go and what did you think of it?
If there are any authors out there who have done both, I’d love to hear about your experiences and what you prefer? If you could go again, would you chose the same?
I’ll direct you to tip seven again and say don’t think about this right now. Write for yourself, tell yourself a story you have longed to read but couldn’t find. Write for yourself, imagine worlds beyond this reality be it extra-terrestrial, magical, past or future. Write yourself, build a universe that suits you not someone else. The editing process will take you so long and in itself can be brutal, especially when you’re working on your own story. I have, in the past, edited legal documents for my mother in terms of grammar and sentence structure, and found it easier to edit what she wrote than what I did. It takes a lot of strength to edit your own work.
Tip 9: Make Your Own Rules
In the end, I want to say that these tips work for me more than anyone else. These are the tips I use to get creative and write my stories, tips that help me in my rewrites and edits. Some, all or none of them may work for you but the point of all this is to say that you can figure out your own as you get on with the project. You will figure it out in time and be surprised you could go on for so long without knowing what they were.
Tell me about some of your tips.
The Summary
Let us take a quick look beneath this tl:dr text.
- Tip 1: Time of Day
- Tip 2: Music
- Tip 3: Location
- Tip 4: Frame of Mind
- Tip 5: Coffee
- Tip 6: Inspiration
- Tip 7: Write For Yourself
- Tip 8: Brave New World
- Tip 9: Make Your Own Rules
In the list above, you have my tips on how to get creative and jump into the rabbit hole of writing. The point of this is that it’s your show, your rules, your methods of creation. Maybe you prefer tea, like to write throughout the night, prefer to be nestled in your favourite armchair. The same ideas apply, simply different. Don’t be discouraged by the occasional lack of inspiration or not feeling like you can write. These days will come, but it’s important to let them go and not obsess over them. Let them pass you by so your mojo (I’m not entirely sure why I chose this word) can return and put your frame of mind where it is meant to be. The just write and create.
Never give up, never surrender! As Galaxy Quest teaches us.
What are your tips for getting creative? Do you have a favourite place or time to write? Do you drink coffee or something else when you write? What sort of music plays while you write or do you favour silence in your process? I would love to get the dialogue on this going. I’m sure some of your tips would be greatly appreciated for others, especially young writers such as myself.
Let’s have a chat about this topic! 🙂
The Wrap Up
As always, I hope you enjoyed the read and tune in again next week for the next rendition of Inspiration Monday. For now, this will be the only written blog section covering all previously existing topics. I would greatly appreciate likes and follows, especially on this blog post.
And don’t forget to keep up with my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter!
Until next time…
~ Love, L.V.
L.V. Luca 