How can I get into the mindset to write?
Depending on the weather, the days events, and other factors, I find myself with a different emotion everyday when I write which I'm afraid is making my novel a little bit choppy. For example, one chapter might be portrayed in a light mood, while the very next, for no literary reason, is written much darker because I received a bad phone call while I was writing. What I've tried to do is to abstain from writing until I'm in the appropriate mood with which I had started off the piece, but this is stopping me from writing on it a regular basis and slowing down the whole process significantly. I'm afraid that keeping the same personality is becoming more difficult as I stretch the length of time which which I'm writing it as I'm becoming a different person. So how do experienced writers help get into a specific "writing mood" for the piece they are working on?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/31421. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Writing is a stupid waste of time. It will make you lonely, but it won't make you rich. I can think of only two legitimate reasons to write:
A profound and unshakable regret for not having written.
A publishing contract with a deadline attached.
It follows that the only reasons to write are to shake off the melancholy of not having written or to meet your contractual obligations. Neither of these are a mindset that you should need to get yourself into. The issues is not getting yourself into the mindset. The issue is that writing is hard work, mentally and emotionally exhausting. Actually getting to it requires the same discipline as starting on any other exhausting task. Get on with it because if you don't you are going to be poor and/or miserable.
And if that is not the case, don't bother, because writing is a stupid waste of time.
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"Waiting for the mood to strike you" is bad practice. Your writing muscle, like any other, needs to be exercised every day, if you can, or at least as often as you have time. (Some of us have jobs and whatnot, writing every day might not be possible.)
If you have the time to write, there are several tricks that can help you find the right mood.
First, sometimes the troubles of the day can be weighing on you. You need to clear your mind, find that space for creativity. @Lauraducky suggests music and meditation. I have found both useful. Keep it brief. Find what helps you focus, and do that. With time, focusing will become easier. It's a form of mental exercise - everything that isn't your writing - you're not thinking of it right now.
Then, read the last few paragraphs you've written. There's a flow to a story. Reading the last passage should help you get back into the flow.
If there's a particular mood you're trying to evoke, a chord you can't quite seem to strike, it can be very helpful to find a piece of literature, film, or music that evokes that emotion. Read/watch/listen to it once or twice to immerse yourself in what you're looking for. Don't let yourself read/watch on to other bits, get carried away - that's procrastinating. Keep the break brief.
Finally, if nothing works, write anyway. Write something, even if it isn't coming out the way you'd like it to. When you come back to editing it, it will be easier to change things, draw the text closer to what you want it to be. It's easier to find what needs to be improved, and how to improve it, then working from a blank page.
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I read somewhere, don't ask where because I forgot, that if you wait for the right mood to write, you won't get anything done.
So, I think if you just try to sit in front of your computer/paper, relax for a few minutes and delve into your character's mind, it would be better than to just not write until your mood gets better. It's hard, I know because I struggle with it too, but maybe in time it gets easier. Try to write at least a 100 words. It'd be better than nothing. Also, music might help. Putting a song in the background, very low if you don't like to hear music while you write, that goes with the tone of the scene, could help you keep the scene consistent.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31428. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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One solution that usually works is to write when you wake up, when nothing has happened in the day. I write for two hours every morning. My alarm is set for 4:30 AM, I am at the keyboard by 5:00 AM, and I write until 7:00 AM. Nobody calls, the only interruptions are the dog asking to go outside and refilling my coffee cup.
This might fail if a multi-day disaster befell me, like a death in the family, or a car accident. But typically, at least for me, irritations and foul moods dissipate over a night of sleep and don't bother me in the morning.
If you don't have time every morning, you can solve it by doing the same on one of your days off, perhaps like a Sunday after a Saturday so your mood is more predictably stable.
If you aren't a morning person, try writing after an afternoon nap.
Finally, you can do the same thing after you finish the novel and go through an edit for a second draft. Find a way to write with a stable attitude, and even out the tone then to make it consistent.
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