The art of...thinking?

[Dio]

I recently met up with a big time local writer here who was publicizing his new book around my campus and I had the opportunity to have a long talk with him. We got to talking and somehow the conversation steered to places where you 'think', where you make up or create witty dialogue and plot ideas...whatever!

 

My first instinct was to say...well...I think in front of the computer, but I guess that's half a lie. Before I sit down to write by paper or computer, I already have an idea in my head. Anyways, this guy told me he wakes up early everyday, usually with an idea which he scribbles down immediately. He then goes for a run, comes home, has a shower, and does all his thinking for what he's planning to write for that day in the shower. His showers must be pretty long...haha...I wonder what his wife thinks about all that...

 

I guess it's a little different for a professional writer, who can I guess force themselves to get motivated to write and make up believable scenes and characters. I can't really do that though. I always get ideas for characters from people I meet, or interesting things that happen to me or that I see on the news, or read about online. Sitting and making myself think usually ends up pretty stale. In response, the guy told me to walk around carrying a pad of a paper for one day, and scribble down absolutely anything whatsoever that caught my eye that day. So I did. I got six pages of absolute garbage, only maybe one really good idea. I e-mailed him and he got pretty excited, and told me, those six pages of crap were worth one good idea. He does that every day.

 

Anyone else got anything to add? Personal experience...whatever...

[Sparhawk]

I am a lousy one to ask about that, I get a idea and I write. I like the note idea and I will have to give that a try. I get ideas all the time, but when I sit down to write they just seem to dissappear.

[reapersharvest]

I get ideas or inspiration from anything, I never know when the next one will hit me. The subsequent thinking process takes place when either I am in motion or the rest of the world is. I go on walks during which I think, that or I just sit down and watch cars or people go by.

[DomLuka]

Music. One line of a song has been known to inspire entire stories for me. Unfortunately, by the time the story is finished I

[JamesSavik]

The muses reveal themselves in different ways to different people.

 

Music, literature, history, the news- all can be fertile ground for ideas for some while it may leave others cold. The trick is finding your own zone.

 

This summer I went into a slump because I was trying too hard (see my blog: the paralysis of over-analysis).

 

I always experiment to see how new things work.

 

For example I'm experimenting with using index cards to lay out "chunks" of the story I'm currently working on, brain storming on them and then building an outline. I like the new post-it index cards so that I can arrange the cards and maybe move them around.

 

If it works, cool. I'll use it. If not, I'll just try something else.

 

To me, persistence is as useful as inspiration.

 

Ideas are easy. The real trick is moving that idea from your brain on to paper with some degree of elegance.

[Myr]

Yeah... it's different for everyone. One thing for me is certain, the more I "think" at it, the crappier it gets. I need to focus on it before sleep and then jot down the ideas, refine them while showering (or some other mindless activity) and then write later.

 

Now, I often get 5 or 6 pages of stuff that I think is crap. this stuff often becomes the base for some plot in any one of the stories I'm working on or something new.

 

I really need to spend more time writing. Lots of ideas have been escaping lately...