Setting the Mood for Writing

So now that it’s June and the year is almost half over, it’s time to get serious.

I know what you’re thinking: I am serious. (And don’t call me Shirley.)

As far as writing fiction is concerned, however, this year has been pretty….bleh. Don’t get me wrong; It’s been a very productive year. I’ve made a ton of progress on my upcoming card game, I’m staying on schedule with Theme of Absence, we’ve still got the podcast, I’m staying active on social media, and also helping my wife with the social media on her YouTube channel.

Again, I’m doing stuff. I’m just not writing as much as I’d like to. So I decided to remedy that this weekend and recommit myself to my writing, which is the whole point of all the other stuff anyhow.

I have to admit that it was a little difficult to shift back into the creative writing mode.

As crazy as it sounds, getting in the “right mood” is a huge thing for me. Now I know the whole “if you wait for inspiration, it will never come” thing and I get it. I even agree with it. But when I’ve spend the last half year working on my card game or social media stuff, it is a different frame of mind.

I could open up my graphics program and edit card all day long, while listening to a podcast or watching a moving in the background. It was something that I could just do as I had time. Still a creative thing, using the creative part of the brain, but that part of my persona just doesn’t seem as…needy? Yeah, that’s the best word to describe it. My writing persona is way more needy than the other parts of me.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. The important thing is to be aware of it. Writing is not easy. For me, it’s not something I can just slip in every here and there. I know some authors can say “Hey, I have ten minutes. I’ll type out a hundred words.”

I just don’t work that way. Yes, I get that inspiration doesn’t just come to you. But you have to do what you can to call it out. For me, I need to properly set that “writing mood.” It doesn’t take a lot, but here’s what it takes to get my muse to come out and play.

1. A good chunk of time

Like I said, some writers can slip into writing mode in a matter of seconds. I’m not one of them. Whenever I sit down to write fiction, I need a lot of prep work. At the bare minimum, I need to review the story and figure out where I was when I left off, what was happening, and where it was going. I might review the outline, or even do some unrelated warm-up exercises. Writing rarely comes natural for me, and because of that, I can’t always start right away. So I do find it difficult to set my writing mood if I have less than an hour to dedicate to it.

2. No distractions

I think most people will tell you this is the worst. I think the most common distraction for writers is the very device we use to create our masterpieces. The computer we type on is the gateway drug to every single distraction you can name. So what to do about it? Well, what helps me is to get some of that stuff out of the way. Before I start writing, I’ll often check Facebook, Twitter, Email, and the various stats I have for my websites. Doing so will usually feed my “fix” and keep me from obsessively checking things.

3. The right music

Picking the right music is a must. What I listen to will vary based on what I’m writing, but the most common is ambient instrumental, either post rock or new age. Nothing gets me in that writer’s trance quicker.

So this is what works for me. Every writer is different. Some may not need to do this at all, and others may have an hour-long ritual to perform before writing. There’s no wrong answer, but if you’d like to share your writing routine, feel free to leave it in the comments section.

Thanks for reading, and see you soon.