L.I.T.E.R.A.L. 2: What gets you in the mood to write?

L.I.T.E.R.A.L. is a weekly blog meme for authors hosted at Indie Books. We created it to serve as a support group for participants of the Author at Once workshops, but we welcome all writers (from anywhere in the world) who’d like to weigh in on the topics!

Here’s our L.I.T.E.R.A.L. topic for the week of 20-27 August 2012:

Now let’s share how we get things done. What gets you in the mood to write? Is it a deadline, a prize, a pushy editor? Can you recall your most productive writing session ever? What triggered it?

I used to want peace, maybe a cup of tea, and soft music to get into a writing mood. Recently though I’ve been training myself to write on a schedule, and whenever I can. I guess I’ve become my own pushy editor that way.

This is difficult to do, so I try to maximize my time. When I’m in a cab, I go over plot points in my head, or brainstorm for character names. I quickly type any workable ideas on my smartphone (Evernote is a great app for this), and refer to my notes when I do have time to sit down and write.

My most productive writing session ever though was probably the entire month that I wrote — and finished — My Imaginary Ex. Prior to that I had been revising another story, going back and forth with my editor, for months and months and months. That story didn’t have IT, whatever it was. After each revision, I was filled with more and more MEH, so much MEH that I didn’t want to touch that story anymore. So I put it away and feverishly started writing a new one, something I felt excited about, something that incorporated all the helpful comments from my editor, but without the baggage of revising.

I haven’t been able to finish a novel that quickly again. Maybe I just need to push myself some more?

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Tags: L.I.T.E.R.A.L., my imaginary ex, writing

Mina V. Esguerra