When do you ABC?
Tue, 2012-05-08 11:03
#1
When do you ABC?
I come on ABCTales at work quite a lot, mostly lunchtimes, but on days like today, trying to get my head back to reality after a nice bank holiday, all I want to do is read and write and procrastinate from my work.
Sometimes I write at work, just something short while there's no one else at the office, and I find I'm more happy with my work ideas than anything my evening time writing ever produces. I figure this is because my foul work mood brings out the desire to be doing something else with my life.
Does anyone else find this? When do you do your best work/feel most inspired?
alice sunderland
only ever come on here when at work. But that gives little or no time to read peoples stuff. i try to read a few but commenting on them is pushing it a bit.
Sooz006
I come on here, like now, when I've promised myself that I'm going to complete an entire chapter of Pedigree Crush. I use it as an excuse to not write when I'm feeling lazy.
ItsSteveDave
I definitely need to be alone to write, but if I wake up and there's no one home, or I've been in the house alone for a long time, I find it extremely difficult to get started. It's almost as if I need to be out in the throng of it all to get inspired, then quickly run inside and write down all my ideas in silence before they seep away from me!
Having said that, I always formulate my ideas into little poems rather than stories - I have told myself that I will learn the art of the short story soon. I just need to send my ideas out on a wider arc - they always burn out too soon!
alibob
StanTheMan, I'm the absolute opposite of you. I'm a prehistoric soul who has to write everything with a pen in a nice spiral bound notebook before trusting it to technology. And I can't explain why, because I'm actually a very fast typist (a skill learned in one of my previous incarnations as a PA/Editorial Assistant) When technolgy fails, I will still have my notebooks!!!! But when I'm in front of my PC, which is most of the time at the moment, ABC is usually on in the background, and I look at it a couple of times every day.
steve_elliott04
I usually write best shut away in my room, headphones on, most likely listening to Ludovico Einaudi or some other relaxing, lyric-less music. I'm like Stan, the words seem to flow better on a word processor. Having said that, I can only write poetry in a notebook - a little strange.
On the subject of 'when', inspiration always seems to come at times when i really need to work. I try and write a little every evening, but it doesn't always work out that way. I've spent whole days writing when I have an essay to work on, and whole days unable to write when I have nothing to do.
Denzella
I used to only be able to write the first draft by hand but now my writing is so bad I can't read it back because it's more or less a straight line so I have had to learn to type my ideas straight on to the computer. Now I prefer to do it that way.
As for when I write, any time that I have time. But mostly during the night though I can't always read other peoples work at that time because my eyes are too sleepy.
How fast I write depends on what I am writing. If it is meant to be humorous then I write quite quickly but anything serious like my last piece takes me longer because I seem to choose my words much more carefully yet still I go wrong. But hey ho I think one never really stops learning because it seems to me the more I learn the less I seem to know.
ItsSteveDave
Stan, you're a star, I will get and order that book when I'm not using work internet! (I don't trust them to keep the fraudsters out).
Its funny how our brains work isn't it? I'm sure all of us, to some extent, have trouble writing when there is 'no need', i.e. on a day where there is nothing to do but write. I'm sure most of us, also, have no problems producing when the chips are down.
I suppose its a case of the individual's resolve and belief in delayed gratification. Not my strong points.
I used to write my university essays on the last day of a deadline. It damn near killed me with nerves, but it was the only way I could seem to do it. I would of course plan what I was writing before this (most of the time!), but the 2-4000 words would be done the day (and night) before. Managed an 8,000 worder in two days, once.
Funny how I take more pride from this than I do from understanding the subject and writing a good essay :s
The Other Terre...
I too write by hand first, I still have the original notebooks, pieces of newspaper, post it notes, sheets of toilet paper and photos of writing on the back of my hand. Even this posting was originally drafted on a handy banana skin.
MistakenMagic
Hi Steve,
Well, for me, inspiration always strikes at the most inconvenient times, so the top 3 are:
1.) Whilst I'm in the shower
2.) 3am
3.) When I'm trying to revise
I used to have specific notebooks, but now I collect together images and lines on a word document on my laptop - I'll create a poetic scrap heap over a few weeks, then finally force myself to draft and re-draft it into a poem.
Magic x
blighters rock
Abc's the only website I go to apart from if I'm looking for something I need.
It's a daily thing for me and offers solutions to problems as well as a voice.
Richard L. Prov...
Hello SteveDave--When I began writing in earlier days, I had to have the right pen, pencil properly sharpened, no one around, music and TV off, no noise from window so shut it, a small table I stood at, since I copied Ernest Hemmingway's (my writing hero) style since that is how he used to write, always standing while typing. I did that for years. Not now, since my legs can't take it.
Eventually I learned to write anywhere, anytime, no matter who is around, or where I am at, since my thoughts are able to focus fully on my work at the moment. This is something that took me a while to accomplish. The idea came from Louis L'amour who said, "A writer must be prepared to write anywhere, even if sitting in the middle of the street at the corner of Hollywood and Vine, with a typewriter in your lap." I can just see him pounding away on a Remington. Hope the above is helpful, Richard LP
ItsSteveDave
Hi Richard, I agree if you want to take writing seriously then you need to be prepared to access your creative mind with any number of distractions around you - I guess it comes with practice like anything else. Also, if you have an idea and it has some momentum, you don't have to force it, so it's easier to write in more testing conditions.
Magic, your method sounds interesting - a great idea for poetry. I usually just have a little lightbulb which comes on in my head and I write a whole poem in about 20 mins (then a short time editing), but this usually produces short poems, which, given a bit more time and thought, could be more layered.
I have another couple of questions for y'all;
Do you treat ABC as a sort of 'online notebook', or do you only keep your best work on display here?
Do you 'spring clean' your account, removing work if you come back to it and decide you're not that keen on it any more? Or is it a testiment to the development of you as a writer?