What’s your poison? What gets you writing?

Well, I sleep on a 'Nam-era Army stretcher, drink a pot of coffee a day and sit on a plastic lawn chair while I type, but I dunno if that counts as a ritual. I do have Word set to a blue background with white text, because I guess in some unconcious way that reminds me of the 8088 I learned to type on, and the 286 I did my 'zine crap on in highschool. Kind of reminds me of the pre-Windows DosShell* stuff.

Almost all of my characters' names are picked from the last names of authors on my bookshelf or pieced together from names in old magazines. I kind of mentally veto anything that's too obvious or too stupid or too whatever (so I'm not naming any characters Britney Palahniuk).

Oh, and I use a golden dagger to sacrifice a bullfrog to a Cannanite owl-god whose name cannot be pronounced by the human tongue, but I hear that's pretty common.

[size=1]*Of course, back then BiCaps weren't invented[/size]

Getting a big adrenaline rush works for me. I know these two guys who are still insanely immature. It seems to me that they wake up every morning and say to themselves, "Ahh, how can I piss Joe off today?" then they think of something, then they do it. It's never anything new, always the same old shit they've been doing since gradeschool, but they sure piss me off pretty good. So I guess writing pissed off works for me.

Coffee....chain smoking. God I love to smoke when I write.

I'm the only writer I've met that isn't hindered by an abundance of time. The more time I have, the more I'm sure to write. My mind is weak and disorganized. If my schedule is already half full, then I have a hard time setting out to the pen and paper.
Reading and smoking are probably my only muses.....reading inspires me. I envy the stories caught on paper. I envy those stories, and recognize my own....reading makes my want to dust off my own butterfly nets. Smoking is what I do inbetween and during.

Me too.

[QUOTE=codyC003]I can't just sit down and try to write. I just brainstorm about a part or chapter of a story for days and then finally it all makes sense and I run to the computer to type it all before I forget. Then I just start thinking again. It's time consuming but it works. The only downside is, sometimes I think of really good stuff when I'm no where near a computer then I forget and I never remember again...maybe I should carry around paper and a pen.[/QUOTE]
OF COURSE you should carry around a paper and pen! There is some sort of writing utincil in my posession at all times. I have notebooks and paper in three foot increments all over my apartment, car, and office. I would surgically implant a pen into my index finger if I could. (That was the plan until I realized that changing the ink would suck.) I have entire stories spread between ticket stubs, post-its, the back of my Metra tickets, those shitty fliers that people hand you in Wicker Park, Wendy's take-out bags, and my right leg. If I didn't have something to write with the second an idea entered my head, I would end up with some serious head trauma when I finally DID reach a computer, realized I'd forgotten it, and proceeded to bash my head into the wall to try to shake it out again. I finally figured out that a seventy cent BIC would save me thousands in medical bills. Hell, the bandages alone . . .
To reply to the original purpose of this post, most of my real writing happens while I'm writing. I'll get a stupid little 'what if' (What if your best friend decided that the would would be a better place without oatmeal?) or picture in my head (What would it look like if a Hell's Angel tried to fuck a concrete building?) or sometimes just a character (My boss keeps using the words 'ironical', 'addicting', and 're-do-over')and sit down and start playing with it. Sometimes it gets very boring very fast, (like the oatmeal thing) and sometimes it gets interesting (the whole Hell's Angel thing has turned into a novel). Most of the decisions about plot and so on happen on the fly. The only thing I really think about when I'm not actually putting words down on the page are the characters. I brainstorm some characters, maybe conceptualize some scenes I might want to add later, but I do my best to let the characters speak for themselves as much as possible.
Does any of it end up making sense? Eh, that's what revision is for.

Actually, I only did this once, but it started to drizzle outside and I sat on the porch on a table, brought out some paper and a mechanical pencil, and wrote and let the drops fall where they wanted. It was a good story too, until the paper couldn't absorb any more water and kind of just fell apart.

I always wrote in one of those marble cover mead pads. My thing was, one time I started writing in a new one while it was upside down, so it was actually the back of the book. it was an accident, but it just stuck. and since it was a decent story, I had to keep it going from the back, you can't just flip it over mid-story.

the only other ingredient was my pen, a fairly cheap pen that I got at walgreens, but it was heavy and the ink flowed well and dried quickly. I bought refills for it for years, but it was finally discontinued. I almost cried.

now I just type. frickin computers. it's just not the same.

[QUOTE=Spike]Oh, you see I'm a writer, and those are ideas for stories.[/QUOTE]
random notes in my notebook:

* She's one of those people you know what they'll look like in forty year
* New Zealander's cellphone ringtone: take me out to the ballgame
* A Terminator in King Arthur's Court
* Dildonics
* Do celebrities get stuck in traffic?
* Armanian man's cologne reminds me of old Playboys

I need fat women with their asses in my face, so porn helps, but that's what I do anyway just like smoking, listening to music and running my fingers over the keyboard.

But, caution, I rest when I don't feel like writing and I rest by using the above.

Rest when you don't feel like writing. And if you never feel like writing again consider yourself lucky. It's a curse.

Hope that helps.

[QUOTE=Cindy Weston]I must have chaos![/QUOTE]
the one thing this place has plenty of is chaos. welcome to the cult.

Oh.h.... what gets me writing? this morning. the sound of a fat fucking frog.

Ah, the search for [i]Inspirado[/i]!

My girlfriend (fiance now) gave me a little notebook as a present awhile back, and I still carry it around with me. Its full of little one-liners and character sketches and song lyrics and scribbles, none of which have any sort of theme or cohesiveness, y'know, but they're all out of my head. And it works, sometimes, but I have to be careful not to get too attached to any of the ideas.

I'll wake up and jot down a line and convince myself that THIS is gonna be the line that'll set some people on fire, dammit. THIS is gonna make me rich. But it doesn't fit anywhere. It's a great line, but sometimes a little oily cardboard box full of Chinese take-out just doesn't belong in church on Easter. And that's OK.

But that's not where the ideas come from. All the notebook does is help me get an idea from my head back to my apartment before I forget it.

When I need real inspiration is just start looking around. And I don't look FOR anything, I just look. The best writing is something you can believe in, something you can mistake for real, so I start in the real world. Right this second the girl in the office next to mine is singing to herself. Humming, actually. So I start to imagine what song it is. Why's it's special to her. Where she heard it first. Who she was with. And I FOCUS on stuff. Little stuff. The details. The molding in the corner of my office is cracked way up high. And it's a slightly different shade than the molding in the other corners, like it was added later, or replaced after the old one got busted when somebody slammed the door too hard.

And then I write. I try not to plan anything. I just let the characters run wild. Let them do what they will, where they will. And I watch them.

Shit, I sound like a made-for-tv movie. Sorry guys. I'm not trying to wax poetic or anything, but that's what goes through my head.

Night-time gets me worked up to write. I'll go outside or to a 24 restaraunt with a notebook and write freehand on whatever comes to mind. Whether it is a note to myself, (which I answer back honestly, sarcastically or just tell myself to shut up) something that bears mention from the day, idea that strikes me or simple to waste time when t.v. is killing me. I usually like to stare at a useless object for great lengths of time and develop a start to a story from just that one item.

I don't know if this "writer's" thread is exclusively for writer's of short or longer stories, but I am going to submit my 2c anyhow.

I am a writer of poetry and my muse cannot be summoned by will or ritual alone. It comes when it finds the strength to overpower my consciousness and then it causes me to write, sometimes against my conscious will and often without my conscious knowledge of what I am writing at all until it is finished. Sometimes it rhymes though usually it is free verse, sometimes it is short and other times it tells a story of the human condition spanning for dozens of pages.

My advice to others - although the style and form of one's writing may indeed make a difference to how you apply this advice - is to let the Muse come to you. Do not seek to harness it. He/She is a gift and cannot be tamed to do your bidding. If you try to cage Him/Her you will not be shown the fullness of the Beauty that can be yours to share with the world. Let the Muse guide you, do not attempt to guide your Muse or you will be led astray.

[QUOTE=Dr.Jekyll&Mr.Hyde]Screw it: It’s some ungodly hour and I haven’t slept for two days--no matter the pill intake. I also haven’t put down a shred of useful writing, so I’m going to ask a question, since the majority in this forum are struggling writers.

My question is this: What’s your poison? What gets you writing? What do you do to summon the muses? Is it ritual, a nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, or drug fix, exercise, meditation, yoga, cleaning house, reading about writing, writing about reading, reading about reading, dressing like a camel, watching [I]Army of Darkness[/I], swimming naked, obsessively counting dead moths in the light fixture, talking to the cat, pealing up warped linoleum floors, mumbling to dead relatives, drinking twelve cups of coffee, chewing twenty packs of gum, or perhaps cutting dead skin from your feet. I don’t care how bloody absurd or mundane, post your quirks.

A lot of writers had odd rituals, to name a couple:

Robert Stevenson “slept while holding his right arm up, so he could avoid entering a dreamless sleep” (poets and writers mag). Cheever wrote is his underpants. Woolf had to walk in circles. Hemingway sharpened twelve pencils each day.

[SIZE=3]I’ m damn curious to find out if Chuck has any rituals (no doubt they would be interesting. If anyone knows--and I'm sure someone does, post them).[/SIZE]

So, what’s the juice that gets you writing? I’m going back to counting moths.[/QUOTE]

sadness, anger, disappointment, dreams, books, girls, feeling spaced out, irony, recovery, the irony that i just typed that, and occaisionally a very fun experience

I know the feeling father. My recent short story just slapped me in the face about two nights ago. Id had the ideas durign the day, some thoughts, but whiel studying for my test the next day, it was like my Muse had just kicked my nose in. Tossing all my old attempts at short stories into their folder, I jumped into my chair and pounded out the words for 3 hours, producing a 7 page manuscript, the perfect length for a short story, or so THEY say. By the time I was done it was 3 am. AND than i Couldnt sleep and did a check and edited for a bit, but i still consider the story as the first draft. I ended up just having a shower afterwards, and than studying and watching The Daily Show before heading off to school.

Just like that. BAM. a short story. It ruined my night, but I aced the test so its alll good. It seems I write best when its dark outside my window.

For me, my Muse seems to just appear, and slap me in the face. An image, a sensation, a song lyric, a comparison, all these cause me to write stories and poetry.

My Muse is my curse, and nocturnal. And i love her for it.

[QUOTE=cleverdevil]Coffee....chain smoking. God I love to smoke when I write.[/QUOTE]
I wish I smoked. The only reason I don't is because I need at least one thing to set me apart from the other lowlife pieces of shit at my school. I've been looking for an alternative to smoking, but all I've found is alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol. Although, that stuff doesn't get me writing; it usually just gets me rolling around on the floor giggling like a maniac with vomit spewing from my mouth.
I do tend to be most creative at night, when everything is silent and I'm all alone to do whatever I want. Other than that, my muse seems to come whenever the hell it feels like, and leaves me freaking out and scrambling to put ideas onto paper.

I need about 3 cups of green tea when I write... ambient or classical music and when it's dark outside.. Also, I started running which helps me write stories in my head.

that dude was a hot piece i hear...that jekyl and hyde dude, sweet piece of ass i hear, who gives a shit if he can write or not.