Creative Flow, Scene by Scene!

I love when I hear a writer say, "I write when inspiration hits me."

BLAH! That is what I hear from those writers. . . . . .

As a writer, among other duties, I don't have that luxury to write when it HITS ME! And most professional writers don't have that kind of time either.

I'm not saying my muse doesn't strike at crazy times, it does, but my muse also doesn't show up when I need it to. And those are the times that I'm talking about. That is about 90% of my writing time.

Wouldn't it be great if every time you sat down to write, your creativity just flowed over?

Over the past couple years I have come up with a few tips and tricks on how to maintain the creative flow when you sit down to write every single book.

1) Ideas. I'm always trying to come up with ideas for new books. I've said that I carry my journal every where I go. It's a journal of ideas and they are all gathered in one place. Easy to find. Some writers use journals to jot down ideas, sayings, notes etc. . .and never use the journal for the intended purpose. So don't go out and buy a journal to to write things down because you will have a whole collection of journals without having written a novel.

Generally one or two ideas will catch your fancy. And if you are like me, you begin to process those ideas. "If this happened, then what would happen if that happened?" These questions begin to form your idea into a scene in your story.

2) Collect information. Ideas turn into concrete research which leads to more creativity and more ideas. All the information that you collect will start to fit together. The information will help you see relationships between your characters, places they need to go, and help you understand where your idea is taking you.

3) Sift! This is the fun part where you get to go through all the ideas and information you have collected and begin to see the concrete evidence you need for the bare bones of your scene in your novel. The more and more you go through your information, the more you are going to have that scene formed in your head.

4) Coffee stage. This is the stage where all the information from point 1-3 hang out in our head for a while and begin to percolate. If you don't like coffee, it can be likened to a crock pot. The ideas that you have need to bubble over. This happens to me at the oddest times, like shower, taking my dogs for a walk, sitting in church. You will have those eureka moments...just let it come to you. Let it percolate!

5) Flow baby flow. Your scene should be flowing at this point. Embrace it! Your ideas should be appearing out of no where and it will hit you at all hours in the day, and this includes 2 AM! This is the fun part!

6) Share! You have something to share with your critique partner/group. Get feedback. Get their opinion and ideas from what you have done so far. A lot of times they can help your creative juices flow more with their input.

Just last week I was meeting with my critique group, when one of my partners asked me a question about the mystery. I hadn't thought of that little tweak, but what she suggested was GREAT and was easy to incorporate into my scene. It gave me a little excitement, stirring the creative pot, causing me to write another 2k words!

7) Start over. Yes, you have to start these steps all over again. Scene after scene.

Ultimately it's up to you to write the novel. It's up to you to take your ideas and shape them into your vision, your voice, and get it to your readers.

"How well do you know me?" your novel asks.

Do you ever say to yourself, "today is the day I'm going to writer for five hours straight!"? Come on. . .fess up!

And did you decide to clean the kitty liter or dust under the couch or even take a tooth brush and scrub the hardware on your toilet? It's okay, don't be ashamed. We've all been there.

And we've all blamed it on WRITERS BLOCK!!!!

(I couldn't resist, Calvin and Hobbs is one of my all time favs!)

I'm not saying all that cleaning isn't important. In fact, my desk has to be spotless before I can even think about writing. This is stress that I put on myself. When writers ask me about writers block, I don't laugh, but I don't really believe in it. I think that stress has a lot to do with writers block.

Stress? What? We don't have stress. We have the best job in the world. We get to pour our every thought on the page. . .

. . .until we really sit down to work and all the other stuff in our lives creep in.

I'm not going to debunk whether or not you believe in writers block, but I would like to offer some tips on how to push through the times you feel stuck, unmotivated, blocked, whatever you call it.

1) Keep a pad of paper or journal with you at all times.

As writers, even if you have another job, ideas or story points are always popping into our heads.

(So maybe I should take my own advice on this one. Yes, I was driving and I had a very important red herring for my novel, Splitsville.com. I didn't have any paper handy, so I downed my Red Hots candy and scribbled on the box.)

Regardless, lesson learned. Now I carry pad and pencil in my car and purse at all times.

If you have an idea, you can write it down. When it's time to sit down and write, you can refer back to your journal and instantly have a place to start.

2) Read, read, read.

Writers always tell that to other writers. Successful writers always give that as advice when asked. It's true. Think about it. 

Reading helps you escape, it melts away your stress, and your creative juices start to flow. A lot of times someone's words will trigger a new thought to the scene your writing. OR give you an idea on how to expand the scene.

I have a hard time with dialogue tags. I'm one of those authors who can't stand to use he said, he yelled. Blah, blah, blah! I love finding new tags within other author's work. Hopefully you will find reading will help you keep going on your novel.

3) Take a trip for research.

Research can be fun. My novel, Carpe Bead 'em, had a neat little coffee shop setting in a few scenes of the book. When I knew it was time to work on that scene, I had to get the smell, the customers, the lingo exactly right. I packed up my laptop and headed to the little coffee shop that my fictitious coffee shop was modeled after, and let my creativity fly. 

Not only did I get the descriptions of the smells, feel of the shop and its customers, I began to write, write, write.

4) Change writing locations.

If you are having a lot of distractions in your writing environment, I suggest looking back to when you first became a writer. For me it was writing in the back seat of my van during school pick up when my now four teenage boys were in elementary school. It was a place that I couldn't get up and fold laundry, let the dogs out, start dinner. It was boring to sit there for an hour or so and wait. With nothing to do, my characters began to talk to me, helping work through scenes. Before I realized it, I had over two thousand words. Talk about getting my mojo on! I did this every school afternoon for over three years. That was a lot of writing.

Now my kids don't need me to pick them up, but on occasion you will find my van in the grocery store parking lot or even my driveway, writing away.

5) Free hand it!

(Did I mention I have a LOVE affair with Red Hots?)

I know, I can hear you now. Are you crazy? I am a tiny bit, but believe it or not, if I'm stuck this never fails me. The first paragraph might be crap, but I just start writing and my characters begin to rock on the page.

Have you had writer's block or gotten stuck? What are some of your suggestions? Do you think you will attempt any of my ideas?

Other great blogs to help you get words on a page:

Author Lois Winston was a guest this week on Ellis Vidler's Unpredictable Muse.

Some people believe that if you pamper your muses that it will help with writers block. Anne R Allen has a great blog on how to pamper your muse.

Author Clarissa Draper's take on writers block is boredom!