Behind the Scenes Writing Tag

I know some of you may have been expecting a new Africa post right about now, but it might be a few weeks before I write another one. In the meantime, though, I still have a few tags to complete.

 

Opal technically tagged all her writer readers for this one, and I also decided I was going to steal this from Aimee if I had to anyway, so, I’m just going to nab this tag. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Is there a certain snack you like to eat while writing?

Hmm, would you judge me if I said prunes? Probably I shouldn’t have admitted to that. Normally I don’t like to snack much while I’m writing, because I need both my hands to type, and I don’t enjoy getting random sticky stuff on the keyboard. I will go for chocolate though, or hard candy—anything that can keep my mouth busy without compromising my typing speed.

 

When do you normally write?

I seize any chance I can get. Or rather, I should say any chance I get when I have the energy. Sometimes I’m tired and I need a nap, or you know, a long therapy session with Facebook or something. But I do especially well from five in the morning till six thirty (still in the morning), and I also do well from three in the afternoon until eleven thirty at night. Unfortunately, I can’t take advantage of both these prime times every day.

Where do you write?

Often I’ll sit in my arm chair, because it has the best angle so it doesn’t make my back hurt, but I do also like to sit propped up in bed, or at my desk, or on the floor by my desk. When no one else is home, I’ll sometimes venture downstairs and write at the table or on the couch. I will also stick the computer on the windowsill and lie on my stomach while typing (just to clarify, our upstairs windows are just an inch or so above the floor—don’t ask, I don’t know why).

How often do you write a new novel?

Well, it varies. During NaNoWriMo, I’ll draft multiple novels, and sometimes I’ll partially write something during the year, but I try to keep my drafting efforts to November. The rest of the year I spend editing and accidentally calling my friends by my main characters’ made-up names.

 

Do you listen to music while you write?

For the most part, I do, although I will have to say I’m a little more distractible when I’m drafting, because I don’t like first drafts and I’d rather just listen to the pretty music. But I can’t edit at all without some sort of music. As for what I choose, it depends. If I have a migraine, I’ll tend toward dubstep. If I’m writing something sad, I’ll pick melancholy stuff, like Coldplay. Otherwise I go for bands like Imagine Dragons, OneRepublic, and The Civil Wars.

What do you write on? Laptop or paper?

Laptop, hands down. *dies laughing at awful pun* The smell of pen/pencil makes my head hurt, and my wrists can’t take that kind of strain (wow, I am super whiney today *slaps self*). Not to mention, writing by hand really slows me down. No, I need to type stuff, or I just can’t write.

 

Is there a special ritual you have before/after you write?

I bathe in warm chocolate and dye my hair a popular primary color, then I sweeten my coffee with dragon’s blood and the tears of my readers before standing on my head for fifteen minutes (to get the blood flowing to my brain). After that, I sob for a little while and treat myself to a red velvet sheet cake with a glass of crushed dreams on the side before getting down to business.

What do you do to get into the mood to write?

I sit down at the laptop and start typing. Okay, so that’s the ideal. Often I get distracted and play a few games of chess or read someone’s blog or stare at the pretty books on my shelves. But I know that the mood will usually find me if I write for long enough. Anyway, I’ve learned that my mood doesn’t generally effect the quality of my writing. (Translation: I drink coffee.)

 

What is always near the place you write?

Coffee, water, coffee, the disembodied souls I keep in a row of jars to my left. Coffee.

 

Do you have a reward system for your word count?

No, unless you consider the finished product a reward. With me, it’s usually like, “Liz, if you write ten thousand more words tonight, you’ll have written ten thousand more words tonight. Now do it.” I find this to be a very effective system.

Is there anything about your writing process that others might not know about?

While I usually write the rough draft for a given novel in about a week, I take at least a year to edit. For my second draft, I rewrite my entire book line by line, word for word, cleaning up all the problems as I go (well, all the problems I know about). To be honest, though, I spend more time playing virtual chess and researching random, useless bits of information than I do anything else. When I’m drafting, I don’t tend to read much because I don’t like to take my mind out of my own story world, but I will compare the lengths of my works in progress with the other books on my shelves because I’m obsessive like that.

So there you have it, little coffee beans—all my eccentric and not-so-eccentric writing habits, wrapped up in a blog post you never knew you needed to read.

You’re welcome.