Hey guys! I'm curious, how is it that you write?

Do you sit down in a dark room and crack a cold one and get to it or perhaps you turn up the TV, pull out a notepad and jot down ideas and little bits an pieces as they come to you?

The question came to me as i was working on my newest chapter after quite a long delay. I was sitting on my bed, laptop on my lap (wow, no shiz!?), and my favourite song, Exile Vilify by The National just popped on as i was about to close up shop for a few hours. Now i'm sitting here writing out this really long question while i listen to the end of the song, and think about continuing writing my chapter! Music, i tells ya!

Anyway...

So, my fellow bronies. How do you write?

273692 I've written in many different ways, but the way I've written recently is with a lot more planning than I usually do...
First, I create an outline of a begining, middle and end (but I never do it on my computer... maybe on something like a notepad or a kindle). Then I just create bullet points in the form of a... well outline, as I've mentioned, with key things YOU think are important... even if they don't look important.
Then... well, I just write. I add details to the bullets as I go, and half the time, I derive from the original outline altogether If I think of something just a little better.
As for music, I'm a weirdo that paces in between sessions that he writes... which I'm fairly sure that's out of procrastination, or the desire to listen & dance to epic music. If I were you, I'd listen to something calm, unless your writing an actiony scene that will be helped by listening to kick plot music (to be honest, Exile Vifley, ever since I first heard it in Portal, is one that counts, it's kept me sat down and focused many-a-time) or if you have a crossover like me, music related to the thing your crossing over sometimes helps...
This has already been said, but don't be afraid to glance at previous parts of the story for plot devices you could possibly use. If your stuck, read over your story again... maybe you'll see something, or think of something that you could use or bring up again.
I'm giving you all of this advice, while also saying I'm not the greatest writter out there, but I'm fairly sure I think I might have a probably good idea of the prospect of what it takes to create a decent story.

273692 I've written in many different ways, but the way I've written recently is with a lot more planning than I usually do...
First, I create an outline of a begining, middle and end (but I never do it on my computer... maybe on something like a notepad or a kindle). Then I just create bullet points in the form of a... well outline, as I've mentioned, with key things YOU think are important... even if they don't look important.
Then... well, I just write. I add details to the bullets as I go, and half the time, I derive from the original outline altogether If I think of something just a little better.
As for music, I'm a weirdo that paces in between sessions that he writes... which I'm fairly sure that's out of procrastination, or the desire to listen & dance to epic music. If I were you, I'd listen to something calm, unless your writing an actiony scene that will be helped by listening to kick plot music (to be honest, Exile Vifley, ever since I first heard it in Portal, is one that counts, it's kept me sat down and focused many-a-time) or if you have a crossover like me, music related to the thing your crossing over sometimes helps...
This has already been said, but don't be afraid to glance at previous parts of the story for plot devices you could possibly use. If your stuck, read over your story again... maybe you'll see something, or think of something that you could use or bring up again.
I'm giving you all of this advice, while also saying I'm not the greatest writter out there, but I'm fairly sure I think I might have a probably good idea of the prospect of what it takes to create a decent story.

Heh, I always used to sit down and just write whatever went through my head. Basicaly, I'd just jot down the story as it'd form in my head. (Used to pace a lot too, between segments where the story didn't quite pop in place straight away)

Recently though, I've been having a lot of... Well, I don't really know how to express it all that clearly.
Usually, I get a very basic idea. Like a character or a situation or an event. And from there, I let my mind do the work and flesh it out for a few days/hours.
It's a rather... heratic process, and not always very coherent as some epic scenes will form straight away while other stuff will take a long time to shape up.

The writting process iself is pretty straight forward. I listen to music a lot, though typically it's going to be either soothing ambient sort, old-school RPG Ost or more tense music.
Music with lyrics is a no go, too distracting.
Typically, I'll give my mind free reign over my body and use it like a type-writter. Then once I'm done with a chapter, I'll smooth out all the rough bits afterwards by reading through it numerous times and correcting whatever stands out, over and over again.

I tried the whole putting down an outline thing and, while I can see it as a good reflex to have... It doesn't really work out for me. I keep all the good ideas in my head, mostly and if I forget a certain bit and can't remember it, then there's probably something better I can think up.

But yeah, a lot of the story crafting (like thinking how it'll go next) happens during the writting process for me.

Well, i guess if we're going into the types of music in more detail... Normally i listen to Orchestral stuff while i write, because, as 273823 said, lyrics are distracting. If you want some kind of recommendations i'd check out Makkon, he's got some good stuff.

Hm...I write...basically whatever. I form the idea in my head, flesh it out a bit to make sure I have the beginning, middle, and end in mind, then I work out the details as I go. I let the characters speak for themselves, for the most part.

As for my surroundings? I'm usually on the couch in my cluttered room, with a cup of water and sometimes something playing in the background. In the past, I've watched the recordings of some guys from TGWTG play D&D over LordKaT's stream, or I'll listen to music. What kind of music it is depends on my mood or the tone of the story I'm writing, but it's USUALLY something to get me pumped up. Either one of these, or sometimes some good old Phoenix Wright Orchestrated goodness.

Whatever I listen to, I just kind of try to get in the zone and type as much as I can, then go back and look it over. Also, I'm not one for rough drafts. I hate rough drafts and web diagrams and all that crap, and it bugged the crap out of me when I had to do it in school for a grade. I always did them last, retroactively building the web charts to match what I'd already written. Good times, good times...

273949

Heh, we have a very similar way of going about things. Also, lovely Phoenix Wright symphony, should try myself some Godot flavored theme song next time I sit down to write.

I've found the inception soundtrack to work wonders when I'm going over tense moments and battle scenes too.

What I'll do sometimes too, when I'm having a bad day is. I'll basicly stop writting for a while and go re-read through some chapters of some favorite books to get me back on the rail.
It's a coin's toss, but it works more often than not

Frankly, I can only write when I feel like writing. It's that unexplainable feeling of literary creativity that surges from my mind that allows me to type out stories. So, when I'm not around my computer at home, I have to write down the ideas on paper (which isn't good because my typing speed far surpasses my writing speed and more often than not I'm interrupted before I can write down all of the idea).

So how do I write? I write/type whenever inspiration strikes!

I don't always write, but when I do, I listen to either Rammstein, Metallica or MLP songs (pretty manly if you ask).

Most of the times I write in my collegue library right after I finish my duties and if I got some spare time. I always bring my laptop everywhere I go if I can. For now, the only thing that keeps me tied up with MLP (besides the episode premieres) is my story planning.

Besides, I got plenty of stories on "Incomplete" status (Journey, Hope, Pareidolia, Sun and Genesis), so I tend to plan plots carefully before proceeding. I only want the best for my stories (and that includes to avoid memes/fandom/useless references like Cupcakes, Fluttershy is a tree, etc.), that's why it takes me long to finish a story. However, Party (from This Ain't Compendium) is an exception; I only wrote it because I wanted to change things a little bit (too many dark/zombie themes in my main stories bored me a little bit). I still wonder why is that story considered as my best tough, sometimes bronies are random

I smoke a lot.
Also, musics... and alcohol.

The magic happens... IDK.

I watch MLP for inspiration... then I just sit down and start writing. I start by writing a hook of some sort that I find personally interesting and then let my imagination take it from there.

Of course, this usually ends with about twice as much written material as actually makes it unto the final draft... but it makes me capable of actually sitting down and writing for hours. It's funny... I usually take a week or two between updates, but in reality I often end up getting everything done in about a day and a half. Just gotta have some basic ideas and wait for that lighting bolt to strike.

Honestly, it's probably the most inconsistent way to do it, so you should probably disregard my terrible advice.

For inspiration? I mostly use this site, or talk to a friend. Anything I read or hear I mull over until it catches on one of the rusted spikes of my mind and it mutates into something I can use.

As for actually writing? Well, this is just me, but I somehow need a weird balance of both distraction and motivation, So I tend to have all the lights off, music blaring, a chatbox open, and some form of a storyline floating through my head.

I read like I breathe, I suppose the same could be said for many of us here heh. But I've only started writing just recently. And I always have music going when I write, for a couple reasons: I don't live alone and my computer isn't in my own room, so more often than not there's other sounds going on, cooking, video games, Archer on FX, the baby crying. I need noise in my head when I'm writing to drown out the noise of real life, but the music can't be too distracting or have too much singing or I'll end up following the song and typing the lyrics.

As for writing itself, I just wing it, when I'm at work or walking around I sometimes think about what I'm going to do with my story, but I don't plan too much out. I wish I could form better stories and plot lines in my head, for I feel like my story jumps around too much or goes too fast.

My process work like this: First I open a notepad document, and I write the sumary of every chapter in one long line of stream of consciousness. For example, here's an excerpt from my summary to the chapter "The party in my head"
"Crazy 8, system of "highway trough cloudsdale, simply empty streets made for speed. Rainbow dashs favorite in cloudsdale. Evening, Rave, Vinyl scratch from uderneath the cloud in a hot air baloon....."
You'll notice that a lot of what I describe here doesnt actually happen in the fanfic (I cut out the part with vinyl scratch emerging from a hole underneath the cloud in a hot air balon, sadly enough...), I usually end up making a LOT of changes to the plot, this is jsut to get a basic idea of the story I want to tell.

Then I open my main writing program and I write the story straight trough. this is the first draft, it's usually very rough in places, some scenes will be written out in full, but some will be written in basically the same clipped language I use for the summary. Most of the time, all the details will be there, but the finished version will flesh it out and make it sound a little better. I don't care too mcuh about minor mistakes at this point For example, this is another part from the same story in that stage of writing:
The forest was a green haze, and that fit the state of her mind a little better, at least. She mad her way trough the old decrepit walkways, that somepony put up ages ago with no real explanation why. She flew from cloud to cloud just to keep from having to stand still.

Then, because I believe in the idea that "writing is editing", the process of shaping the story into the final product starts. I'll go trough the story from start to finish, and as I go along, I'll colour the segments I'm satisfied with red, and if I'm not satisfied with it, I'll rewrite that part until I am, then colour it red. Here's how the same part as above looks like at this stage of the draft:
"The forest was a neon-blue haze, and that fit the state of her mind a little better at least. This part of the forest was not safe to fly in, and she made her way trough the old decrepit walkways that somepony put up ages ago. Nobody seemed to have used them for at least decades, if not centuries, not a lot of ponies went this deep into the forest. She tried not to look down as she walked over the aged sky-bridges, or else vertigo would not be far behind".

As you see, the scene is basically the same, although tweaked to fit into the story more. At this point, the story have usually solidified, and what's left is working on the language. I go trough the story again, this time colouring the segments I'm happy with back to black. since this part is mostly about the details, I usually go non-linear, jump from chapter to chapter.

Now, this is kind of a more cleaned-up and structure version of how I actually write, in reality I just do what I feel needs to be done, which can require several rewrites, or none at all if I nailed it the first time, but this is usually about how my process looks.

I imagine story. Once I have the rough plotline in head, I mull it over for a few days, trying to figure out what might snag it up and what makes it work.

If I haven`t discarded the plot by then, I just sit down by the computer in the evening, and write things down. Then I leave that stuff on the disk for a while - a week or two. Then, I reread the stuff as if I were a reader reading someone else`s fiction. If it does not make me facepalm, I run it over with fine comb, fix up spelling, call in beta-reader. Then, publish what I`ve got.

As for ideas, they randomly come up.

I usually write to music. Usually goa trance or psytrance for standard writing. Power metal, hard rock and powerful orchestral/choral are for violence/battle scenes. Cyberpunk settings get industrial, industrial rock or driving techno.

-Write
-Read
-Reject
-Repeat
slow but effective.

284541 Amazing! That's become my new style... for rewriting my work so far

284541
It reminds me of the song "Performance, Feedback, Revision", by baba Brinkman.

Most of the time I can only ever write in the morning. I wake up, get a cup of coffee, and then just write until noon. I often get distracted at some points, but that's usually how my schedule works. Most of the time I listen to music, it of course varies depending on the scene or tone of the story.

Usually I put aside two hours or so a night after I get home at work to write, but sometimes more. As a rule of thumb, though, I don't stop until I at least get a page and a half of material. It's led to some pretty dang late nights, unfortunately.

I turn on my PC, take a glass of Scotch, open fimfiction and let my space fire monkeys do all the dirty work.

I've mostly been talking about how I write stories, but not how I write comics. I have this black moleskine notebook (they are great, if expensive, but trust me, you want a notebook that can stand abuse). That I write down ideas in. I have TERRIBLE ahandwriting and to compensate I write in ALL CAPS.

So the content of this notebook looks like the scrbibblings of a MANIAC, lemme tell you... But somehow I manage to extract comic scripts from this mess. I rarely write out dialouge except for keywords, so most of the time, I draw the entire comic with only a vauge idea of what the characters are actually going to say.

Then after it sit for a few days, I pull it up, stares blankly at the screen for half an hour, cry a little bit, puts on tea , and then I sit down to actually write the dialouge. Coming up with the dialouge is by far the worst part, cus I need a good balance between humour, brevity and character quirks.

289035 So basically you write super organised but make comics the exact opposite. Whew, Thought you were weird there mate.

289037

Well, my process when DRAWING is pretty close to my process when writing, I'll usually have two scetch-layers, one's the basic outline, the other is a more refined version and finally the lineart. The vid I linked is an exception since I was stuck at a farm with no internet or computer at the time, so I did the scetch by hand, with actual pen and paper (so THAT's what you use those pointy wooden things for? I thought they where in case of emergency vamprie attacks...) Usually it ooks more like this

289041 you had to ruin it for me.

289063
Well, I think I made my process SOUND more organized than it is, because I had to simplify it. The reason I have any sort of organization is BECAUSE I got a bit of a chaotic mind, If I where to write a story straight trough, I'd end up with a chapter that's entierly devoted to explain the physiology of Pinkie Pies hair, then I'd write half a Sonnet about Fluttershy before I decide that what I really want to write is a Film Noir adventure starring Rarity as a gritty detective. I don't think I've had a single story that ended up in the same genre as my first draft of it would indicate...

289067 Welp. I have no words, and i'm not sure if it's because it's nearly 5 am and i haven't slept or because i don't know what to say.

289095
It's not THAT weird, is it? I mean, I understand some people like to write without an outline, cus it keeps the ideas fresh, but surely SOMEONE other than me must have this thing where they just write the ideas down as they occur to them, and then make a structured outline out of it? Or am I really the only insane person here? THAT can't be right...

289166 There's outline, and idea generation, then there's Owlor.
Does that help?

Don't worry, we're all madmen here.

I pretty much in my room, at my laptop, listening to music. I try to have music relating to what I'm writing playing, because I get a lot of ideas from music. Whenever its not music, one little idea turns into another, and pretty soon there are a hundred of them coming together to make a chapter.

SLOW AS HELL
BUT THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS. I'LL NEVER RIGHT A POOR STORY.

Hmm...to be honest I don't have a particular way of writing. Normally, I write whenever I have free time even when I'm out (I <3 my notes app on my iPod!). Then, I send whatever I write to my hotmail and add it onto a file on Skydrive, which ends up being the next chapter to a fic.
Only problem with this is I tend to add to a chapter bit by bit, and so I need to go through the entire chapter again once it's finished to make sure it doesn't look like I've written one sentence today and the next the week after...
Sometimes, when I actually do have free time I will write up some stuff on my laptop. But, more often I use my iPod. But, I make sure that every night for at least an hour I'm in bed typing away on my iPod to get something written down, even if it is just a sentence.
As for ideas, well my head is just overflowing with ideas...so I tend to make a note of them whenever they pop up but, then I end up scrapping the majority of them as I think are complete rubbish. So it takes me a while to sift through all the ideas I have to find one I actually wouldn't mind writing about.
But, once I get an idea I then just write up whatever ideas follow that link with that one good idea. Don't know whether that's a good thing or not though...
Music, also acts as major inspiration for me when coming up with ideas. I listen to most genres so there really isn't a particular genre or artist I can name with giving me the most inspiration. Also, helps when I write the majority of my stuff with my iPod
Art and pictures also give me some inspiration as well, a lot of the scenery descriptions I write are based off paintings and pictures I've seen elsewhere.

Well that's how I write my fics...hmm I thought that the way I wrote my fics was more complicated than it really was. But writing out how I do it, kinda makes everything seem less...complicated.

Let's see, how do I do my writing. Well, for starters it seems that I do my best work at night. And when I say at night I mean after midnight on my end and sometimes I can go writing through the night. That does not end up well for me in the morning when I need to get up for various things though.

But that is not the important thing here. No, what is is the planning process. My personal one begins with creating a basic plot. Something simple and not to in depth. If I like what I've written, I flesh it out. If not I just toss it and start again. Once I got an idea I like, I go into an outlining phase, planning major events that need to happen to progress the story and what not, leaving out as many descriptions and liking actions as possible. From there, I go on to another outlining phase, where I go over the first outline and refine it with more details, sometimes even rewriting sections of it. Then finally comes the writing part. I set up either my computer or just take a pencil and some paper and begin to write and write. Using the outline as a guide. Though sometimes I forgo it if another, better idea on how to do a scene surfaces in my head.

Uh, yeah. How I write. Convoluted and what not. That explains why it takes me forever to write things.

273692
Well most of my ideas come sporadically and if I like a certain idea enough, I'll start jotting down stuff for it. Then when I'm actually writing, I'll write a chapter down on paper first, then I'll type it into Microsoft Word, and then after all that, I'll copy and paste the thing into the editing box thingy. Then I'll go through and read it again for any errors and mistakes and then I'll publish it.

I choose to do the typing in Word because if I'm typing it up in the browser, I'll easily get distracted and go on to do other things (like having brony chats on Facebook that last for hours)

I would consider my process out of the ordinary as I often have ideas and scenarios coming at me a mile a minute. There's too much for my brain to keep up with, yet there's often the one scenario within my mind that piques my interest and has me thinking about it for a while... I ponder what happens before, and after the scenario and try to find a way to work up to that point and get past it.

But as for when it comes down to writing I prefer to listen to music that matches my mood, or just prefer to be all on my own with the silence backing me (with the occasional ambience of the environment) making me feel calm. When I write, I often go with the flow of my thoughts and work an idea from them that I can input them into a story. I worked against the flow a few times and it gets frustrating when you draw a blank on a situation for your story. Though sometimes my writing can be all over the place as I cannot think of any ideas that can fill the spaces inbetween some situations of stories, that's when I end up making things up as I go and having a bad opinion on my own story. Lastly when it comes down to editting, I tend to be a bit OCD as I try to fix EVERY single mistake there is until I can deem it as perfect as can be, but that's when I feel like it isn't perfect and then I feel ashamed of my work... Sheesh... I ramble a lot.

I'm an archetypal writer with a postmodernist mind set.

first I get an initial idea. A concept
then decide the conflict
then pick a genre it fits.
pick story formula-usually deciding the protagonist and antagonist archetypes from the get go.
decide ending-formulas are great but you need an unpredictable ending. ALWAYS.
expand with enviroments-note down phrases and descriptions.
supporting cast-note down important lines or cool lines.
plot devices. basically decide what of the above to keep and what to save for later.
then postmodernist time. I decide the technique. this decides the form, the language and the timeline.

this whole planning process can take minutes or days.

then I write that sunnava pony.

I basically just write when I feel like it. At first I was able to finish chapters in a day but now I might get 500 words a day. I just sit in front of my computer watching zero punctuation or listening to music and just let my mind vomit on my computer in the form of words.

I tend to write whenever inspiration hits me. I get an idea, hurry and write a that idea into a chapter, plot out the rest of the story, then sit down and write the story.

All this is done while listening to youtube!

I find inspiration in a lot of places, and learn about how to write from multiple sources. I'll sometimes spend months just going over things like character developement and consistency before I feel comfortable sitting down and writing it.

I don't usually take notes, it's mostly all in my head. After all of the planning is done, I start writing and allow my preplanned ideas to take shape and change.

Free writing is useful: close your eyes and type whatever comes to your mind. Try to focus your thoughts on what you're writing about, but don't worry about grammar, spelling, or even accurate typing. What you write doesn't have to be coherent; it's just a dump of everything that went through your mind.

The longer you do it, the higher the probability of something useful being written down. Even if it's completely unusable, it helps you think more fluidly.

When I'm at home I usually lock myself in a dark room, get on to Songza, pick an epic instrumental playlist, and start writing. When abroad, I store my music in Google Play, and do the same thing.

With whiskey and on my phone.

Thats right I write all my stories on a cell phone.

I smash my head into the keyboard multiple times.

I write with music blasting after I watch some anime. Get the mind juices flowing!

Hmm...That's an interesting question

First I need the inspiration/hook/initial idea. If I don't have that I can't write anything good. Can be an idea for a character, a setting, a conflict. For my current fanfic Canterlot: Her Creation and Her Architects, the hook was 'How was Canterlot built? and Who were her architects?' I jotted down the idea and then started adding characters summaries as they popped up into my head. I might listen to music during this process. I also began to think about plot conflict, character relationships.

Some planning follows. Before I started seriously writing checked if anybody had written about Canterlot's creation before. If they had, this 'research' would have helped me not to overlap. I found nothing about Canterlot's construction so I knew that this fic's topic and focus would be interesting.

Character creation is what I regard as most important and second to do on my list. I accumulate ideas day to day and jot them down. Usually starting with a description of the character and adding important character traits, flaws, strengths, and general personality and background. I really like to prep a good background and backstory for each character.

I generally don't do a plot outline on paper or processor, but do have one in my head. Or if I think of an idea for an ending, or even a scene, I jot it down on the nearest slip of paper or on processor.

I try to read over after I write, but generally, I'm a bad proofreader. I'm getting 2 people to proofread my work now and they are also revising my current chapters XD

Well thats about it.

i always wait for the ideas to come to me, so the process can take weeks of just randomly finding tiny pieces of something then making a not of it. eventually ill have enough pieces to make something out of it and so will begin the writing process.
there are five steps
first step is the above.
second step is the alpha draft, picking which pieces fit together and gathering them into mostly nonlinear and lengthened notation.
third step is the beta draft, linearizing it, filling in the larger holes and making ready for a few first opinions on the concept and possible directions, on plotting and characters, so on and such.
fourth step is the rough draft, formatting it, filling out the entirety of the story, finalizing its linearality, taking care of any major problems, preparing it for its final form.
fifth step is final draft, after all major things are taken care of, problems with story are taken care of already, mainly small things, problems with structure, youre not changing its direction at this point, sanding the corners and topping it with a cherry.

I don't force myself, that is always my start....erm...Let's make myself sound strange about how my writing process starts: I talk to myself Not just a one-sided conversation either, a conversation between many different characters. It means I get to know the story and characters etc (and I find it really fun). Then I just sit down and write, my mind writes for me, I really just let it go.

I can't listen to music though, or any other distractions either. My mind needs to zone out for me to be able to write

I write when my mind say: WRITE. Funny on my writing style is, since it isn't fleshed out till now, I can write almost everything (even if I specialise myself on dark. Most fun to write for me.) Then I think of an general idea. I'll literally make a mind-map, since I don't write it down. I write a story like this:(this were my thoughts with sneaking fear) Cellar, dark, monster, undefined, Rainy Clouds, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Mysterious enemy I still have to think off, writing in verses
and if I have enough points (what for me is a matter of a few seconds) I begin to write. I have no plot. I have a idea. I turn the music up and write.
The only difference to my normal writing style is my momentary. Since it's my interpretation of the song awoken, I already have a plot. Than I think about the plot twist and so on. Then I write. (should do this method more often. sneaking fears first rate was bad. The ones of awoken are 3 up and 2 favs and no down with 17 views. thats a record for me)
The only really necessarie points for me are: never write when you are tired and always with music.