How do you write?

[amhran_comhrac]

It's no secret that many, maybe even most of us here are writers.  In the interest of sharing "best practices," as they say in the cube farm, I thought it would be interesting to discuss our own processes.  Maybe someone can pick up a trick or two that way.  Some of us co-write, some use betas, one person (and my virtual hat is off to you for your bravery, miri1984 ), has even taken to livestreaming as she writes.
So, I suspect there's a great deal of variety. 

Share! How do you write?

Comments

[analect]

Oooh, interesting! Massively impressed at all these people who can do multiple things at the same time. O_O

I come down on the gluing-myself-to-the-screen-or-notepad-"fuck-off-I'm-busy" side of things. There is coffee, maybe a graphics program or text editor open if I'm doing something else at the same time. Usually there's music, but not always. Most books I've written have had their own playlists, and my fanfics do too, which I never expected to happen. (My Hawke responds worryingly well to Aretha Franklin. Wtf?) Unless one project's going really well and I'm completely engrossed, I invariably have about five documents up at once, and I switch back and forth - sort of productive procrastination when I'm stuck or CFS brain fog makes concentration crappy.

I don't have a beta; I edit and tweak everything myself, though I'd like to throw things around in draft stages much more than I do. The major thing about fanfic for me is that it's the only writing I do that actually happens chapter-by-chapter, instead of being conceived, written and edited (then changed completely, and rewritten and edited again) as a whole piece, so continuity is an issue/challenge, along with theme development.

Also, as a mildly OT tangent, further to what some of us were talking about a while ago, I went ahead and set up a DW comm for original fic people. Chat, crit, support and resources... that kinda stuff. It's here, but not yet actually active. Feel free to drop by and help me change that, should you wish!