Crazy Things You Do While You Write

Hey! I'm sure this question has already been asked somewhere, but I'm curious and I just wanted to know if you do anything weird while you write. I tend to act out the scenes in my book or I speak my character's lines before I write them down to see if they make sense. Sometimes more than one character speaks out of my mouth and I have three people participating in a conversation. I must do this alone or risk being thrown to the nut house . I also draw the places and ships I create (sci-fi writer) before I describe them, esp the important ones. Sometimes I even draw my characters or their outfits, which tend to be crazy. The last thing I do is turn my book into a living thing that I must obey. Sometimes my book is nice to me and other times it's torturous. So please spill and tell me what you do so I don't feel alone in my weirdness.

Thanks!
Suzu

Sometimes more than one character speaks out of my mouth and I have three people participating in a conversation. I must do this alone or risk being thrown to the nut house

Heheheh that reminds me of a time in maths:
Teacher And the answer to question number three is ......... (scanning the room before pointing a bony finger in my direction) hmmm...... you, Kirsten.
Kirsten Erm....er....I am of the notion that it is in the capabilities of a single being, to change the wolrd for all. Hitherto .... (realizes that she has just read a line of a characters' dialogue from her head out loud.

embarrassing

I always read my poetry aloud. It is a spoken medium, I think. As for my stories, I check my facebook when I finish a bit of them lol.

I do act out the dialogue before I write it down. I also rifle through magazines an cut out pictures of models and give them a character bio so I can use them in my next piece.

I definetly act out conversations, but that's not my craziest thing...

It's the battle scenes. I use beanie babies to act out battle scenes to make sure that they make sense. I always do this in my bedroom with the door locked, obviously. I may be crazy, but I don't want people to know that.

I tried drawing things before I described them. Then I remembered that I physically can't draw.

Lost_in_dreamland wrote:Heheheh that reminds me of a time in maths:
Teacher And the answer to question number three is ......... (scanning the room before pointing a bony finger in my direction) hmmm...... you, Kirsten.
Kirsten Erm....er....I am of the notion that it is in the capabilities of a single being, to change the wolrd for all. Hitherto .... (realizes that she has just read a line of a characters' dialogue from her head out loud.

That's epic win right there. XD

Crazy things I do:

1. Eat. I must have food with me when I'm writing. Must.

2. I take the dialogue and stick it to my friends at school and have them act it out in my head (never will I give it to them in real life). If we end up laughing and making fun of it, I'm doing something wrong. If we end up laughing and wanting more, I'm totally awesome. (My friends and I laugh a lot.)

3. Have YWS up. Even just glancing at the homepage can inspire me. I'll write a chunk of story or a poem, and then I'll switch to YWS (which is also pulled up). I kinda just click buttons until I end up at the homepage again and then do a "Oh, yeah!" and rush back to the writing.

4. If I reach a battle scene or an intense scene or just getting to know my characters, I have to sit back and just think about it. Like... day dream. I like Thunder's beanie baby thing. That is totally epic, dude. XD But really, day dreaming gets me through a lot, and I'm sure it's the same for others. It also helps me to get to know my characters. What if my MC met my friends? Would they get along? Would they laugh a lot too? I love daydreaming about my characters. Muchly fun. *nods* Daydreaming = win.

Outside of the involuntary physical oddities - chew my lip, twirl the pen between my fingers while momentarily stalled - I absolutely need to have music playing in the background when I write. I generally go with mood music, trying to embed myself into the necessary atmosphere. If this scene could be described as a song, which song would it be? If this novel was a film, what would be on the soundtrack? I have spent many, many novels worth of time constructing playlists. Tea is another necessary. As is having YWS perpetually open in a various Mozilla tab, I'm with you, Jabs. Also, I can't stand writing in bright light: it puts me in an instant bad mood and switches all settings to interrogation, which puts me on the defensive and is really quite lethal when trying to write honest fiction. Semi-dark for me, natural light... I pull the plug on my lamp.

As I'm writing a scene, I try to imagine it as flawlessly and seamlessly as I can, as though it were unfolding in real time in front of me. I try to see what's going to happen before I throw it all at the page. It's only after I have a very clear and thorough idea of what's going on that I feel comfortable writing anything down.

JabberHut wrote:

Lost_in_dreamland wrote:Heheheh that reminds me of a time in maths:
Teacher And the answer to question number three is ......... (scanning the room before pointing a bony finger in my direction) hmmm...... you, Kirsten.
Kirsten Erm....er....I am of the notion that it is in the capabilities of a single being, to change the wolrd for all. Hitherto .... (realizes that she has just read a line of a characters' dialogue from her head out loud.

That's epic win right there. XD

yaa, totally xD

Crazy things I do:

1. Eat. I must have food with me when I'm writing. Must.

agreed, agreed, agreed.

2. I take the dialogue and stick it to my friends at school and have them act it out in my head (never will I give it to them in real life). If we end up laughing and making fun of it, I'm doing something wrong. If we end up laughing and wanting more, I'm totally awesome. (My friends and I laugh a lot.)

3. Have YWS up. Even just glancing at the homepage can inspire me. I'll write a chunk of story or a poem, and then I'll switch to YWS (which is also pulled up). I kinda just click buttons until I end up at the homepage again and then do a "Oh, yeah!" and rush back to the writing.

4. If I reach a battle scene or an intense scene or just getting to know my characters, I have to sit back and just think about it. Like... day dream. I like Thunder's beanie baby thing. That is totally epic, dude. XD But really, day dreaming gets me through a lot, and I'm sure it's the same for others. It also helps me to get to know my characters. What if my MC met my friends? Would they get along? Would they laugh a lot? I love daydreaming about my characters. Muchly fun *nods* [s]daydreaming = win[/s]
daydreaming = epic win [/quote]

I think I actually channel certain characters when I write. For example, last year I was extraordinarily grouchy and sarcastic, and generally in an I-hate-the-world mood. My boyfriend had to tell me repeatedly to "make Marc go away, I want my girlfriend back."

I'm a little concerned because now I've started a story about a recovering anorexic, and today I stood in front of the mirror for approximately 15 minutes (a record for me) and thought, "Dear God, I need to lose weight."

*bangs on skull*

Audrey, get out of my head.

I totally act out everything I write. Most of the time in the shower, that's the only way I come up with certain scenes, because I act them out. I've always done that, though, even if I'm not writing anything. It helps the ideas flow.

I don't think I do anything that weird, now that I think about it. I have to have a clear workspace and some good music that isn't distracting, but those I can do without. I'm usually just inside of my own head.

Well...the only weird thing that I can think of that I have done is write while sitting on the toilet...not using it just sitting there. I have caught myself doing that before. But I mainly write lyrics and I write these when I'm in my underwear or hanging my head upside down! Not really weird, but pretty unusual...

When I totally get into a scene while I'm on the computer, I tilt my head waaaay to the left so it's almost resting on the desk and write. Scares my parents.

I think daydreaming about the whole affair is about 70% of my "writing" time.

I alwaysact out the facial expressions so I can describe them better. Like I'll make a sad face, and then recreate it, so I can make sure it's something someone would naturally do.

WOW , I didn't think I would get so many answers. Thanks for answering everyone. It was really fun reading your replies. Keep them coming. I know there are more weird writers out there. ^_^