Fandom Snowflake, Challenge #8

[the_wanlorn]

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

I... actually do have a creative process? Weird. I've never really thought too hard about it, but here it is:

1. Have an idea. Where do ideas come from? I do not know. The aether. Wherever. Mostly I think of a situation and go lmao it would be so funny if that happened. "Funny" stands in for many, many different emotions, though. Not necessarily funny things.


2. Go for a long drive. No, longer than that. No, even longer. Minimum amount of drive time I need for an idea to percolate enough to write is around 2h. For a short idea/short portion of a longer idea. The longer the idea in general, the longer the drive needs to be. I just need something where I can turn off my brain, and just ruminate, yanno? Nothing else does that for me.


3. (Optional) Talk out the idea with a friend. Sometimes if I can't go on a drive this works. Sometimes it doesn't. But this is sooooort of my version of creating an outline. Just a very wordy outline with input from another person. Otherwise, at this point in my life, I do no planning. Just vibes.


4. Hope that the idea is sticky enough to still be around when I feel like writing again.


5. Eventually my hobbyfocus (get it? get it??) circles back around to writing. So I sit down and write as fast as possible to get as much as possible out of my head before my focus shifts to, idk, knitting.

And then, of course, my actual writing process is um. Literally turn off thinking/editing brain, sit down for a writing session on my "work" laptop for an hour or so, pound out somewhere between 500 and 3,000 words, walk away for a while. Rinse, repeat. I am not very complicated.

Comments

[annavere]

I enjoyed reading this! Your hobbyfocus made me laugh. And your process sounds impressively bound to the aether ideas come from.

Sometimes the best story concepts for me come when I'm working on something else (usually housework, not driving). I will occasionally indulge in talking my ideas through out loud, in a soliloquy of recapping and problem-solving when I'm stuck in narrative cul-de-sacs. Usually with no one in earshot besides my cat. He doesn't seem to mind too much!

[mekare]

Driving is where it‘s at, I feel you there. I don‘t get a lot of art ideas then, but writing ideas absolutely.