Hey everyone! Happy Costumes and Candy Day! For my final post of the week, we have the Behind the Scenes Writing Tag which I got from the a...

Tag Week: Behind the Scenes Writing Tag

Alexa Mintah

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Hey everyone! Happy Costumes and Candy Day! For my final post of the week, we have the Behind the Scenes Writing Tag which I got from the awesome Heather from Sometimes I’m a Story. Thank you so much for tagging me, Heather!

*searches through tag* There are no rules. THERE ARE NO RULES. I love it already.

Anyways. Moving on now.

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

Negative. One (or at least this one) cannot eat and write at the same time when one needs both hands free for full creativity. However, I will sometimes have a drink standing by.

When do you normally write? Night, afternoon, or morning?

So, I technically schedule my writing for the evening and the night, but sometimes I don’t finish it all or I find something else to do or I procrastinate madly. Then (because I’m homeschooled and I can if I want to) I play catchup in the morning.

Thus, the short answer: either the evening or the morning. ;)

Where do you write?

Generally, in my bedroom at my desk. Though sometimes I’ll lay on the floor with my laptop. On top of a mat and a pillow, it’s actually shockingly comfortable.

At one point, though, I did hand-write a story while sitting in my library. I felt very, very writerly doing that.

How often do you write a new novel?

I used to do them a lot more often (in 2013, I finished five), but lately I’ve been working a lot more on editing. So in the last year, I’ve only finished two, I think. That said, I don’t really have a specific timeframe--just start one when I can and write it till it’s finished--and I don’t see a new novel anywhere in my near future since I’m doing short stories for NaNo (WHICH STARTS TOMORROW!!!!!) instead of a full novel.

Do you listen to music while you write?

Um, yes! Is it even possible to write without music? 

(Incidentally, I don’t have music on right now as I write this post. This is a problem. *opens YouTube* *finds Anthem Lights song* *settles back with contented sigh* Ah. That’s better.)

What do you write on? Laptop or paper?

Generally, laptop; however, like I mentioned above, I have handwritten before. I prefer my laptop though because speed, but there’s also something very special and writerly about handwriting. It is very, very cool to hold your finished manuscript written in your own hand in your own hands.

Found this one on my computer. Not sure where I got it, but I love it <3

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

Open youtube. Start music. Freewrite for ten minutes, then dive into real work.

Except that’s not actually true because sometimes I open iTunes, and occasionally, like today, I forget to have music on at all. Plus, sometimes I don’t feel like freewriting and I’m eager to just dive into whatever project I’m working on.

All that to say, I am terribly unpredictable, and therefore rituals do not work for me.

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

Butt in chair. Fingers on keyboard. Commence writing.

What is always near the place you write?

Like I said, I am an unpredictable human being and a dreadful paradox, so the only sure things to be near me are my bookshelf, which sits right beside my desk, and my stuffed animals, which sit on the couch on the other side of my desk. Anything else is completely debatable and depends entirely upon the day and the time you happen to catch me writing.

Do you have a reward system for your word count?

The word count. Seeing that number grow is a reward in and of itself. ;)

But sometimes if there’s something I really wanna do, I’ll make that my reward. Like while I was working on the blog post before this (a book review for Navigating Early), I noticed I had a review for one of my fanfiction.net stories, and I told myself I could not read my review until I finished the rough draft of the book review. Also, sometimes music is distracting for me (like I said, dreadful paradox, and this is completely unpredictable: one minute I’ll be jamming and writing simultaneously; the next, the song’s awesomeness is distracting me and I cannot write anything because I am too busy listening). Then I’ll tell myself to turn off the music and I’m not allowed turn it back on until after I finish writing. 

So yeah, most of the time, the reward is the word count. Other times, I’ll have a certain something that I happen to want at that moment and will not allow myself until after the writing is complete.

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

Probably. But I can’t think of anything right now and, as I am rather unpredictable and paradoxical, there’s probably a lot about my writing process that even I don’t know.

And with that strange, nonsensical answer, I declare this tag complete. *bows*

***

Well, that was fun, lol. Thanks again Heather for tagging me!

I’m not tagging anyone today, because I’ve seen this one floating around so much that I feel like basically everybody has done it. But if you haven’t done it and you want to, there *waves magic sword* Consider yourself tagged.

So what’s something about your writing process that I might not know about? Do you listen to music while writing? Do you have a third hand so you can eat and type quickly at the same time? Where’d you get it? Please tell me for I dearly love to eat.

giphy.com

Anyways. Pick a question, answer it in the comments, and I’ll see you down below. :)

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