If I can’t pick the right music for my mood, I have a very hard time moving to actually working and filling up that blank page. My thoughts become disjointed, my body tense, and each word if a hard struggle.

But with the right sounds? It’s like my body falls into tune. My mind and shoulders relax, outside my headphones is the fast tip, tap, tip tap of the keys, but I don’t even notice the soothing sound. It feels like I’ve hit the right frequency to let me slide into another world, and I’m gone. The wrong song comes on, I snap out, hit the skip button, and slide right back in.

There are certainly days that don’t work like this, but they mostly go down as the days I couldn’t find a single agreeable song. In contrast, there have definitely been those days where I’ve listened to just one song loudly on repeat for hours on end to reach the conclusion of a story it inspired.

Music is more than just my inspiration, or even my motivation, it’s part of my writing routine. Though my words are hopefully always changing, my routine changes little, and when it does, my relationship with music always stays the same. The music I listen to helps mark my days.

Do you have a music routine, some other routine that helps you work, or are you one of those people that avoids routines?

I have this great big secret that I steer conversations around to avoid explaining to people. Wanna know what it is? Of course, you do! Ok, here it is: I write on paper. With a pen.

Man, does it feel great to get that off my chest!

You might think that’s a silly thing to try and keep a secret, but I promise you that every couple months I find another article listing writers that don’t write on their computers, listing and explaining their actions like they’re circus freaks from the past. Look at them, scribbling with their antiques! How odd, how strange! Those artsy types you know, always having to be just a little bit different now, don’t they?

It’s terribly inconvenient, to tell you the truth. I spent a long time struggling to just get myself started with a paragraph or two on paper and then switching to the computer… but I eventually noticed that what I’d written on paper was noticeably better writing than what I’d tapped out on the keyboard. I find it much easier to get connected to my story if I’m cramping up my hand gripping a pen and scribbling out words I have a hard time reading, later. Honestly, my handwriting gets pretty atrocious.

So, there it is. My odd little secret. Add me to the list of oddballs on your next blog post, will you? Put me right next to that strange man who still uses paper maps, he looks like a nice fellow.

Today I was trying to write an article when I had to pull out another sheet and let my brain get down a story idea I was having. It’s all about lightbulbs…ok, it’s only sort of about lightbulbs. Most importantly, it’s fun.

I have this story I’ve been writing for months, two of the main characters are named Sam and Nick. I have a “Sam and Nick” playlist on my computer that I listen to and let my mind wander off to different places where my characters are living and breathing.

I’m trying to keep a normal sleep schedule, where I sleep at night and get up early in the morning, but I think H.P Lovecraft put best why it is I have difficulty with this…

At night, when the objective world has slunk back into its cavern and left dreamers to their own, there come inspirations and capabilities impossible at any less magical and quiet hour. No one knows whether or not he is a writer unless he has tried writing at night.
H. P. Lovecraft

“Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”
Stephen King

All the same, I think I’ll read what I’ve written in a few days…or weeks…and just keep going.