Snapped Back -

[Unique]

Snapped back into the 21st century that is ...

It's hard enough for me to get into that fiction state of mind, but when I do, traffic noise, some stupid commercial on the radio, my son making car noises ...

BAM. I've lost it. I wonder if anyone would believe that life was really like that and WTF does it have to do with their 21st century life?

How do you stay in the zone when life intrudes? Especially if that way of life is gone forever?

[JeanneTGC]

Well, I think part of the reason people read fiction is to get away from their current lives, either by going back in time, forward in time, to another world, into a situation they wouldn't personally know how to handle, etc.

It's up to us as writers to make the readers believe in what we've created, whether it's based on reality or not.

Everyone gets distracted. Some of us use different techniques -- I have to have music (rock of all kinds, with lyrics) going or I'm really stymied. The right music and the book flows. Others need silence and solitude. As I write this (on my laptop while I wait for my PC to reboot) I'm listening to the movie my husband's watching pretty much right next to me. For me, that's ideal. For someone else, they couldn't write.

Most distractions are like that -- affect some and not others. But if you're wondering if anyone would want to come home -- after a 3 hour bumper to bumper commute, which came after sitting at a desk all day doing something they probably didn't "dream" of as a kid, after an overpriced and not so hot lunch, after a day that started to early, after a 3 hour commute in -- and escape into the Old West, the future, another world, an exotic romance, or a race to save mankind, my answer is: Of course.

If you're wondering how to get it all back after something's taken you out of the zone, to me, that's one of the things I rely on AW for. So many places to go -- to find information, share knowledge, play games, have fun, argue a point vehemently, do some research, hang with like-minded folks who really do understand what it's like. I hang out here when I need a break, a quick respite, or to do something that gets the creative stuff flowing.

Hang in -- we all have cruddy days. Tomorrow'll be better!

[Unique]

after a 3 hour bumper to bumper commute, which came after sitting at a desk all day doing something they probably didn't "dream" of as a kid, after an overpriced and not so hot lunch, after a day that started to early, after a 3 hour commute in

You know that sounds like hell to me, don't you?

Hang in -- we all have cruddy days. Tomorrow'll be better!

Thank you. I believe it shall. I still wish I could get rid of the traffic but I think it's everywhere anymore.

[MacAllister]

Heh. On the brighter side, you're not having to write with a quill pen, by firelight, on smelly old parchment...

[dpaterso]

I've got a small collection of Western movie and TV themes that I play in b.g. to get me into the mood and keep me there. My other half has banned me from playing them in the car, and on the stereo, and anywhere else within 500 yards of her -- but when I'm sitting at my laptop and I put my headphones on, I am the music master!

I also keep telling myself that my story setting and characters are going to interest readers as much as they interest me. That gets me through first draft, most times. :)

-Derek

[JeanneTGC]

"I write for myself and strangers. The strangers, dear Readers, are an afterthought." Gertrude Stein

What she said. :D

[Unique]

Heh. On the brighter side, you're not having to write with a quill pen, by firelight, on smelly old parchment...
Yes I am. That's probably why it takes so long.:D

[Festus]

Concentrate, grasshopper, concentrate. If you can, move your working area where you'll be disturbed the least. Put some earplugs in, but concentration is the whole key - and the stuff our dear Jeanee said too.

[newshirt]

I climb a mountain. In Colorado, we have very big mountains. They take an enormous amount of energy to climb (any time of the year). I get my best fantasies while under the influence of oxygen deprevation. It pulls me completely out of the muck of "modern life" and makes me think differently. Mind expanding? I come up with some really good ideas. Of course, half those ideas are crap the next day, and so are my legs.

If you don't have mountains, try a 20-mile bike ride. With any luck, you'll be half dead, and that's when the good ideas come. :)

--ray

[Haggis]

I climb a mountain. In Colorado, we have very big mountains. They take an enormous amount of energy to climb (any time of the year). I get my best fantasies while under the influence of oxygen deprevation. It pulls me completely out of the muck of "modern life" and makes me think differently. Mind expanding? I come up with some really good ideas. Of course, half those ideas are crap the next day, and so are my legs.

If you don't have mountains, try a 20-mile bike ride. With any luck, you'll be half dead, and that's when the good ideas come. :)

--ray

I've found that a bottle of Lagavulin does about the same thing.