How do you write?

[Kulyok]

Do you have your lucky ways? Little tips? Food, weather, people? Do you peruse your favourite books or stories for inspiration? Sites? Your own more successful texts? Google? Which mood helps you more - content, agressive, downcast, bitter, sunny?

Okay, starting with self...

I often use Google and thefreedictionary for grammar(obviously, ESL and all). I also love googling for ideas, but I am distracted by interesting articles every time. If I forget all about checking the forums at least for two hours and just sit and type, then I am in a really productive mood. And, speaking of mood, I love to write after a good forum discussion, when, quoting Ghreyfain, "my level of fun is high". A nice vacation also helps.

I cannot write when I am sleepy. I cannot write when I am overly full or terribly hungry, and I always turn off the music, and never turn on TV - I want my concentration. I find that the book I read at the moment(there's always some book) influences me every time, too. As well, I prefer to write when nobody else is in the room/in the apartment.

[berelinde]

No music, no TV. BF and I both have our computers in the same room, so there's often somebody else around, but it goes better when I'm home alone. I can't write at work. Turn off the ringer on the phone.

Oddly enough, I write better when my moods are midline. Too happy, I want to be doing something else. Though, to tell you the truth, I had the best run of writing ever while recovering from a rare bout of depression. Writing can give me a feeling of accomplishment that can counteract more negative feelings, though. There's nothing like finishing something, hitting "save," and thinking "I so nailed that one."

I'm more of a morning person, so I save my heavy writing for weekends. I can't be hungry or distracted by pain or fever, either, it seems, but I need frequent 5-minute breaks, as in two to four times an hour! Weather doesn't have much effect on my writing, but time available does. If I have all day, I'll do better than if I have only a few hours.

I don't always know where the inspiration comes from. Usually, memory, but not necessarily personal experience. Something I read, or heard, or saw might bob to the surface years later. When memory fails, I make it up.

[Western Paladin]

I usually start a story when I'm angry about something (either a specific incident, or something abstract). Predictably, quite a few of those don't really go anywhere, but often they do.

Sources of inspiration? I read a lot of books, and I watch a lot of TV and movies, and I've read and watched very few where I thought they discussed each possible issue in the best possible way. Many of my negative characters and figures are based on (incorporate traits from) real people, though most of my positive characters are made up. I wonder what that says about my past friends. (Okay, some of them were really just acquaintances, but you know what I mean.)

[Clarion]

First, an idea ambushes me when I'm vulnerable...asleep, in the shower, or otherwise helpless.  Then my fingers burn until I write.  Sometimes music helps, if I'm looking for a specific mood.  Never the TV though.  I start writing, and then maybe later I'll attach a plot to my story.  If it goes anywhere.  If not, I keep it as a reference because maybe I threw in a truly inspired phrase.  Inspiration sometimes strikes when I'm out doing something, on the rare occasion I'm socialising with live people.  I have a unique style, but sometimes my characters are influenced by a series of characters with similar traits from various sources, and sometimes I'll note on my favorite authors' techniques and see what makes them successful.

I've also always been under the impression that the authors don't write the truly good stories...those write themselves, possessing the author and bending them to their will. 

Loose the chain, lose control, surrender thy will to the flames of inspiration and so shall thy soul be cleansed.