(A video version of this post can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DdMz2ypBcxF/ )

There are a lot of jokes about what, where, and how writers write. I’ve heard that Stephen King works 24/7/365 and listens to loud music. I read that both Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf stood in front of their elevated desks and Roald Dahl sat in a backyard shed. I like the shed idea. One of the writers I personally know does something similar up in New Hampshire and another takes a long, quite walk through the woods before settling down with a clear head.

Whatever the routine…and it’s different for everyone, the setting and the prep are crucial to getting words to pour out of their heads. It’s not as simple as sitting in front of a laptop and doing word crunches. Some of the jokes I mentioned is often of writers doing anything other than writing – they’ll clean the kitchen, do the laundry, toss a ball across the living room for the dog to fetch, write social media posts about writing instead of actually writing. Or we’ll just stare off into space looking like someone who’d just had a lobotomy.

I’m sure many writers are like me. Once the flow begins and you hit that zone where the outside world no longer exists because you’ve managed to achieve the Vulcan mind-meld with your characters, the slightest interruption – you’re wife telling you she’s going to the store or someone choosing that moment to call on your cell, even a TV playing in the background are sure to turn a mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll into a raging Mr. Hyde. AND, that slight hiccup will cost another 20 minutes before you get back to where you were.

Then there is the writing environment. Everyone has heard the cliché of the writer’s garret – the small space which occupies the top floor or the attic of someone’s house. I’d kill for one of those. I don’t know how some manage to create sitting in a Starbucks.

When I was writing my novel Alfheim, I rented a cubicle in The Writers Room – a space just off Broadway in lower Manhattan in New York City for some solitude, but for this book I needed mood enhancers. I didn’t have a quiet forest to clear my head, and I was dealing with fae creatures and elves who existed in a woodland realm. I was trying to conjure episodes of fairy magic and build a world that grew from Celtic mythology and settings.

Music and fantasy art took the place of a forest. My go to was Enya and Loreena McKennitt – from the opening bars of their music to the closing notes, pieces such as Enya’s May it Be or McKennitt’s The Mummers Dance and The Mystic’s Dream transported me instantly to the place where my characters were. And the visuals from a host of talented graphic artists displaying their work on DeviantArt.com helped me with the brushstrokes of my world-building.

For you fantasy writers, you don’t have to be a member of DeviantArt, just go to the site and hit the button for Fantasy and you can plunge down the rabbit hole of imagination from the sheer amount of talent out there.

And, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Writers are thievish. We don’t plagiarize, but we do steal…well, let’s just call it borrowing. We find things that work for other writers and artists and we “borrow” their “tech” and put our own spin on things. Think of it as the Sword of Gryffindor – it only takes in that which makes it stronger. It’s about creating a flavor.

If you have a notion of writing a story, I urge you to find the place and mood that puts you where you’re ready to set words on paper. If you are a writer share some of your techniques and go-to’s in the comments.

Happy reading…or writing…

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