Where do you perform your best "writing thinking"?

[Luiglin]

When and where I least expect it and often at the most inopportune of moments.

 

[Don]

My mind zones out and thinks about writing during silent spins up the mountain when my earbuds remain unused in my pocket.

"Spin Tale Revealed" by Don Kuenz

Spin Tale Revealed

crcomp.net

 

[Guttersnipe]

I do my best writing lying on my stomach in bed, maybe with my cell to reference facts.

 

[therapist]

If i'm stuck for an idea, I like doing forced free-writes. I set a timer for 10 minutes and make myself write down 15 ideas in that time, no matter how bad. This is often successful. Works alot better than pacing up and down my condo, trying to come up with the perfect idea.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I wish I had a magic place where ideas would just come to me. I usually find that ideas arrive when they are good and ready and the ideas don't seem to care where I am or what I am doing at the time.

 

[Thiswriterinme]

I get lots of ideas throughout every day, often when doing some routine or regular chore like dishes, laundry, dog walking, etc. I wouldn't consider those my "best thinking" times though. There are a few situations in which my brainstorming power is at its peak.

When I'm asleep - several huge plot points, characters, and story ideas have come out of dreams I've had. I am one of the fortunate few who has incredibly vivid dreams and can almost always remember enough to turn them into something coherent.

When I'm drinking tea, snuggled on my couch with a big blanket in front of a wood stove fire - usually, there is snow falling from the sky. Snow is the best excuse not to do anything or go anywhere and just sit and zone out/ think. Of course, once it stops falling, I'm out with the snowshoes.

 

[Dragonlady]

when i'm writing, or just randomly, but i need to have a good way to prompt it when i'm not sure where i'm going. I'd love to just be able to walk around my world somehow. Just staring at the page doesnt't get me very far.

 

[reddishbird]

I don't know if someone has asked a question like this before but here it is: Where do you like to think about what you're writing? I'm not asking where you do the writing itself. I'm wondering where is the place that you like to zone out and let your mind build something before putting it on paper? For me it's when I'm outside walking my dogs. Some of my best narrative ideas have come to me while out with them amidst the loveliness of the world. I've found the best environment for imagining battle scenes is walking my dogs at night underneath the warm glow of the street lamps.
What locations work for you?

When I'm in that transition period between waking and sleeping, and if I don't write ideas own, they're lost.

 

[A. Hairyhanded Gent]

Upon awakening in the middle of the night.

Very little external stimuli to cause distraction. Can then run relatively uninterrupted for hours.

Much mental cooking; many horrible revelations...

 

[Cypress]

In the morning before lunch is the optimal time of the day and at my desktop would be the best place. There's nothing particularly fancy about staring at plain text written into a writing app, but it is very effective in focusing my attention to the task at hand and producing a satisfying quantity (if not quality) of text. If nothing is happening it is time to open an outline and see where I have gone wrong.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Late at night or in the early hours. Either that or when out walking on my own. Some people say that music helps, but for me an absence of background noise is vital.

 

[reiver33]

Usually as I'm trying to fall asleep, but if my mind picks up the ball and runs, I end up awake for hours, then doze and end up too knackered the next day to get any semblance down while its still fresh. This is more common when I'm on nights and trying to sleep during the day, of if I've taken migraine meds - queue the fitful fantasies!

 

[marcmizz]

Usually in bed when I can't sleep, so I grab my phone and jot down the idea, because otherwise, it would slip off completely in the morning!

 

[emrosenagel]

Morning walks. I put on my music and zone out. Before I know it, I’m back home and it’s been over an hour. Then I have to type up all my ideas on my phone notes before I forget them all.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Is there anyone who uses a dictaphone (I guess there are apps on mobiles nowadays). Never used one myself, I always grab for the pen and paper.

 

[Hawthorn]

My best ideas come when I'm taking long rambling walks in nature. In the bath and in bed while drifting off to sleep are other good places. Unfortunately none of these scenarios are great for making notes of said ideas...

 

[CupofJoe]

Is there anyone who uses a dictaphone (I guess there are apps on mobiles nowadays). Never used one myself, I always grab for the pen and paper.

I used too, but I always forgot or couldn't be bothered to transcribe the recordings. At best I'd listen to them and cherry pick the few snippets I though worth while. If anything it was a filter to get rid of the crap.

 

[Valtharius]

Unfortunately none of these scenarios are great for making notes of said ideas...

This seems to be a common theme of this thread.

 

[Hawthorn]

This seems to be a common theme of this thread.

Yes. I find it particularly bad for poetry. A whole poem can come to me on a walk, and then I have to recite it to myself over and over like a madwoman for the hour (or however long) until I get home.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

Either as I'm laying in bed trying to get to sleep, as I writing, or at very random times when I can't always write them down. I keep a journal by my bed though for the ideas that come to me there.