Routines and Playlists

Everyone has a different writing process. Some take the 10 o'clock bus to the library, sit down at a table, and begin writing. Some merely eat breakfast and go to their home office and start writing. Some begin writing an hour before sleep. Regardless of who you do it, it's good for every writer to have a routine. Getting into a routine can help a writer to access creativity on a constant basis.

Being a writer that's still in school, this routine isn't so easy. Sometimes I'll sit down, type a few pages, then not write anything for weeks. Some days I'll be consistent and write about a two pages a day.

Either way, I do have a sort of compensation for my lack of a routine. I have a writing playlist. Some writers have playlists that are versatile and work for any piece they write. For me, I have a specific playlist for each story that I feel has great potential. This may sound impressive, but it's not. I only have one playlist for one of my stories. I'm not saying that my other stories don't have potential -- I'm saying that once a story surpasses the 20-page mark, that usually means that I can make a commitment to the story.

I like playlists because it can easily set the mood for what I'm writing. For example, the only one of my stories that gets it own playlist takes place in a lot of forests and cabins and a lot of other hipster stuff like that. (Though it should be noted that the story isn't really hipster at all.) So for that sort of setting and the theme that goes with it, I decided that soft alternative or folkish music would be best for the story. (So basically anything really hipster.) Some of the songs include:

• Tin Man by Animal Kingdom
• New Morning by Alpha Rev
• Meet Me on the Equinox by Death Cab for Cutie
• On a Neck, On a Spit by Grizzly Bear
• Basically anything by Mumford & Sons, Blind Pilot, Sea Wolf, and City and Colour

Playlists don't easily make up for routines, but for someone who likes to procrastinate, it's pretty good.

Funny enough, this entire post is still me procrastinating on writing. Should probably get on that now.

Yep.

Soon.

Soon.

Well, now, I guess.