Writing in the Zone

Sometimes, the temperature is just right.  Sometimes, it's the dewey smell after the summer rain.  I've noticed over the course of my life that seasons are highly influential when it comes to my creativity.  I had recently been awake for a couple days straight and on that night, I found myself sitting in my living room opening my senses to a Staten Island spring.  It's been warmer than usual and we had all the windows in the house open.  The smells of budding flowers, the sounds of birds going crazy and the feel of nice warm breezes made their way through my windows.  At around 3am, I had a moment of self-awareness.  I should be writing, I thought.  It was the spring after Aiden was born that I burned through the pages of my first draft of Alorya.  I would stay up late to feed and care for him, while Regina caught up on some much needed sleep.

I don't know if it's possible, but I'm going to try to blog about getting into the Zone.  I first heard the term in the days when I played basketball for hours on end and it's a moment when everything goes right and the energy is endless.  When I was writing Alorya, I would get into that Zone and emerge with 40-50 pages that for the life of me, I can't explain their inspiration or source.  I sometimes tell people that the book wrote itself, but I edited the first draft.  It was the most amazing thing I had ever done and I sometimes find myself acting like a junky waiting for that next moment in the Zone.

It was during the other night when I may have found the formula:

• The environment has to be perfect.  You may not have discovered your environment, but when you do, try to replicate it whenever you're ready to write.
• Make it personal.  No matter the topic, we all have some feeling one way or another.  If you don't have it, don't write about it.  Draw from that feeling when you write.
• Go off on a tangent.  You can always go back and edit, but sometimes while writing about "A", a few thoughts on topic "B" pop up in our heads.  Write it down.  You can move or delete it during a later edit if you don't like it, but the important thing is that something about "A" inspired you to think about topic "B".
• Do Not Check Your Spelling and Grammar.  You can always do that later.  If you're serious about writing, you're going to hire an editor anyway.  Let the story flow and don't worry about spelling and grammar for now.
• Get comfortable.  The perfect environment should always include a comfort.  You may find yourself writing for hours, so don't let the pain of sitting on cactus be a distraction.
• Plan to be alone.

I would love to bottle it and sell it, but I'm just hoping to be able to give some of my own insight into the Zone.  We write because we love to do it.  I love to write because of those exhilarating moments when the world around me become ethereal and my story comes to life.