My writing process.

I've fallen into a routine, which is great.

I get up around 8:00 or so, give or take an hour, and drink my coffee and read the morning paper and peruse the net.  Then I usually write my blog, if I haven't already done so.

I get up and going around 10:00, which is what I do when I'm working.  I don't open the store until 11:00, and that extra hour saved my sanity back in the day when I was working all the time.

So around 11:00 I'm all ready to go.  Sometimes I'll fix something to eat before I start, sometimes I do it in the middle of my writing daze.

I spend another hour thinking about what I want to write, and then around noon I retreat to the bedroom, with the lights out, the white noise of the fan, and lay on the bed and put a pillow over my eyes and think and daydream and mull until a scene comes full blown into my mind, the first few sentences already written.

I grab my laptop and get started.

Somewhere between 2 to 4 hours later I'll have nearly the wordage I'm wanting for the day.  Usually a little short, for some reason, and often rough.

I take an hour or two off.  Goof off, try not to think about writing, but not take on any other chore either.  Blank space, recharging time.

Then I go back the bedroom and repeat the process.  I finish whatever I was writing and polish what I've already written.

By then it is usually past dinner, so I eat something and if there is anything on TV I'll watch that, but if there isn't sometimes I'll go back and start writing again, but only if it comes naturally.

If not, I'll dwell in a kind of creative fog, where little hints and portents of what I want to accomplish come to me, ready to use the next day.

All the other time is spent in a kind of -- not writing but not not writing either.  A creative fog or daze or whatever you want to call it.

Sometimes I'll get stuck, plotwise.  So instead of writing, I take the same time and energy to think about where I want the plot to go.  Ask myself questions.  Sometimes showering really helps, for some reason.  Sometimes wandering around the house mumbling to myself.  Sometimes I go to my blog and just start jotting down ideas -- which leads to other ideas.

When I've got enough stored up, then I can start writing again.

The chapters come fast when I'm in the grip of the story, and its amazingly fun and gratifying to do.