Getting into the Writing Headspace

If you're like every other writer under the sun you most likely have to spend the majority of your waking hours doing something other than writing – either at a job to pay for food and clothing for yourself and your dependants, or raising the kids while someone else does. It's quite possible you may be doing both – more power to you.

Perhaps your day-job allows an easy transition from the work headspace into the writing headspace, perhaps you are indeed fabulously wealthy and can afford a more Byronic approach to the craft – if that's the case then you can move right along, because this is a post for those who drag themselves bleary-eyed and shattered to the keyboard – physically drained, mind exhausted or full of work-related stuff you just can't seem to clear out, your precious writing time zipping away.

We don't have time for that, we need our heads unencumbered so we can be imaginative and creative, even when what we really feel like doing is vegging in front of the telly or crawling under our duvets. Here are some things that work for me – they may just work for you too.

A glass of wine

Let's not mess about here, nothing cuts through a shitty day like a large glass of wine – just try not to drain the whole bottle, you need to take the edge off, not obliterate your faculties.

Exercise

It's almost boring the amount of writers who say they facilitate their writing or ease a block with a long walk but they do it because it works – a quick gym session, bike-ride or run will have the same effect. Sometimes I do some rather scary looking 'dynamic stretching' – which really means I'm waving my arms about to get some blood flowing through my neck, shoulders and back which can be just enough for me to squeeze out a hundred words – not much, but a hell of a lot more than nothing.

Music

This always works for me – nothing cleanses the mind and gets me thinking creatively than some awe-inspiring music.

Expressive Writing

This really is a good way of venting – in a diary, a notebook, a blog – getting things off your chest is a good way of purging while also flexing your writing muscles. I'm not a big-fan of writing as therapy, but if you can use that work noise in your head to do some writing other than the WIP it's no bad thing – you may even produce something you can use; you'll certainly clear your head enough to do what you came to the keyboard to do.

Use Your Journey Time

It's quite possible you can do all the things I've outlined above as you're on your journey home from work - although if you're driving I'd leave the wine - so that you can hit the ground running when you get to the keyboard. I find on my way home that if I force myself to think about the WIP, even though I may have all sorts of other nonsense on my mind, eventually I'll cut through it all and begin to get intrigued and excited about the potentials of my story again.

Chocolate

And you don't need me to tell you that chocolate makes everything more bearable.

Someone once told me that if you don't go to bed every night shattered with the pursuit of your dream, you don't deserve to get it. I like that idea, it means it's in our power to achieve it. So let's clear our heads.

Anybody else have any tips on getting the day's noise out of our minds?