WomenCo.

I often find it difficult to follow a routine. However, I've learned that if I don't plan my writing time, it usually doesn't get done. What writing routine have you established and why does it work so well for you?

My writing come at crazy times. I'll be walking from work to the train, and a stanza of lines will pop into my head...and if I don't write them down then, I'll lose them. The same goes for the short stories, if I don't write it, when I have the idea, it's lost. So I keep a small pad of paper with me at all times.  When I'm struggling with something emotionally, the ideas, words and thoughts are free flowing. When I'm going through things, my journal can expect to receive an entry each day. Sometimes, it's merely a prayer...other times it's an account of what happen, or my thoughts and/or frustrations.

I try to repeat it over and over in my head until I park the car...but it doesn't always work. LOL.

I purchased an MP3 player with a built in voice recorder because I'd often seem to get an idea when it was inconvenient to write. Problem is, I don't always have the player with me. I have taken to keeping a pen and paper with me always. It seems I have flashes of brilliance when I am trying to drift off to sleep at night.

Like mzbrown, things just often pop into my head, little moments of brilliance! YES!  They ARE!  But alas, it will fade away if it is not recorded immediately.  So I keep paper and pen/pencil everywhere.  Even in the bathroom--I get a lot of ideas in the shower.  I never bothered with a voice recorder because I would have to play it back and transcribe it, which I feel is a waste of time if you can just write it down quickly in the first place.  It would allow you to expand on the idea a bit more if you could verbalize it into a recorder though.  I find that I get my most valuable insights in the space between consciousness and sleep, especially if I try to nap in the afternoon.  I can NEVER actually nap--I'm constantly being fed ideas from my subconscious and have to get up to write it down.  I literally sleep with a notebook and pen--you should see my sheets!  They have SO many pen marks of different colors it's ridiculous!  My husband tolerates my eccentric way of writing and we refer to my attempts at napping as "brainstorming"!  I will also get up in the middle of the night if something hits me then too.  My husband puts up with a lot of weird behavior connected with my writing and verbal outbursts when we are someplace and I get a flash of brilliance.  Yes, brilliance!