Asked and answered

Croatoan asked: How do you get into the mindset to write?

Depends how blocked I'm feeling.  Sometimes in the evening I can sit down and jam out pages and pages of words for hours.  Other times, I need music.  A handful of specific songs or a short album set on repeat.  Sometimes I have to go and find new music before I can settle down to write.

At my most desperate, though, I have to stand up from my computer and go to my bookshelf.  Pull my most loved books off the shelf (only stand-alones or the first in a series, though) and read the first line.  Just the first sentence, then move on to the next book.  Anthologies or short story collections are good for that.  Lots of firsts in a relatively short amount of space.

I think looking at the first sentence or first paragraph of stories you really love is crucial to figuring out how an author did what you want to do, anyway.  It's a good starting point.  Once I've already read a story or book I can go back to the beginning and not get (as) caught up in the emotional journey.  I can take a (small) step back and look at what the author does in terms of world- or character-building, how fast they do it, whether they start with description or dialogue, etc.

Last night as I was battling the blank page, I turned to "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown" by Holly Black. (I do own The Poison Eaters, but it's at my parents' house in San Diego at the moment.)