First of all, I find writing to be this long, hard, dirty, and never-ending process....and I am addicted to it.

For me, it has to come from the gut before the brain. I have to essentially freewrite everything out first. Once It is down, I have to give it time. That could be an hour, a day, a week, or years for that matter. Then I go back and start hacking at it. Changing words, structure, order of content. Then I write it again with corrections and the process goes over and over like that with the ending controlled only be time or deadline. I could write one piece forever.

Later

I often say it was because I was once a typist - I have excellent keyboard skills - and I can seem to write anything anytime. When I am settling down to write something big and creative it just seams to flow. (Mind you I need plenty of edits), but it seems to come easily for me.
I do a lot of writing exercises - have some that are really good if you get stuck - which I don't ften.

If it's what I want to write, truthfully it has to come. Forcing it doesn't work. I tend to actually write better than type and think more clearly that way. No idea why. I also try NOT to think to hard about the details and focus on the big picture, which is in my head. I've carried this story in my head for 10 years. I am finally working on it past the third chapter. I have all this stuff swirling in my head actually. But anyhow I write and edit as I go. It's not really as long a process as it sounds. I rarely edited in high school and college because I can get it out pretty close to right the first time. No idea why. I do let part of the story take me where it goes and sometimes that helps, which is how I went from knowing where my current book was going, to the expansion of three book ideas.

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