When it comes to my writing process, there are few things that work to get me motivated to begin a story. There isn’t a certain place where I prefer to write, or a specific brand of tea that gets me going. I don’t draw inspiration from low-profile coffee shops, or need a lucky pen to start the flow of creative vibes. A good place to sit, a computer, and air conditioning is a start. What stops me from beginning the writing process isn’t my phone, or the tabs on my computer waiting to be directed to BuzzFeed. The only thing that distracts me from creating a story is myself, and my overactive imagination.

An overactive imagination would usually come as a benefit to a writer, and provide a good starting ground to a great story. However in my case the constant whirlwind of thoughts in my head seem to cloud all other brain activity and prevent me from getting a story started. Any small movement is used as an excuse to stall the writing process. When it comes to getting words out on a page, the only thing I can rely on to get me focused is a brain dump.

To begin a story I may start writing in the middle, the end, or I just jot down words and characters that I would like to include. If I have a lot of ideas and I can’t decide which one to use, I’ll write them all down anyways in order to stop the hurricane of thoughts. When presented with different topics or areas to explore in my writing, I will often take the story it up from wherever I think it should begin. The ideas with endings are the ones that survived my writing process and stories that I believed were worthy of being read.

Although it seems fool-proof, these occasional brain dumps can actually distract me from finding the right idea. Sometimes when people, such as myself, are provided with too many options, they become lost on the concept of what they even wanted originally. Writing different stories based on the same idea can also be a problem. After writing something so many times it is hard to tell the difference between one story and the next. It becomes difficult to judge if your story’s lines blend together or have their own originality.

Whether I am writing a multitude of different stories at once or focused on one story idea, my writing process can best be described as an unconscious effort. Focusing too much on a story idea could actually cause me to lose focus and find myself on Youtube rather than a word document. My best work is created when I don’t even know I’m creating it at all. It is the result of my true interest in a topic and words just appearing on the page.