Both.
I suppose the one word answer requires an explanation, though. [g]
Chris, you mention the birthday fics that Wendy and I have written over the past year. Well, yes, in this case for some reason I manage to write quickly and almost as soon as I open the file. I think writing with a co-author helps there, because you're not left on your own with a story. And you see it progress, because you don't get stuck in a circle. Swapping back and forth helps to keep the momentum going. But the main reason for this is that Wendy is much more disciplined about writing than I am, and she's regularly kicking my tushie to force me to write, which has been tremendously helpful in getting *something* written over the past few months, despite a bad case of RL.
When I'm writing alone, though, it's much more complicated. I tend to get a load of ideas in a very short span of time, then nothing at all for weeks. For Near Wild Heaven II for example, I get snippets of scenes pop into my head at the most incongruous moments (especially when I should be working on school preps and have no time whatsoever to think about fanfic, or late at night when I should be sleeping because I have to get up at 7 and it's already 1 am :p ). I now drop whatever I'm doing to at least scribble a note on... something. Whatever it is. Actually there's a row of post-its at the bottom of my computer screen, with description of scenes... hmm. I think there's also a snippet of something on my cheque-book.
But the problem is that if I don't write the scene down immediately, I can't recapture it. The idea isn't enough, because the mood is broken. And so sitting down to write rarely ever works for me.
Kaethel
