For me the writing process is probably different than it is for most other FOLCs since I tend to mentally write sections long before I ever officially write them. Most of my mental writing is either done in the shower (on the days the kids haven't run me out of hot water) in the morning or in bed as I drift off to sleep. What I hate most is when I get the scene written just perfectly at bedtime and I can't remember the wording in the morning. I get pretty snippy at the world in general.
With that in mind, I'll answer the following questions as if I'm in the part of the writing process where I record my mental dictation.
Where are you? This varies from my rocking chair to the kitchen table to the mother's hang-out at homeschool coop to the family room.
What are you writing with? Sometimes a notebook, but nowadays it's my laptop.
What's the oddest object in front of you? The piece of fruit someone hid under the couch cushion because they were too lazy to find the trash can? I'm just guessing since my dictation zone varies so widely.
What are you listening to? I'm a musician so I can't write if there is music to listen to, analyze or sing along with. James oftentimes watches TV while I sit beside him and write, but I can't say that I listen to it.
Is there anyone else in the room? I rarely get moments alone. (Only in the shower or when, like every night, James has fallen asleep before I have.) Usually I dictate next to James or one of my three kids (code-named Winken, Blinken and Nod). Sometimes I dictate next to another homeschool mom.
What time of day is it? Most days I'm good and wait until after 3PM when the school day is finished.
What do you look at when you're looking for inspiration? I have 3000 stories that are unwritten because they amuse only me. I get inspiration from whatever I'm doing at the time. I flesh the idea out for five minutes, giggle like mad, sometimes share the idea with James and then the idea passes like bad gas after soy taco night.
Err... on second thought, it might be better to say that RL amuses me. I find trivial things inspirational.
What is guaranteed to remove your concentration? Listening to my little girls play. They say the most bizarre things. My 2-yr-old awakened me yesterday. She crawled into my bed and whispered excitedly, "Hide! Scooby Doo is coming."
I could hear that her sisters were awake (unlike myself) even if they weren't out of bed, so I told her, "Scooby Doo is in your sister's bedroom."
She peaked out from under the covers and said, "I was mistaken. It wasn't Scooby Doo; it was Daphne."
I think conversations like that would distract anybody, not that I was writing at the time. Fortunately for me, those types of things happen every day.
Elisabeth
