I've got files and files full of scraps of paper with scene fragments, people's names, snarky dialogue bits, etc.

Me too!

He thought I was fascinated by him and taking great notes. Nope, but I got lots of chapters done in his class.

BWAH! My secretary, when I worked for a law firm after coming back stateside in the early eighties, was the daughter of a very good and pretty prominent poet (Diane DiPrima). She'd cover for me as I locked my office door, turned my monitor away from prying eyes, and wrote (in rapid succession) "Eyes in the Fire", "Hibernia" (the one Bantam retitled "Fire Queen", the dumbasses) and the first chunk of "Plainsong."

Moral of story: getting paid to write is good, even if they don't know that's what they're actually paying you for....

I cheated on my one big project -- I had stumbled across a teeny Turkish-English dictionary for travelers, so I transliterated a bunch of English NJ placenames, more or less, taking into account that I don't know how Turkish actually pronounces some letters and vowels, and left off all the circumflexes and accent marks. And some placenames that would work in any language, like Red Bank or High Point, I left as is.

For most short stories, though, all you need is a bare handful of names/places at most, or you can leave them unnamed as necessary.

David, dear, if you would come over more often while there's still Tuesday nights, I could feed you and you could make that assertion on the basis of more than, what? Two visits?

It really is a lovely salon, filled with tasty bits and good, smart, kind people.

My secretary, when I worked for a law firm after coming back stateside in the early eighties, was the daughter of a very good and pretty prominent poet (Diane DiPrima).

Didn't she host a local TV show? About rap music and community hoo haw? Really pretty? Mixed race?

That was my secretary's half-sister Dominique. Dad was LeRoy Jones (Mr Baraka, these days, I believe).

My secretary was Dominique's older sister Jeanne. All white. Also dropdead gorgeous.

A very successful Australian author once confessed to me that her breakthrough novel was written while she worked for the National Australia Bank. She was employed as a typist, and she was just very fast. They gave her a pile of typing every morning, she finished it by twelve and ... just didn't tell them.

I'm trying to work out what time of day to write at, even as we type. My most productive time of day is mid-afternoon, 3 to 4-ish. I've heard a theory that the time of day that you were born is your most productive time of day for the rest of your life. However, not coincidentally, this is the time of day that I'm usually at work (afterschool programs having a tendency to happen around then). So I'm thinking midmorning. Elevensies? But I'm trying to start up a daily songwriting habit, and I'm not yet sure about it.

I love to write longhand, though I no longer always do it. But if I do, it must be pencil, or a damned fine pen. Nothing interrupts the creative flow like blotty ink.

I am able to be creative in text, though, and my most recent short story has been composed entirely whilst road tripping. Which is a good deal of my life, so, shiny. This may explain why one of my main characters is hitchhiking, and the other playing pinball.

Somewhere in this house is the poem I wrote on the back of last week's shopping list. Dunno where, though. And also, the stuff I wrote at Woodstock (the second one, the one that was neither genuine nor filled with fire) is inexplicably (ha) muddy.

I have never had problems with names, but that probably has its roots in rpgs. I never have trouble coming up with screen handles that don't have numbers in them, either. Commonly, I bastardize names or sometimes just words from other languages, Biblical names, historic names. I recombine suffixes and prefixes from the preferred time period or culture: Aeolyta, Melosyne. If I'm world-building, then I like to think about the cultural history and environment. What do the people value? What is their aesthetic?

Place names can be harder, but you can apply the same principles. Also think about the history that time moves through. How did New Hampshire get named? North and South Carolina? Zanesville was named after Zane Grey. Who was important to your citizens?

You'll end up with all sorts of backstory, but it's handy to have anyway.

I've heard a theory that the time of day that you were born is your most productive time of day for the rest of your life.

Lets me out, then. I was a nearly-midnight baby and I work best at dawn.

I love these: Aeolyta, Melosyne. Those are sensational names.

My pantry full of marmalade? My crazy-quilt pillow top? Helllooooo to the avoidance.

Cat vacuuming! Don't tell me you've all forgotten that that's cat vacuuming?

Dang, I missed the only burst of real chatter in Write in the last few months.

Just to throw my stats in, I write at the end of the day (whenever that is.) My brain has to attain a certain level of fried-ness over the course of the day - somewhere between "beer battered" and "classic McD's fries"; if I go all the way to "KFC Extra Crunchy", I'm just delusional, not actually creating - to achieve a good writing groove. Proper applications of music and alcohol are also important.

I keep extensive notes in my 5x7, unlined, ringbound journals (from www.mrogerpress.com, I love them!!!) and I type my first drafts, edit on paper.

There was a big gap in my writing, about eight years, that ended early in Y2K. Since then, six novels and a handful of short stories. You know how they say your first million words don't count? I'm well into the counting. And the word mountain is only looking taller and taller, the more I learn about what I don't know about literary technique. Publication might be up there somewhere, but it's about the climb, not the peak itself.

Well, it's also about crash-bang action sequences and steamy bedroom scenes, but...

How did New Hampshire get named?

Hampshire is a part of England. Southerly, I think? FayJay? Am-Chau? My hometown, Hampstead, is a neighborhood of London, I think...

I mostly write at night. My best stuff normally involves insomnia. But then, I was born about eleven pm, so I still fit the theory.

Names for fantasy places have never been a problem for-- when I need a bunch, I go around for a day or two muttering nonsense under my breath until I get some good sounds together. I play with real names all the time anyway, so it's not hard. And onomatopoeia helps, too. My first fantasy world (an island) had a magical waterfall at its center, known to one and all as The PlishPlish. Stupid story (it featured what I now recognise as a group of five Mary-Sues), good name.

When I've been blocked, it's sometimes been depression, but more often I've been reading books on writing and how you should do it. It took me ages to connect "bought a book about how to write" and "having trouble writing". Illogical, but the case. The more I try and take other people's advice-- not about the story itself, always, an editor always helps rather than hinders, but about process ('write every day'/ 'always write long hand'/ 'always change your first draft'). Sometimes it was just because I used take one author whom I really admire saying 'I always write in long hand' to mean 'writing in long hand is the only way'.

On the other hand, I think I should use the WWJD mantra more often. It might stop me being too nice to my characters all the time.