Your creative process

[Exodus]

I'm interested in these Sufi practices. Tell me more!

Our main practices are the five daily prayers (common to all Muslims) and different litanies for remembering Allah, like "La ilaha illAllah" (There is no god but Allah).

By brainstorming I mean more like actively attempting to generate ideas rather than just letting them come to you. Some people make charts or lists for example. I do this a lot but I also will write pages and pages of freeform junk, basically just talking to myself, asking myself questions and giving a bunch of possibilities for answers and finding problems and addressing them. It's sort of like I'm bouncing ideas off myself since I don't have another person to do it with. Sometimes I'll even go for a long walk and record myself brainstorming out loud. But I write fiction so I don't know how useful it would be for "mathematical philosophy".

Yeah, writing down whatever comes to mind is good for this, and also looking back over past notes and comparing and contrasting them.

"It's sort of like I'm bouncing ideas off myself"

Exactly

I've also used audio recording (especially when I'm on a long drive and can't write).

[schwiftyrickty]

Our main practices are the five daily prayers (common to all Muslims) and different litanies for remembering Allah, like "La ilaha illAllah" (There is no god but Allah).



Yeah, writing down whatever comes to mind is good for this, and also looking back over past notes and comparing and contrasting them.

"It's sort of like I'm bouncing ideas off myself"

Exactly

I've also used audio recording (especially when I'm on a long drive and can't write).

I need some strategies for entering a creative state without weed bad. I'm so poor. D: I've half-assedly attempted meditation. It's extremely difficult for me and I usually end up saying "This is stupid, what's the point?" about 15-25 seconds in lol. I think it would actually be super beneficial for me though.

Do you ever just write paragraphs of conversation to yourself though? Mine literally is like: "Okay. So here's what we're going to do. Where were we? Here's the problem I'm dealing with right now. Is this _ or _blank? I suppose it could be _. Or perhaps _. Or maybe even _. No, that makes no fucking sense because then _ would _. Maybe I should go back to the beginning. I need to quit skipping around, what if something happens that changes the whole thing? But I'm not interested in that part right now. Focus focus. What am I aiming for here? I'm trying to _. How do I make that happen? How about _? Ooh, that's good, I like that. And then _ would be _ and blah blah blah" etc. I can go on for 5+ pages in one sitting. I'm basically trying to pull ideas out of myself. This sort of exercise puts me in a semi "right brained" state, but not as much as walking or doing something else mindless and meditative like that. Or that wacky tobacky.

[Exodus]

I need some strategies for entering a creative state without weed bad. I'm so poor. D: I've half-assedly attempted meditation. It's extremely difficult for me and I usually end up saying "This is stupid, what's the point?" about 15-25 seconds in lol. I think it would actually be super beneficial for me though.

Looking inward is definitely beneficial -- if you can handle it.

Do you ever just write paragraphs of conversation to yourself though? Mine literally is like: "Okay. So here's what we're going to do. Where were we? Here's the problem I'm dealing with right now. Is this _ or _blank? I suppose it could be _. Or perhaps _. Or maybe even _. No, that makes no fucking sense because then _ would _. Maybe I should go back to the beginning. I need to quit skipping around, what if something happens that changes the whole thing? But I'm not interested in that part right now. Focus focus. What am I aiming for here? I'm trying to _. How do I make that happen? How about _? Ooh, that's good, I like that. And then _ would be _ and blah blah blah" etc. I can go on for 5+ pages in one sitting. I'm basically trying to pull ideas out of myself. This sort of exercise puts me in a semi "right brained" state, but not as much as walking or doing something else mindless and meditative like that. Or that wacky tobacky.

Umm sort of...I do write down questions etc., but I try to keep it to productive thoughts.
Sometimes I'll go back and edit it if it gets too meandering, for the sake of future readability.

[schwiftyrickty]

Looking inward is definitely beneficial -- if you can handle it.



Umm sort of...I do write down questions etc., but I try to keep it to productive thoughts.
Sometimes I'll go back and edit it if it gets too meandering, for the sake of future readability.

Yeah the sort of thing I'm talking about I usually never even look at it again. If I try to limit myself to only productive lines of thinking, I instantly squash my creativity. I have to keep things open and judgment free. Again, probably very different for what you're doing.