What I Do When I'm Writing

My creative environment is important; my "office" or "man cave" is important. I surround myself with the necessary tools I need when writing: the computer (of course), printer, reference books, and lots of music. My creative space is surrounded by CDs and usually I put on a mix of music to write by.

Some of my favorites? Old-school jazz (Grover Washington, Jr., Gato Barbieri, Peter White, David Sanborn and the like); old-school R&B (Marvin Gaye, The Miracles, The Impressions, Eddie Kendricks, The Temptations, etc.); space music (Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, Alien, ET, etc.); and miscellaneous moving music to keep me interested in what I'm doing (James Bond themes, soundtracks, etc.).

My favorite music to write by: Enigma. Hands down. I find that the thumping rhythms and chants are often reminiscent of space-opera themes and sometimes, not conciously, I find myself writing to a tempo, a back-beat on the keyboard, a soaring melody that often corresponds to the action I'm depicting. My full-immersion mode is complete with noise-canceling headphones to keep my mind on the task at hand.

Needless to say, I'm sort of compulsive when it comes to the tunes. I have a few (ha!) to choose from and on any given day, writing or drawing, the back-beat is present in the cave.

The first part of "The Belt Loop" is finished, 5 more parts to go.