So, while I do my writing on the train, I tend to do most of my thinking in the shower. No, I don’t know why.
But I’ve always done this. Every time I take a shower, my mind wanders to the worlds I’ve created, or the worlds that I’ve experienced through other books or movies. My mind’s eye takes over, and it’s like I’m in the world I’m imagining. Cleaning myself is a habit that I can do with little conscious thought, so for the ten minutes I stand in the shower, I’m seeing a scene unfold in one of my novels.
I use this time to play around in my world. When I’m first coming up with a novel outline or story, I’m testing out the sequences. I’m playing certain scenes in my head, or I’m looking at my novel from a high-level, almost movie-trailer kind of view. I speak conversations out loud, hearing the words in my ears and seeing if something sounds off or works well.
It becomes a kind of playground for me. If I’m stuck on a certain part of my novel (like recently, I’ve been reworking the ending of my book because I wasn’t happy with the previous three versions), I test out my ideas and see where they get me. I place myself in the scene, and watch my characters go at it. I see if things feel natural, or not, and use that to determine what my next step should be.
I get all my best ideas in the shower. I figure out scenes in my novel in the shower. I determine where my writing is going the next day in the shower.
Now, I just need to get some waterproof paper so I can write it all down.
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Do you have a thinking place? Is it different from your writing place?
Derek Pietras 