Quirks

Athletes, musicians, artists, even writers—we're all a little weird when it comes to our areas of expertise. Take me, for example:

I can't write without a deadline. So I give myself one: Milo, you have one hour to write 1,000 words. Sit down and make it happen.

I can't write without music. So I compile an iTunes playlist with Explosions in the Sky, Zoe Keating, Russian Circles, and other instrumentalists. When I hear it, I can write.

I can't write if I'm distracted. So I shut off the WiFi and make sure I've taken care of anything pressing like household chores and work-related stuff.

I can't write if a scene is already finished. So I leave every scene as a cliffhanger to get me to come back and finish it.

There are others, I'm sure, but I'm more curious about yours. What tricks do you use to keep your rear end in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard? Do you write longhand? I sometimes do after an exhausting day on the work computer when my eyeballs need a break. I must be good to them.

And now for something completely different: My flash-sized tale "A Monster By Any Other Name" is up at Liquid Imagination, and Bob Eccles did a fantastic job on the audio version. 

In other news, thanks to readers like you, I've managed to sell over 100 Kindle copies of my short stories via Amazon. (Each one has been published elsewhere, but now that their rights have reverted to me, I'm free to do with them as I like. And I've chosen to take 'em straight to the readers.)
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