Brian's Creative Writing Tips

As most of you know, I'm the type of guy who enjoys writing. What some of you may not know is that I enjoy creative writing, and I spend a significant portion of my spare time writing. At present, I have three or four storylines going (I lose track), spanning several genres and regarding varied events. In addition to the pleasure of seeing a story take shape, this gives me something to VLog about, so stay tuned. Long story short: over the years, I've developed a few tricks to help keep the words flowing. This is for those of you who want to start writing, or for the writers out there who want to see how a fellow writer does it. Essentially, all these tips boil down to one main idea: DISTRACTION IS THE ENEMY!

Tip 1: Don't Get Up!
I always go to the bathroom before I start writing. And when I do write, I always have something to drink on my desk. Personally, I'd avoid caffeine and/or sugary drinks: I usually stick with plain old water, or some mix of water and Gatorade (don't ask). If you're the type of person who doesn't keep granola bars stashed in their desk, that's something to consider as well. Sure, getting up to get a drink of water from your bedside table, all of six feet away, might not seem like a big distraction. But then you may see your phone, check your Facebook page and your email, text your friends, and waste fifteen minutes right there without even realizing it. Which brings me to my next point:
Tip 2: Phones Away!
For the reasons stated above, that annoying little thing is creative writing's nemesis. Well, ninety-nine percent of the time: if you're writing about how people overuse technology, keep that little bugger on your person at all times. But otherwise, phones stay out of sight and/or off, Facebook pages and email accounts are absent, and any other non-writing-related technology is off.
Tip 3: Music: Only When Relevant
Personally, I find that music helps my writing, but only when it's relevant to what I'm writing about. If you're writing about, say, a family in the nineteen thirties, you shouldn't be listening to pop or rap music. Likewise, if you're writing about a famous modern individual, I would advise against any Renaissance playlists you might have. If you're writing horror, listen to creepy music. If you're writing about Medieval France, find some medieval French music. I'm sure it's out there.
Tip 4: Organize!
Whenever I work on a storyline, I always have two Word Documents open: one with the actual writing ([Insert File Name] Writing), and one with my character-event outline (Insert Same File Name). What a character-event outline is is essentially a list of the traits of all your characters and of the major ideas and past events. For each character, write down things like hair color, eye color, skin tone, family, personality, nose shape, height and build, and so on. Trust me - these things will all come up later on, and it's a pain in the ass to go back and search through all your writing to find them. As for the "event" part of the outline, I personally prefer to have a list of a few major themes or ideas before I start writing. Why do I call it the character-event outline, then? Well the ideas (and past events, depending on the story) will shape the events in your piece.